Melamine Case Study for Cie

Introduction

Practicing ethics in the Public Relations industry has always been a major issue. Although PR companies have their own Code of Ethics, they do not necessarily follow them, therefore when there is a crisis, they would not be able to handle it the right or ethical way and that would further damage the company's reputation.

Here I am discussing about how PR practitioners always try to 'spin' their way out when there is a crisis and how 'spinning' can damage the company's reputation and further hurting the society. The case that I will be discussing is the Melamine Crisis, which happened in China that became an international threat towards the people worldwide.

I am going to look into from the outbreak of the crisis to the PR industry dilemma posed by the actors and stakeholders of the case, then develop a micro, micro-range, and macro question and finally some suggestions about the best ethical approach referring to the ethics systems that I have learnt and apply in to this Melamine Crisis.

Melamine is an organic compound in appearance of white crystalline powder, usually used as fire retardants and fertilizer for plants due to high nitrogen content. It is also used to produce plastic, mainly for household items called Melaware. According to The Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory Oxford University's Safety Data for Melamine, it is poisonous if swallowed, inhaled and also absorbed through the pores of our skin. Consuming or over exposure to melamine will cause discoloured urine, kidney stones, which could cause acute renal failure and also death (Safety Officer in Physical Chemistry at Oxford University, 2008).