“Regulators Say Holiday Favorite Zhu Zhu Pets Are Safe.”

Is this headline good news for Mr. Squiggles, the robotic hamster? That depends.

As a marketing and public relations agency here in South Florida, we see it two ways. To executives with Zhu Zhu Pets, the headline probably reads like a clean bill of health.

To crisis communications and public relations experts, though, it has a “When did you stop beating your wife” tinge to it.

Cepia LLC, maker of Zhu Zhu Pets – one of this Christmas and holiday season’s hottest selling items – was identified by the GoodGuide consumer group for its use of antimony, a “potentially harmful heavy metal.”

Then, days after the news had hit the Internet and other media, a spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission told The Associated Press the toy “is not out of compliance” with a new U.S. toy safety law.

Should Mr. Squiggles breathe a sigh of relief? Maybe he – or his handlers – should take a lesson from Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tylenol, whose product in 1982 was tampered with and poisoned with cyanide.

Within days of investigators discovering the criminal tampering, J&J implemented a full-court crisis management press.

From Wikipedia: “Johnson & Johnson, the parent company of McNeil, distributed warnings to hospitals and distributors and halted Tylenol production and advertising….It issued a nationwide recall of Tylenol products; an estimated 31 million bottles were in circulation, with a retail value of more than US$100 million. The company also advertised in the national media for individuals not to consume any products that contained Paracetamol. When it was determined that only capsules were tampered with, they offered to exchange all Tylenol capsules already purchased by the public with solid tablets.”

In a textbook case of crisis communications management, J&J got “in front of the story.” They implemented an aggressive warning campaign on general media. They informed consumers and recalled the product, biting the bullet to the tune of $220 million in 2009 dollars.

Can Zhu Zhu salvage sales? Could your company? Probably so. Though deep into the holiday shopping season, Mr. Squiggles has a few things on his side. You can, too.

- ‘Mr. Squiggles has a clean bill of health.’ When the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission publicly acknowledged that the toy “is not out of compliance,” the company seemingly blasted that message across the Internet, TV, radio, print and all available media outlets. Though some critics still will be unswayed, it should be good enough to convince consumers driven by youngsters desperate for Mr. Squiggles.

- Let them say it for you. The regulatory agency stated its findings publicly – mentioning the product by name. This is immeasurably powerful for search engine optimization (SEO). It said, “CPSC confirmed today that the popular Zhu Zhu toy is not out of compliance with the antimony or other heavy metal limits of the new U.S. mandatory toy standard,” agency spokesman Scott Wolfson told AP.

- Put your team on it. Get in front of the story. Whether you have to admit guilt or rebuff misstatements or untruths, be open and public. Hiding is not an option. For its part, Cepia LLC, Zhu Zhu Pet’s parent, “insisted in a statement that its product is safe and has passed rigorous testing,” the AP reported.

- Garner empathy and show you care. “I have been in the toy industry for more than 35 years, and being a father of children myself, I would never allow any substandard or unsafe product to hit the shelves,” Russ Hornsby, Cepia’s CEO, said in the statement.

- Show you’ve tried to assuage (though not necessarily debate) your critics. Cepia reported it was contacting GoodGuide to share its testing data and determine how the report was founded, the AP said.

- Bite the bullet. If you have to issue a public correction or perform a recall, just do it. If you’ll have to do it eventually, do it now.