It’s your turn to be the CCO. What do you do about the cyclospora lettuce disaster?
You may have heard there’s an issue with lettuce.
Taylor Farms recalled iceberg lettuce after it was connected to an outbreak of cyclospora, which can cause intense GI symptoms. Then things got muddy when the FDA announced a false positive — and Taylor Farms’ statement treated it as an exoneration.
It wasn’t. Things got confusing. It’s quite the comms mess.
So what now?
More than 100 communicators chimed in on LinkedIn about what they’d do if they were sitting in the CCO’s chair. This is a selection of their answers, edited for brevity and style.
Still want more? Members of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council get more exclusive analysis.
Lead with facts and clarity
Hinda Mitchell, president and founder, Inspire
Clarity, quickly. Speak for yourself, not for others. Identify the specific measures you are taking and how they’re going to work. Be prepared for media and others to look at past food safety issues and the outcomes there. Commit to change — then back it up. Don’t let your mouth write checks your ass can’t cash.
Jeff Lutz is senior vice president at Hart.
The CCO at this point is likely a wee bit knackered, so they may not have the energy to create a series that would be a single point of truth, à la “The Outbreak: What Consumers Need to Know.” However, the average consumer cannot distinguish opinion from fact amid all the twists and turns of the investigation. That’s an opening. From discussing product washing to sourcing to profiles on those focused on quality, each of those is an opportunity to draw eyes to owned properties while delivering on some transparent elements.
Classic rule: Messy moments open doors for facts and steady communications sourcing.
Usher Lieberman, vice president of corporate communications, Oportun
Stop talking until you can internally determine the actual facts. Then, very quickly communicate those facts, and only those facts. Simultaneously, commit to immediate action to address what you have gotten wrong, apologize for getting it wrong and agree to a timeline for providing additional updates.
Jenna Matthews, CEO, WOI Communications
First, take a beat. It feels like they are flying through responses that are leaving people more and more confused. Then, put together a comprehensive statement that expresses care and compassion for those affected, a commitment to finding all the right information on the source of the outbreak and continuing to do right by consumers by pulling any products that have any potential to be involved.
This will undoubtedly cause financial loss in the short term, but it’s the only way to build any consumer trust back up. The statement needs substance to help it perform in GEO so that, if people see only one more thing from the company, it’s this. In the background, I’d also be thinking about what sort of campaign or content we can put out in the next six months to build back trust.
Kimberly Quick, social media and communications consultant
Focus on getting critical information to customers. I noticed the company led much of its communication with “we are family-owned.” Instead, I’d lead with, “Here’s what we’re doing.” While it also emphasized that only a small percentage of products were affected, that comes across as defensive. Lead with the actions being taken, the information customers need and what they can expect next as the investigation continues.
Stop fighting the FDA
Parry Headrick, founder, Crackle PR
The first move as CCO is to fire whoever decided “Today, FDA apologized to us” was the opening line of an outbreak statement. Then:
- Kill the vindication narrative. You can’t argue about lab tests while 10,000 people are sick, and the public sees a lettuce company fighting the FDA either way.
- One spokesperson, one message. The dueling statements are how we got here.
- Sympathy for the sick goes in the first sentence of everything we put out. Right now, it’s buried in paragraph four.
- Fund an independent food safety audit and announce it before anyone asks for one.
- Save the exoneration story. If the science clears us, it means far more coming from a third party in September than from our own press release in July.
And if none of that works? Launch a line of highly effective Weight Loss Lettuce.
Colleen Herndon Penhall, founder & principal advisor, TrueNorth Strategy Group
As CCO, my move: Stop arguing about blame.
Every reversal has done more damage than the outbreak itself. The flip-flopping is the story now.
- Go quiet on attribution, loud on action. No more claims about who said what. Show what’s been fixed.
- Never repeat a claim a regulator has publicly denied. Get it in writing or drop it.
- Let a third-party auditor vouch for you. Right now, your own communications team has zero credibility left to spend.
- One voice, one message, no more reversals.
Consistency rebuilds trust. Self-defense doesn’t.
Chris Chiames, communications executive
Stop talking except to say the company is fully cooperating and, no matter the source of the illness, consumers should have confidence in the food supply. Its focus should be on cooperating with regulators and helping to find the answers. Its cooperation can ultimately lead to some form of exoneration. I’m not a fan of gimmicks like eating a salad on TV. The company is already seen as a bit sassy and dodgy. And then it needs to make sure its corporate customers are fully on board. You have to wonder what they’re thinking watching all this.
Jill Kermes, corporate vice president, global communications & corporate citizenship, TD SYNNEX
My next move is to stop litigating the word “apology” and get back to the only two things a parent in a grocery aisle actually cares about: Is anything still on shelves, and what are we changing so this doesn’t happen again?
Because behind that question are real people who got sick — and that’s who this response is for, not the back-and-forth with the FDA.
In my experience, the crisis that kills a brand is rarely the original incident. It’s the fight that follows with a regulator, a partner or the public. That’s not a fight I’m having.
So every update leads with the people affected, not our test results. And “we stopped sourcing that lettuce” becomes a running public update, not a one-time statement. Not to win the news cycle, but to actually earn back the trust we lost.
Elizabeth Costello, owner, Costello Communications
It’s not complicated:
- Don’t get ahead of your regulator. If the FDA corrects a test result, describe it the way the FDA does. Your own spin, even unintentional, just buys a second news cycle about your credibility instead of the lettuce.
- A retracted test isn’t a retracted recall. One data point was reversed, but the broader traceback evidence wasn’t. Stick with the facts.
- Agree on language before you publish, not after. If your understanding of a private conversation with the FDA doesn’t match what the FDA says publicly, that gap becomes the story.
- Public health comes first, always. Every statement in an active outbreak should open with people and their safety, not the company’s reputational position.
A company with Taylor Farms’ recall history doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt on tone. “FDA apologized to us” read like a company more focused on its own vindication than on the sick people. Again, none of this is complicated: a plan, language worked out jointly with the agencies involved and a public-health-first sequence before the next update.
Bring in independent experts and show the work
Jennifer George, SVP of communications, The Aspen Group
My best advice for the immediate term would be to stop talking about ourselves and start showing our work. The company has already pulled the entire Mexico region, so now bring in an independent food safety authority to run a root-cause investigation and then commit to sharing the findings, including — and especially — the parts that might be embarrassing.
Then someone needs to put their face on camera. And it really has to be the founder owning it. The path is still open, but there has to be substance now.
Lisa Dawson, director of corporate communications & public relations, staffdna
The brand is going to be associated with the outbreak no matter what. It can’t untangle itself now.
The next move is to take the high road. Acknowledge that, at the end of the day, this is about health, food safety and protecting the consumer. Show empathy for people who got sick and emphasize what you’re doing to improve food safety. Frame it as a learning moment for all and show empathy.
Make a donation in good faith to Stop Foodborne Illness or the Partnership for Food Safety Education, two nonprofit organizations.
Joel Schwartzberg, communications coach
I think it’s time for the company to prioritize facts above all else and, for the moment, shield the CEO from ad hominem attacks.
I’d put out a point-by-point “What You Need to Know” media alert — targeted to consumers — that shares the good, the bad, the ugly and what Taylor Farms is doing about it.
A few days later, send an executive op-ed or statement that links to and refers to the fact document. This way, you lead with substance and follow up with editorialization. This is a mess, and stark truth, not defense or opinion, is the only broom.
Lizzy Harris, CEO, The Colab
What Taylor Farms needs is additional premarket testing and complete transparency around the entire process. Results should be published publicly on a schedule, not just retroactively when something goes wrong. The company could even go so far as to put this tracing information on its packaging to bring wary customers into the product journey. While the company insists it does extensive testing on raw and finished products, if the testing is that extensive and this keeps happening, it’s just reiterating that the systems it has in place don’t work. Blaming the FDA isn’t reassuring anyone.
Leila Palizi, manager global external affairs, McDonald’s
The first thing I’d do is overhaul the outbreak information hub on the company’s website. A lot of the discussion here centers on message tone, but usability in a crisis matters tremendously, too.
There’s no need to include every potentially affected SKU directly on the landing page, especially when many of the recalls appear to involve food service products. Linking to a detailed recall list would make it easier for consumers and retailers to find the information relevant to them without further cluttering the page.
I’d also clean up some inconsistencies in the presentation — nomenclature switches among references to “Taylor Fresh Foods,” “Taylor Farms” and “Taylor Farms de Mexico,” which can create further confusion.
It’s also not entirely clear whom the page is intended for. The latest messaging is directed at consumers, but retailers, restaurants and food service operators are also key stakeholders. Are they receiving separate communications and resources? If so, I’d make that clearer — and if not, then build dedicated hubs for those audiences as well.
Linda Pazin, director, finance communications, Solventum
The company needs to bring in a new crisis agency, and its leaders need to listen to it. Stick to facts. Its CEO or another leader needs to go on camera, and the message should be about informing the public and safety. The company needs to show empathy. Don’t put anyone on camera who can’t do that. It should be executing a thoughtful stakeholder engagement plan. It needs to take a fresh look at its message map. If safety is not one of the pillars, it needs to start with a blank page. Once it gets that right and rolls it out to the company, it should pursue a campaign that discusses its focus on consumer safety.
Zac Hunter, founder, Thelemata
I wouldn’t say anything. Now is a great time to stop talking for a couple of weeks. Then, consider what a balance of accountability and brand preservation looks like. Later, brand rehabilitation and food safety messaging will be necessary for the next year or two.
Rebuild trust through employees and a new story
Evan White, fractional CCO, ERIN
This isn’t a communications problem anymore. It’s a market memory problem. I’m old enough to remember when people thought Jack in the Box would never recover. It did. The next CCO’s job isn’t to win an argument with the FDA. It’s to give people a different story to remember.
Joshua R. Mansbach, director of communications, Bayer
Start by calling a lid on all external communications. Then get the executives aligned on a singular story, and then tell the entire company the absolute honest truth and apologize to the employees. Because if the C-suite loses their trust, the company may as well close up shop and we can all go out to Sweetgreen for a salad.
Lynda Carlisle, senior vice president of strategic communications, CS-Effect
I’d run a strong employee campaign focused on quality and transparency. Open the doors to your processes, and allow employees to share their stories of what they do every day to ensure safety and quality standards are met — to benefit each other, not as a PR stunt. Recognize the issues that continue to contribute to these risks, and develop solutions with the employees in the field. Literally. Your internal team needs to feel part of the solution to rebuild trust and loyalty inside and out.
The post Be the CCO: Communicators on what Taylor Farms should do now appeared first on PR Daily.
