After several widely-publicized animal deaths recently, some
allegedly due to human error, officials at the National Zoo are now
in the hotseat as they answer to a congressional committee
investigating the Zoo's management. But the PR team, including PR
Director Robert Hoage, have created a model crisis site linked to
the Zoo's online press center (albeit not prominently). The link,
"Answers to your questions about Zoo animal health and safety,"
appears below the fold on the main page of the newsroom, but takes
visitors to material including a letter from Zoo Director Lucy
Spelman, a letter to the editor of The Washington Post from Hoage,
and best of all, a very positive article from The Post covering the
Zoo staff's TLC for animals during the President's Day weekend
snowstorm in Washington. This savvy use of positive press from a
source that has covered all the negative events at the Zoo is a PR
coup. For more stealable ideas, go to http://www.natzoo.si.edu/aboutus/currentevents/default.cfm.
Wild Times for the National Zoo
