Checkoff-funded Crisis Management Effort Scores Top Honor from PR Week 

Award Recognizes Effectiveness of BSE Preparation, Response

DENVER (March 17, 2005) – The Beef Checkoff Program’s management of a potential consumer confidence crisis was recognized recently at the annual PR Week Awards in New York City. PR Week, a national trade publication of the public relations field, gave top national honors to the program with its Crisis/Issues Management Campaign of the Year award.    

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and public relations agency Burson-Marsteller were recognized for the work they did on behalf of America’s beef producers and the Cattlemen’s Beef Board in responding to  the only positive case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to be confirmed in the United States, which occurred in December 2003. The effort was funded by America’s beef producers through the national Beef Checkoff Program, and is coordinated on behalf of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).  The NCBA serves as one of the Beef Board’s contractors for checkoff-funded programs. Burson-Marsteller was also recognized by the PR Week award.

PR Week cited not only the timely response to the confirmed case of BSE, but the years of checkoff-funded preparation that contributed to its effectiveness. The publication noted that consumer confidence in beef did not suffer following the BSE incident, and that U.S. consumers’ demand for beef has continued to climb. In fact, the Beef Demand Index reported its largest single-year increase in beef demand during 2004 – an increase of almost 8 percent.

“Consumer confidence in the safety of beef has never been higher, and that doesn’t just happen,” said Al Svajgr,  a cattle producer from Cozad, Neb., and chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. “Beef producers’ checkoff dollars were invested in preparation for such a situation, and when it happened we were ready to respond to the BSE incident in a way that educated and reassured consumers about the safety of U.S. beef.”

The effort to protect consumer confidence in U.S. beef was selected for the top award over a variety of worthy finalists, including: response to a baby food tampering incident, a campaign to stop the hostile takeover of a New Hampshire company, response to an Internet rumor that a cleaning product was dangerous for pets, and an effort to rebuild the image of a telecommunications giant. In presenting the award, PR Week Award judges noted that crisis avoidance is always preferable to crisis management.

“The meticulous planning and execution of this campaign impressed the judges.  Crisis avoidance, they noted, is always preferable to crisis management,” read the judges’ review in the awards edition of PR Week.

This sentiment was echoed by Svajgr.

“As a beef producer, I hate to even imagine the damage to our industry had we lost consumer confidence in the safety of our product,” Svajgr said. “Because our response was immediate and reassuring, consumers continue to believe in the safety of our product and we’ve been able to stay focused on growing demand for beef, instead of scrambling to regain lost market share. We may never be able to put a price on that as producers, but we know it was one of the best investments we ever made.” 

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