Categories: OLD Media Moves

Tyson Foods trying to spin the news

Jack Flack of Conde Nast Portfolio looks Monday at how Tyson Foods try to spin a judge’s order over how it could label some of its chicken to its advantage.

Flack wrote, “By being the first out with the news, the company ensured that the story was framed as the judge rejecting the complaint, instead of as the judge being satisfied with adjustments Tyson had made to the original ads.

“In reality, though, Tyson probably had little worry of being pre-empted, given that the motion was filed jointly by four competitors — Perdue Farms, Sanderson Farms Inc., Gold’n Plump Poultry Inc. and Foster Poultry Farms. As slowly as individual companies often move in trying to muster public pronouncements on short notice, the chances were slim that four competitors could agree on a joint statement in less than a full lunar cycle .

“The Tyson flacks also had to be pleased with getting the news out on a Friday afternoon, hoping it would disappear into the weekend ether.

“Why? Well, the ‘adjustment’ to their campaign is not particularly appetizing.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.