Lord Bell of Bell Pottinger has spoken out against coverage of the ongoing horsemeat scandal as ‘sensationalised rubbish’ during an interview with PRCATV.
His words come as a survey of PR experts found that 91 per cent felt that the scandal would have a detrimental effect on the perception of meat products, with 50 per cent believing this impact will be ‘significant’ and 41 per cent that it would only be ‘marginal’
77 per cent of respondents further believe that the horsemeat scandal will continue to escalate. Whilst 56 per cent believe that food producers’ reputations have been most harmed by the crisis, with 36 per cent citing supermarkets as the biggest losers and 8 per cent naming the Government/Food Standards Agency.
PRCA Director General Francis Ingham said: “There have clearly been some major losers in the horsemeat scandal. The Government has come out of this surprisingly well, while some food manufacturers have been deeply damaged by the whole issue.”
Speaking about Findus’ response to the crisis, Storm Communications CEO Derek Lowe said: “Findus should have given a full and honest disclosure of the problem, expressed corporate shock that they had been let down so badly by their suppliers and their own quality control procedures, and a given a vigorous explanation of measures to ensure it will never happen again. Another shocking example of the head-in-the sand mentality of in-house crisis comms teams, with no game planning of how it could play out in the media.”