Crisis Management

Some PR crises spring from bad facts, elements in a situation that are difficult to deny. We examine how they influenced two crises.

Starbucks Workers United made claims against Starbucks in Buffalo, N.Y., that accused the company of interfering with employees working to unionize. 

The friends and relationships needed during a PR crisis often are far different from the partnerships you focus on when operating at normal times. Often, the individuals and institutions that are best positioned to provide support when you have problems are quite different from those you and your company engage with on a day-to-day basis. The problem is most companies not only fail to build those bridges, but they also do not even know who these entities are or where to start.

Too often, what many perceive as the end of a PR crisis, the apology, seems formulaic. The company or person admits they’ve done something wrong, issues an apology and all is forgiven. We discuss whether an apology remains important in PR crisis work with Nicki Gibbs, chief strategy officer, Beehive Strategic Communication, and Dr. Kerry O’Grady, faculty director and associate professor, Georgetown University School of Continuing Education.

Communicators, once again, will answer the call and serve as the cavalry in a sea of confused and worried financial clients. 

Several congressional hearings prove companies aren’t heeding crisis communication basics. The results are awful.

Some industry conferences are insular, oblivious to external events. That wasn’t so at the recent PRNEWS Crisis Management Summit in Miami Beach.

From a news and information delivery perspective, President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people are conducting a master class in the utilization of modern communications tools to inform the public about crisis.

PR advice is clear for artists who work globally and are openly political: know the consequences. Several Putin allies are learning this the hard way.

Two recent crises hit close to home for the PR profession. On February 16, Keith Kelly broke the news in Crain’s New York Business and AdAge that Ronn Torossian, CEO of the 5WPR Agency, secretly purchased an industry newsletter, Everything-PR, and used it to hype his firm and bash rivals. At the same time as Kelly’s article appeared, the war rooms over at CNN were busy. The issue was dealing with revelations of misconduct, ethical lapses and a widely-known-if-never-acknowledged affair.