Crisis Management

The long-simmering battle between PRSA and gadfly and former board member Mary Beth West reached a new level this morning. A group of PR pros has formed to support some of West’s latest allegations against the PR association. PRNEWS obtained a copy of the letter the group sent to PRSA.

If a global business behemoth like Google can pivot quickly to address COVID-19 concerns, many other organizations may be asked follow and keep employees informed. Planning ahead instead of reacting to a crisis seems to be de rigueur for communicators. It’s a smart move.

A well-known PR adage is, ‘If you don’t tell your story, someone else will.’ A bevy of major retailers has paraphrased that aphorism to fit the moment: ‘If the government doesn’t protect our employees and customers against coronavirus, we will.’ By requiring masks, these iconic brands have become healthcare policy wonks.

It’s July and we’re still stuck in a pandemic. By most measures, things are getting worse, not better. The country seems to be confused. We asked a group of healthcare communicators how PR pros can help at this moment. Most said the industry can and should.

PR professionals representing the country’s largest public figures are likely having a rough week after a wave of cyberattacks on Twitter. Around 4:00 p.m. Eastern on July 16, tweets from celebrities including Kim Kardashian West, Joe Biden, Bill Gates and others started rolling in, asking Twitter users for Bitcoin donations in service of “giving back to the community.” These celebs would double donations to the unnamed “community” cause, the tweets read. All told, hackers made off with nearly $120,000, The Verge reported.

It was a hot Friday in July. The perfect slow news day. But not for the world of PR, where some of the major teachings of the craft seemed to be thrown to the dustbin. See what happens when a brand CEO steps directly into politics, a brand disregards optics and the computer system of a mega-retailer goes whacky.

We’re living in difficult times. Yet, the events of 2020, for good or ill, are shaping up to be storytelling gold. It’s a time for brand storytellers to gather and capture real-time history and to think more broadly about how these stories can be used.

From a PR viewpoint, the majority owner of Washington’s football team continues to fumble. The latest issue is a long-standing argument over changing the team’s name. Finally, team owner Daniel Snyder has agreed to review the issue. For two decades he’s ignored PR best practices. Will he change his ways this time?

Using AI to create realistic but deceitful video content, known as a deepfake, is rapidly moving into the business world. As such, communicators need to know how to recognize and combat deepfakes to protect their business and the brands they represent. Kglobal’s Ellen Huber offers tips and tactics.

Deepfakes, or Artificial Intelligence-generated synthetic videos, have been on the crisis communications periphery since 2017. Here’s what you and those you represent need to know about them.