Public Relations Review 37 (2011) 366–372 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Public Relations Review Responding to crisis representations on film: W.R. Grace goes beyond A Civil Action Kristina Drumheller * West Texas A&M University, WTAMU Box 60754, Canyon, TX 79016, United States a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 6 July 2010 Received in revised form 3 August 2011 Accepted 5 August 2011 Keywords: Image restoration Film Organization Crisis Muckraking a b s t r a c t Films represent modern day muckraking, telling stories of true corporate misdeeds. This study compares the reactive image reparation efforts of W.R. Grace in addressing alleged well water contamination at the time of the allegations and the proactive efforts after the release of A Civil Action detailing the civil case. The public relations efforts of W.R. Grace as the movie premiered are analyzed and the lessons organizations can learn from their efforts are presented. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Films representing organizational crises are not new but it has really been recent that films not only show a generic crisis, but recapture an actual organization and its crisis, usually vilifying the organization and favoring alleged victims. A Civil Action is one such film, released in December 1998, 16 years after the initial crisis. It details the civil case against W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods in which these companies were accused of contaminating water supplies leading to an outbreak of leukemia in Woburn, MA. Based on the Jonathan Harr novel of the same name, the movie cast the companies and their respective lawyers as the villains, especially Grace. When the actual civil case occurred, Grace was faced with the need to repair its image. The film release brought the crisis back into the public eye, and created an even larger audience awareness of what had been a more localized problem. Particularly problematic, according to Grace’s website Beyond A Civil Action (Stoler, 1999, Introduction), is that the film omitted Grace’s commitment to cleaning up contaminated sites and omitted “Grace’s much-improved environmental record since 1986” (Allen, 1998, p. A1). The movie premiered in Boston, an unusual setting for a movie premier, and Grace prepared for the backlash with a strategic public relations plan (personal communication, November 25, 2003), which is what makes this film representation an interesting case study. Films have the potential to change “thoughts, attitudes or beliefs” of viewers (Young, 2000, p. 406), which is a particularly important point if the viewers are constituents of the organization being depicted. Failure to address stakeholders after the release of a film depiction may neglect an audience who is hearing about the crisis for the first time because of the wide release of movies. Additionally, not only can films move people to action, but organizations also need to be aware that films have become modern day muckrakers (Downie, 1976; Harrison & Stein, 1973; Stein, 1990). “A muckraking work exposes a hidden situation, depicts the situation prescriptively, locates an agent of control, indicates preferred action, incites audience * Tel.: +1 806 651 2816; fax: +1 806 651 2818. E-mail address: kdrumheller@wtamu.edu 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.08.007