ABSTRACT: On June 14, 1999, school children in Belgium
became ill after drinking Coca-Cola. The Belgian government
ordered a recall of all bottles of Coca-Cola and banned the sale of
all related Coke products. In a rush to safeguard the health of
their publics, the governments of Spain and France banned the
sale of Coca-Cola soft drinks. However, other nations near Belgium,
including Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, did not ban
sales of Coke products.
Why did some nations rush to ban products made by
Coca-Cola while other nations waited for more information
about the crisis? One answer may be found in an examination of
the cultural dynamics of these six nations. The purpose of this
article was to explore cultural variability, especially uncertainty
avoidance and power distance, and to examine how it affects
public response to crisis. An analysis of the national cultures of
each of these countries showed that publics who live in nations
that are high in uncertainty avoidance and power distance tend to
react more strongly, and more quickly, to perceived threats.
Maureen Taylor is assistant professor in the Department
of Communication at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
Public Relations Review, 26(3):277–293 Copyright © 2000 by Elsevier Science Inc.
ISSN: 0363-8111 All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.