Crisis communication Exxon Valdez and Dow Corning
Dow Corning Dow Corning, a jointly owned enterprise of the Dow Chemical Company and Corning, Inc. ... The Dow Corning silicone Brest implant crisis has become a benchmark of how not to handle a crisis. The first lawsuit against Dow Corning was in 1977; however the actual crisis did not occur until the late 80’s. This means that company officials were aware that there would be problems over a decade before the crisis began. The immediate impact of the crisis hit fast and hard. Highly publicized lawsuits and relentless negative media coverage casting Dow in an unfavorable light were overwhelming to the company, even though they had a crisis plan in place for such circumstances. However, according to Dow’s public relations strategist, the crisis plan was overwhelmed by the facts and circumstances. The fundamental elements of Dow Corning’s crisis management plan: Be open State the scientific facts Not to hide anything What they did wrong: Denied fault Attacked their accusers Showed little sympathy From the beginning, Dow Corning was defensive and not very open with the media, which fueled the crisis even more.