In my recent post on Honey We've Got Rats I suggested that YumBrands ought to have been better prepared for the fallout when rats were shown on the morning news having a party at a Taco Bell/KFC restaurant.

How right I was.

As Ben McConnell at the Church of the Customer blog points out in a March 1st posting, things have got out of hand for Yum Brands. In the past week, 27 videas have appeared on YouTube and over 600,000 people have looked at them. I don't even want to think about the negative word-of-mouth that this has generated and the likely reduced footfall into TacoBell & KFC restaurants.

But Yum Brands hasn't been totally asleep at the PR wheel. It's CEO has produced an on-line video apology (but it hasn't posted it to YouTube) and closed a number of restaurants operated by the offending franchisee.

First Dell Hell and now Taco Bell Hell! It just goes to show the power of social networks and in particular, their power to get bad news out fast. All companies need to be aware of this power and be prepared to tackle it head on should a PR disaster happen. And happen they will.

What do you think? Are social networks going to keep companies on their feet? Or has this been blown out of all proportion?

Post a comment and let's get the conversation going.

Graham Hill