Sour Milk and Public Relations

Here is an interesting story out of China. Most readers may recall the tainted baby formula scandal from the past 2 years. It was a public relations nightmare for everyone involved. Well, there is a part 2 to the scandal and this time, it is public relations practitioners taking the hits.

Apparently, a public relations manager at a milk company was under pressure to increase sales. Like most practitioners these days, he decided to hire a pr firm and use social media. The strategy they decided on was, to say the least, very unorthodox. Working with the pr firm, he used social media to spread false rumors that a rival company's baby formula was poisonous.

The result, was of course panic. What was the result of this enterprising strategy:
1. He has been arrested
2. Staff from the public relations firm have been arrested.

The scandal is all over the news:
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3

Here is the interesting quote from the story:

Police told Chinese media that Mr An and BossePR dubbed the alleged campaign the “731 plan”, which aimed to stir up fear that competitors were adding adulterated fish oil to their milk products for children.