It all started with a poisonous mushroom.

Off Madison Ave recently found itself not so far from the actual Madison Avenue in New York City.

This summer, the public relations and social media team had its smiling faces projected on a giant billboard over New York City’s Times Square.

Coincidentally, the team received the Big Apple recognition for its behind-the-scenes crisis communication work, which garnered the “Best of Show” award at the Public Relations Society of America’s Phoenix chapter’s Copper Anvil ceremony.

In September 2013, Arizona Highways magazine, an Off Madison Ave client, made an error of identifying a poisonous mushroom as edible in its print issue, which had already hit newsstands and been mailed to subscribers. We worked fast to secure immediate press coverage and helped the magazine reach as many readers as possible to alert them of the error and the potential health risk.

The team pulled together a plan of attack and executed that plan in a matter of four hours, reaching every major news outlet in Arizona, notifying them of the error. The team worked diligently with these news outlets to provide a photo of the error, statement and information the public needed to know immediately about the misidentified mushroom. In a matter of 48 hours, the team was able to garner hundreds of thousands of impressions through print, radio and television coverage.

The situation ended in the best possible scenario – no incidents of mushroom consumption were reported and the public applauded the magazine’s proactive approach to communicating the error.

This crisis communication campaign was submitted for a Copper Anvil award. In addition to it winning a Copper Anvil, it also received the highest honor of “Best of Show” with the judges reporting this campaign, of all entries, best exemplified public relations excellence. As a part of the award, PR Newswire displayed a photo of the team that executed the campaign on its digital billboard in the heart of New York City.

So, how do you see your face on a Times Square billboard? For us, it was thinking quickly on our feet, tapping excellent media relationships and helping to save the public from eating a poisonous mushroom.