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An Open Letter To Paul Kruse, CEO And President Of Blue Bell Creameries, Joe Robertson,
News Media Contact For Blue Bell Creameries, And The Entire Senior And Public Relations
Staff Thereof
Your reputation, credibility, and consumer loyalty is lost forever. For a company whose
President claims nothing is more important than maintaining [customer] trust (A message
from our CEO and President), you have done a poor job of saving face for your first recall
disaster in 108 years (For the first time in 108 years). I guess I should give you the benefit of
the doubt as neither you nor your predecessors have had real life experience in a product recall
and thus have not learned from mistakes as to the proper protocol for a Public Relations
intervention. Let me be of service in pointing out your mistakes in the last 41 days since your
first press release.
But first, let me introduce myself. I am a graduating senior at Washburn University and
for the last four years, I have been studying Mass Media: Advertising, Public Relations, and
Communications. In these classes, I have been given cases like the one you are currently
experiencing and have ripped them a part, line for line, learning what to do and what not to do
from mistakes like the ones you have and are continuing to make.
In your first press release on March 13, 2015, you announce what seems to be a minor
problem that has been found and immediately taken care of. The release goes on to let the
consumer know it is still okay to buy other products, promptly listing popular items (For the
first time in 108 years). This, along with giving a number and appropriate times to call are my
only positive critiques. In doing these things, you have given some relief to the situation:
confirming that other products are safe to eat while also giving those nitpicky customers who

love to complain, an outlet to voice their discernment and discontent. However, something to add
to your press release should have been a contact person from the very beginning. Being a
multibillion dollar company, the media and public for that matter, needs a reliable source to get
information from so as not to get the runaround from a middle man.
On March 23, 2015, all hell broke loose; just 10 days after your first recall in 108 years
(For the first time in 108 years), you announce not only a second, but latter in the day, a third
recall. It is with the second recall that you finally give the public a scapegoat by offering Joe
Robertson, a News Media Contact. In spite of this (Frozen Snack Recall), you began your
exponential downward spiral into the deep, dark abyss of which you may never return. Your first
recall was seemingly minor and not a big deal to consumers; by revealing the issue and offering a
solution, your reputation remained intact. However, upon your second recall, your reputation,
credibility, and consumer loyalty has all but dwindled to a faint suggestion.
With the second recall of 10 products (Frozen Snack Recall), Paul Kruse, CEO and
President, Joe Robertson, News Media Contact and the entire Senior and Public Relations staff
thereof should have known the problem was bigger than anticipated and should have foreseen a
much larger issue at hand, especially with health agencies finding traces of Listeria in so many
products, and therefore, should have shut down all production lines and recalled every product
for a refund. Yes, this would have cost millions of dollars, but that is minute compared to the
billions of dollars it will now take to reconcile with consumers to rebuild the trust that took 108
years to form. Not to mention that you know, at the time of the second press release, have the
blood of three lives on your hands (Frozen Snack Recall). Isnt that enough?

Before I go on to the third press release, I must rebuke you and your insensitive,
thoughtless, and unsympathetic garbage about being deeply saddened and concerned for all
those who have been affected (Frozen Snack Recall). In other words, you could not give two
cents about the people who died after having your bacteria infested frozen snack items.
Perhaps it is not enough to simply recall your products and discontinue production because of a
routine sampling program (Frozen Snack Recall). Knowing your products had this killer
bacteria in it back in February, you should have shut your production lines down much sooner to
undergo intense and thorough cleaning that only Adrian Monk would approve of.
To carry on: in your third recall of three additional products distributed to 23 states (Cup
Recall), you continue to diminish your reputation by further allowing the situation to continue.
By this time, the public has realized you have done nothing to actually fix the problem but have
merely swept it under the carpet until blood started seeping through the already stained threads.
Thus four days later, in attempt to save face, you, the CEO and President, offer a weak letter:
apologiz[ing] for any anxiety or inconvenience (A message from our CEO and President), as
if three people dying were an inconvenience to your profits.
Putting aside your lack of sincerity, you Sir, should have been in the publics face about
the changes you have and will make to rectify the situation and to prevent it from ever happening
again from day one. You could have done this in several easy and relatively cheap ways.
Take Dominos for example: After two Dominos employees uploaded videos of
themselves doing unspeakable things to the pizza they then gave to customers, not even 24 hours
after the video went viral, Dominos President, Patrick Doyle made a very candid, open, and
honest apology. Doing so on YouTube, where the original video can be found, he fought fire with

fire. This tactic was quick, to the point. It took a simple strategy and a few minutes of the
Presidents time, but had an astonishing affect while also gaining back the trust of customers.
They owned the situation, stated what they have done to fix the problem, and stated what will be
done to make sure it will never happen again, while at the same time apologizing profusely: all in
a two minute video.
Social media is the most powerful form of communication in todays society, using
Facebook and Twitter to simply apologize or offer guidance as to how to return products, or even
offer a link to the FDA website where they tell both consumers and retailers what to do if they
had an infected product (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), instead of completely ignoring
the issue would have been a great start. These social networks are also a great place to let
customers feel valued; by taking the time to directly reply to comments or posts, you can
immediately change the image of your brand.
Your goal is always to have Top Of The Mind Awareness (TOMA) in your customers
mind, but if this awareness is negative in any way, your brand suddenly becomes the leper.
Additionally, using popular, easy to use, and free platforms like Instagram, Snap Chat, and
YouTube, you could have given your consumers a first-hand view of your progress in cleaning
up your mess. Instead of just sending out a vague update 11 days after the third recall, disclosing
that you will thoroughly inspect the facility (Broken Arrow Suspends Operations), and that a
team of expert consultants conduct[ed] a careful and complete examination (Broken Arrow
Suspends Operations), offer the public more to chew on. For example, time-lapse videos and
stop-action videos are easy and simple to create; with any video editor or application you could
have shown the public that you are actually taking steps to improve the situation instead of
leaving them out to dry.

Thirty-eight days after the first press release and four recalls, including all products from
the Broken Arrow plant in Oklahoma that you voluntarily suspended operations at (Blue Bell
Expands Oklahoma Plant Recall), you finally chose to recall the rest of your products from the
Brenham, Texas location as well (Blue Bell Voluntarily Expands Recall). These products were
distributed to 23 states and 32 countries outside the United States (Blue Bell Voluntarily
Expands Recall), if you were truly committed to doing the 100 percent right thing (Blue Bell
Voluntarily Expands Recall), you would have recalled all of your products with the second
recall, after three innocent lives were lost, if not for the integrity of purely doing the right thing,
but also to save your profit margins and brand name.
My question to you is why it took six agencies (FDA, the Kansas department of Health
and environment, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, the South
Carolina Department of health and Environmental control, and the Texas Department of State
Health Services), three deaths, and seven other cases of infected patients to finally convince you
to take every single Blue Bell product off the shelf and out of schools, hospitals and nursing
homes (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)? From a PR stand point, not even an integrity
stand point; you should have made that move over 30 days ago; doing so would have saved you
time and money, and not to mention your reputation.

Works Cited
A message from our CEO and President. (2015, March 27). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from
http://cdn.bluebell.com/the_little_creamery/press_releases/consumer-information/amessage-from-our-ceo-and-president

Blue Bell Expands Oklahoma Plant Recall. (2015, April 17). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from
http://cdn.bluebell.com/the_little_creamery/press_releases/broken-arrow-expands-recall
Blue Bell Voluntarily Expands Recall. (2015, April 20). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from
http://cdn.bluebell.com/the_little_creamery/press_releases/all-product-recall
Broken Arrow Suspends Operations. (2015, April 3). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from
http://cdn.bluebell.com/the_little_creamery/press_releases/broken-arrown-suspendsoperations
Cup Recall. (2015, March 23). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from
http://cdn.bluebell.com/the_little_creamery/press_releases/3-oz-cup-recall
For the first time in 108 years. (2015, March 13). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from
http://cdn.bluebell.com/the_little_creamery/press_releases/consumer-information/for-thefirst-time-in-108-years
Frozen Snack Recall. (2015, March 23). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from
http://cdn.bluebell.com/the_little_creamery/press_releases/consumer-information/frozensnack-recall
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2015, April 21). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from
http://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbreaks/ucm438104.htm