The Tainting Crisis
On June 14, 1999, school children in Belgium reported
feeling ill after drinking Coca-Cola soft drinks. The Belgian government immediately
ordered Coca-Cola Belgium to recall the product. It complied with the order,
but maintained that independent laboratory tests did not show any harmful substances
in their products. On June 15, the nations of Spain and France accused the
soft drink maker of selling tainted products.
Two possible explanations exist for the poisoning incident.43 First, some
tests found that the outside of cans had been in contact with a fungicide that had
been applied to the wooden pallets that were used in the shipping process. A
second plausible explanation identified very low quality levels of carbon dioxide in
the “fizz” in the bottles made at the Coca-Cola Belgium factory.44 This low quality
“fizz” may have made the children ill.
Coca-Cola reacted to these claims as a low power distance and low uncertainty
avoidance organization. Its public relations strategy originally discounted
the claims of tainting in its products. Coca-Cola did not accept any responsibility
for the incident, and the organization even suggested that the people who had
fallen ill were part of a mass hysteria.45 Coca-Cola did, however, agree to pull the
drinks from the shelves. The public relations response has been considered “a
waffle,” “foot dragging,” “a poor attempt at damage control,” and “ducking away
from a health scare.”46 Nine days had passed before the chief executive officer of
the organization acknowledged the problem. CEO M. Douglas Ivester finally flew
over to the region and offered a free can of coke to consumers to win back their
loyalty. Coca-Cola also promised to pay more attention to bottling process and
hinted that “we let the consumer down.”47