Bad publicity? A crisis plan can limit the damage
Written by Shirley Lichti for The Record, May 17, 2006

One of the best-known sales promotions in Canada is the Tim Hortons Roll up the Rim contest. This year, however, it moved from being a straightforward sales promotion to a potential public relations nightmare.

On March 6, a 10 year-old girl found a cup in a trash can at her school in Montreal. Unable to roll up the rim, she enlisted the help of a 12 year-old girl. The cup turned out to be a grand prize winner, qualifying the holder to receive a 2006 Toyota RAV4.

But a dispute arose when the 12 year-old's parents claimed the prize should be shared equally. And things were further complicated when a school custodian said he had bought the coffee and should be awarded the prize. He hired a lawyer who said he might request DNA testing to prove that his client was the rightful owner of the cup.

Over the next month, many news outlets reported on the dispute. As the story unfolded, there was no comment from Tim Hortons.

You might wonder if the lack of comment was a good thing or a bad thing from a public relations standpoint.

It's a question I posed to students in the fourth-year integrated marketing communication class I teach at Wilfrid Laurier University. I wanted them to answer the question, "Is all publicity good publicity?" Furthermore, I wanted them to think about the kind of situations that require companies to unleash their crisis plans.

After a lengthy discussion, most students decided that although the situation had negative overtones, Tim Hortons had done nothing wrong and should not be held responsible. This was not a crisis so the company should continue to say nothing.

I agreed. The definition of a public relations crisis revolves around negative publicity that could adversely affect the success of a company. This was hardly a crisis. In fact, the extensive news media coverage served to promote the Roll up the Rim contest.

Public relations professionals know it pays to be prepared, with plans in place in the event of a crisis or other unforeseen events. And so I asked Diane Slopek-Weber, director of corporate communications at Tim Hortons, how the company prepares for contest-related events beyond its control.

She told me that Tim Hortons has thought about ethical questions related to the contest. For example, what would you do if you bought a coffee for someone else and they won? It's a question many people have been discussing since the story broke and one she says she hears a lot.

While many different scenarios have come up over the years, Slopek-Weber notes you simply can't plan for every eventuality. "I've been here for 10 years," she said, "and just when you think you've seen it all, something new comes up."

According to Slopek-Weber, the company heard about the dispute from the news media, not from the families involved. That was one of the reasons for not making a comment. "There wasn't much we could say," she added, "because we hadn't seen a prize tab. We just really hoped the families would come to a resolution."

In the end, Tim Hortons only received one valid claim for the prize, from the parents of the 10 year-old girl who found the cup. Even this resolution made headlines - a positive outcome for the contest which marked its 20th anniversary this year.

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