This week’s PR Roundup examines the bizarre ongoing cyberattack on the Victoria’s Secret website, how nuclear verdicts are impacting the reputations of large companies and the worth of a celebrity product, Rhode, to a cosmetics company in 2025.
Crisis Management


Your Story or Theirs: Why Narrative Risk Now Trumps Brand Risk
May 27th, 2025 by Marianne O’ConnorIn 2025, most business leaders can rattle off their product risks, regulatory risks, even brand risks. But a more insidious threat lurks under it all: narrative risk—the danger that someone else tells your company’s story faster, louder or more convincingly than you do. And not always truthfully.

News Outlets Respond to AI-Generated Summer Reading List Insert
May 22nd, 2025 by Nicole SchumanThe Chicago Sun Times and Philadelphia Inquirer did not help boost any new media trust when caught in an AI content controversy.

Learning About Crisis From Sports Controversies
May 22nd, 2025 by Nicole SchumanSports crisis communications experts, Jim Rocco and Thom Weidlich, decided to co-author the recently-released “Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy.”

PR Roundup: HBO Max is Back, Grok Glitches Out, CEOs Losing Trust
May 15th, 2025 by Nicole SchumanThis week PR Roundup looks at the re-brand (or re-re-brand?) of HBO Max, Grok’s penchant for white genocide discussion and a new study revealing declining trust for CEOs.

PR Roundup: 2025 State of the Media, Higher Ed Crisis Strategy, Conclave Frenzy
May 8th, 2025 by Nicole SchumanThis week’s PR Roundup looks at the annual Cision State of the Media Report, what we learned about higher education and crisis at the Meltwater Summit and new digital data from GIPHY on the papal internet frenzy.

Earning Trust, Adding Value: Comms’ Silver Lining Amid Tariff Chaos
May 6th, 2025 by Dustin SigginsIt’s a precarious time for communications departments that haven’t earned the C-suite’s trust. So in-house teams and agencies alike risk cuts to their budgets unless management believes in their value.

Guiding Restaurant Clients Through Today’s External Threats
April 16th, 2025 by Jamie IzaksPR pros can use a straightforward approach to help restaurant brands (as well as other industries) handle today’s external threats to get the best possible outcome.

Strong Messages for Shaky Markets: Communicating Through Tariff Turmoil
April 15th, 2025 by Lori RuggieroTariffs have always been a fact of business life, but the recent volatility presented by new trade policies has transformed them from a line item on a spreadsheet into a full-blown communications challenge.

PR Roundup: Social Advocacy Advice, Small Business PR and Recycling Brainstorm Ideas
April 10th, 2025 by Nicole SchumanThis week’s PR Roundup looks at social advocacy lessons from the Institute for Public Relations Bridge Conference, the results of a new small business public relations study, and a new tool to recycle and elevate forgotten brainstorm ideas.