Más de 25.000 apariciones en prensa acusan a los productos españoles de ser los responsables de la infección de E. Coli
More than 25,000 press appearances accuse Spanish products of being responsible for E. coli infection
- A report of the University of Navarra points out that a financial compensation will not be enough for the markets to regain confidence in Spanish products.
"The media impact of the accusation of Spanish products as the cause of the E. Coli infection is of extraordinary proportions and of devastating consequences for the Spanish brand in export agriculture." So says the report prepared by the Center for Media, Reputation and Intangibles of the University of Navarra, which indicates that there are more than 25,000 appearances in the press in which Spanish products are explicitly accused of being responsible for the food crisis.
As stated by Francesc Pujol, manager of the analysis, Spain appears as the culprit of the infection in 30 articles in Der Spiegel, 25 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, 35 in Le Figaro, 7 in The Guardian, 6 in The Independent, 3 in the Financial Times, 23 in the Washington Post, 5 in the Wall Street Journal. The list of appearances goes on to 25,000 different news items recorded so far. Of these, 7,400 have been published in Germany, 920 in France, 4,500 in the United States or 250 in Australia.
Thus, the Spain brand is suffering an "intoxication" that will have a lasting negative economic impact. The media impact of the crisis is massive, as references to our country reach, for example, 67% of all news about the E. Coli crisis in the French media, 48% in the USA, 52% in Italy or 74% in Argentina.
Media impact far above other events
To put into perspective the scope of the reputation crisis generated by the false accusation, it can be pointed out that the media impact of the news about Spanish cucumbers is 60% higher than the worldwide media impact of FC Barcelona's victory in the Champions League; 7 times higher than that of Rafa Nadal's victory at Roland Garros; and 3 times higher than the media impact of the Pope's visit to Barcelona to inaugurate the Sagrada Familia.
Thus, "financial compensation will not be enough to restore confidence in Spanish products. Symbolic gestures are necessary to force a clear and unconditional rectification on the part of the German authorities".
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