Crisis Communications Tip: When a 5-Year-Old Gets Drunk at Your Restaurant, Don’t Say "No Comment"

"Eatin' good in the neighbourhood" indeed. You'd think a chain of that size would have a more constructive way of dealing with an in-restaurant incident of this magnitude.At least I'll have another "what not to do" case study for future media training sessions.

I agree completely Scott. I worked for a trade association with state offices. We came up with a crisis communication training program to prepare people at the local level to respond to a crisis on the scene.We also returned phone calls from the press. This is was a "bad apple" all the way down the line.I hope they have to pay the $75,000, maybe they will return calls next time.

RE: "Have you ever worked at a major chain like that?" Yes, I have; I was VP of corporate communications for a wireless communications company that had 90 offices, and such crises occurred often. That's why we trained our local managers to handle such situations -- with our guidance and counsel, of course.I should be clear that I don't blame the folks at the individual restaurant; they were obviously instructed to refer reporters to corporate.However, the corporate office should have responded.For future crises, the corporate office would be better off if it gave media training to location managers, and then, when a crisis occurred, provided them with vetted statements/talking points for handling media calls.

Have you ever worked at a major chain like that? No one working in a local store is EVER allowed to talk to the press about anything. It's always "no comment' and a referral to the higher ups. If that manager had said one word - they would have been fired no questions asked. And since we don't know if the manager they tried to talk to was the one on duty when the incident happened, I know if it was me I wouldn't want to get fired by commenting on someone else's mistake.

"When you're looking at your 5-year-old and you're asking him, quiet down Seth, sit still and you see that mentally and physically he cannot comply with what you're asking him to do because he is under the influence," Pereles said.Yeah... when that happens, WHAT?? FINISH THE SENTENCE!!

Note to CEOs: If you're not going to have a PR person on your staff whose counsel you trust, at least take a PR 101 class so you'll know the basics. Sheesh.