Crisis Management

Ahead of our Crisis Management Summit March 8-9, 2022, in Miami, we spoke with keynoter Chris Chiames, CCO at Carnival Cruise Line.

We’re just weeks into 2022 and the number of CEO-related PR crises seems overwhelming. Ignorance at the top is not bliss.

A brand popular with laborers and fashionistas, Carhartt took its turn on the cancel culture carousel following the leak of an internal memo.

In the long run, do crisis prep and reputation mean anything? 2022 may provide early answers.

Thanks to advertisers and the media’s focus on engagement as a key metric, crises have surfaced and been amplified at a far higher level in 2021 than they were in 2020. Because they bump up engagement numbers, the plague of misinformation, disinformation, rumors and lies skyrocketed to the top of everyone’s news feed and we all got angrier at everything. And, since anger drives engagement and engagement bolsters advertising revenue, the cycle will just get worse in 2022. But there are lessons we can take with us into the new year from all the messes that CEOs made, and PR pros were asked to clean up.

We expected good things from 2021. Instead, it delivered large doses of frustrating virus protocols, political turmoil, mistrust, disinformation and reputation gaffes. Classic PR blunders generated headlines when leaders failed to learn from history. Here are a few cautionary tales as we look to 2022.

Communications continues to be an essential function, particularly as companies, organizations and individuals continue to wade through pandemic challenges. The PRNEWS editorial team highlights some innovations and predictions we predict will be important for 2022. 

The holidays arrived early for crisis communication fans. There was no shortage of stories to peruse. All featured ghosts of crises past, whose protagonists we’ve covered in Crisis Insider.

It’s a tradition for Solomon McCown & Cence to share its video of the year’s top PR crises with us. This year’s video offers plenty of lessons.

Amazon has responded to a deadly warehouse collapse that killed at least six employees with several rote “thoughts and prayers” responses from spokespeople. Add a too-little-too-late comment from executive chairman Jeff Bezos, and any company would find itself in a communications crisis with long-term consequences.