Crisis Management

A divisive celebrity. A CEO doubling down on a decision to keep the celebrity  on-platform (and reminding audiences it’s a platform, not a publisher). Committing to an investment in marginalized groups. Guess who?

At a glance it looks like more of a reputation crisis for Zucker, rather than CNN, but PR lessons will reverberate without the organization. 

Spotify unveiled content guidelines in the wake of its Joe Rogan-Neil Young controversy. Will that and Rogan’s apology be enough to bolster its reputation?

Enacting social listening, as well as monitoring consumer sentiment and timely issues, can prevent a small spark of doubt from burning out of control. 

In addition to shareholder woes, Peloton was seen trending for a potentially damaging scene in the season premiere of hit SHOWTIME show “Billions” on Jan. 24. But its leadership issues are truly at the heart of the company’s comms crisis.

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.