Company Keeps Cool as Gas Plant Explodes

An industrial gas plant explosion in St. Louis today has spurred a solid response from company officials. The company's reaction has been fast and candid--emphasizing the safety of its employees after the disaster--but without venturing into speculation. The company has placed the news as the lead item on its website, and they are sending an emergency response team from their Connecticut headquarters to the scene in St. Louis. Based on the first few hours since the disaster, it appears that Praxair is a company that understands that the best way to confront bad news is head-on.

Second Chance Takes No Chances

Second Chance Body Armor today announced [LINK FIXED] that it is "recommending the immediate replacement of any of its bullet-resistant vests containing Zylon® fiber" following their receipt of new research from scientists hired by the company.

"While Second Chance has not received any reports of field failures of the
products in question, we felt it was our obligation to report these new research
findings immediately," said Matt Davis, vice president of sales and marketing.
"The safety and well-being of all the officers who wear our body armor is of
primary importance to Second Chance and we strongly encourage all officers to
replace ballistic vests that contain Zylon as quickly as possible."

Proactive. Timely. Candid. Good job.

How NOT to do media training

What was he thinking? This post is for my colleagues in the media training world, and is a prime example of the wrong way for PR professionals to do media training. The San Francisco Chronicle has the story of the San Francisco 49ers and their PR director's efforts to help the football players work with the media. The unhappy result was that the PR director became the news.