Mum’s the word

Mum’s the word

Staying silent is the worst attitude to have when it comes the PR. Unfortunately it seems to a prevalent one in the UAE

July 24, 2011 3:22 by Eva Fernandes

Friend of Kipp, Alex McNabb, dedicated a lot of space on his blog during the entire EPCO/ENOC fiasco concentrating on how detrimental PR strategy of keeping silent and hoping the problem will go away, really is. Kipp was reminded of his words, when we read a rather disturbing report of a rather well known food chain in the UAE.

Yes, we are talking about good ol’ Chilis, which, according to a report Emirat Alyoum, served a customer a steak which had worms in it. Now the story, which has been translated and published on Emirates 24|7 has gathered considerable attention on social networking websites. The Emirates 24|7 article, itself has under 10 comments, including this one: “Is it just me or is Chilis having a reputation problem in recent months? Shop closure in Abu Dhabi for a few days, Worms in Sharjah.. What is exactly happening with them? Their food and restaurants always seemed of good standard.. weird..” The comment is referring to the Abu Dhabi branch of Chilis that was shut down not too long ago for failure to meet health code regulations.

And though it may seem the company needs to seriously reconsider its hygiene standards, what Kipp really would like to see is some instant damage control. In this age of social media, we’d expect an instant reply from Chili’s management to the Emirates 24|7 article, or even better a reply on what has been happening to their Abu Dhabi branch. But staying mum on the matter, is so outdated and unappreciated.