Exxon and Valdez have become the sine qua non for the mishandling of both an environmental disaster response and the corporate communications surrounding it. No environmental disaster in the twentieth century captivated the world"s attention to the extent of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in March 1989. It certainly captivated the attention of public relations practitioners and corporate communicators, triggering exhaustive new crisis planning and crisis preparation efforts in many organizations. Yet, topbusiness management often use the Exxon spill as a key platform for raising questions about the need for crisis planning beyond that necessary to operationally manage a problem. Even now, years later, many members of corporate senior management remain at odds with public relations practitioners over lessons to be learned from the incident. This monograph explores the powerful lessons this paradox teaches.