#PRFail The #2MinuteMuddle, Nestle failed to handle
The
Maggi #2MinuteMuddle might go down in history also as one of the biggest PR
failures of these times. The absent presence of
Nestle, its faceless mass, feeble shouts of weak defense and yes, a wobbly stand
that was deeply superficial.
Nestle is a mega MNC that has a huge mass
within its belly and outside in its market bellies too. Maggi did have an
uninterrupted run for 32 years and is recognized as an era. But sadly, it has
landed in a soup that now has become a muddle. Almost all of us including yours
truly have savoured Maggis’ in times of distress, over-work, enjoyment and
sheer inability to find or cook food.
EPIC
LIES
The epic fail story began on 10 March 2014,
when UP Food Safety Officer V.K. Pandey collected samples of Maggi noodles in
little-known Barabanki. And Nestle has been in the loop and even filed an
appeal against the orders of FSSAI last year. The official Nestle PR machinery first slept for more than a year and
then came up with a lie that FSSAI is mentioning a product that has already
expired in Nov 2014. FSSAI all the time was talking of the product that was
picked in Mar 2014.
Their next claim was that Lead is present
in most natural foods and even air. Funnily,
Nestle also claimed that lead could permeate into processed food due to the
soil conditions (sic!). Nestle
should know that USA allows only 0.01 ppm of lead in processed food and India
already allows 2.5 ppm to compensate for environmental and soil conditions. And
food is processed to minimize risk elements and bring in health factors. To
take such a stand, is laughable.
Same goes for their claim that FSSAI had tested for MSG through erroneous
test methods. Sad, what was Nestle doing since 14 months? To wake-up after
the row and claim that they were sending samples for testing to independent
labs. And where are the reports now?
ARROGANCE
The defense was surprising and left
millions lose faith in one of their most-trusted brands. There was enough time to make amends, but Nestle’s big mass hierarchy
arrogantly chose to pick up a fight without any scientific backing.
The
sloth and properly ridiculous response was led by a faceless Nestle for whom
the powers-to-be sitting in Europe never could decide that it needs a face to
defend issues and somebody has to own it up. And
they kept coming up with responses that looked like they were challenging FSSAI
yet supporting evidence was their own reports and not the Central Government
labs’.
Nestle in the past has recalled many products
due to non-compliance in USA, Europe, Canada, Germany, Singapore and yes, early
this week Nestle USA announced that it is removing artificial flavours from its
frozen pizzas/snacks and reducing sodium in 250 products by 10%. The balance
between need and greed is required of this arrogant MNC now. India is not a
banana republic. Indian consumerism is coming of age and we are witnessing the
first instance.
The party is over for Maggi. And Nestle has to stop
looking like a wise fool that is shrewdly dumb. We are a nation of Maggi lovers
and we do look forward to Maggi in a new Avatar that doesn't treat us like
third-rate citizens of the world.
