If you have not yet witnessed the KFC/Taco Bell video exposing the 6th Avenue restaurant’s highly visible rodent problem, you may seriously want to consider how soon you would like to eat again before watching it.

Advertising Age published an article yesterday on the video documentation of the rat problem entitled, “Taco Hell: Rodent Video Signals New Era in PR Crises”. The article critiques Yum Brands for perceiving-and therefore portraying-the highly publicized rodent problem as containable and local. Such a miscalculation meant that Yum Brands got caught trying to fight the wild-fire, negative publicity with antiquated speed and technique. Yum Brands’ statement–posted on their home page after the news footage had already begun circulating the web–could not undo the horrible images that the rapid sharing of the video online had planted in consumers’ minds.

Today it may be harder–if not impossible–to escape exposure once the footage hits the internet. Whether you are the hysterical, hair-cutting bride of YouTube fame or Yum Brands trying to fight the association of rats with your restaurants, that users can upload, search for and share videos of your worst moments is a concern uniquely connected to new technology. Everybody and anybody can end up on YouTube; the new challenge may be for individuals and organizations to deal with the exposure of their less than shining moments.