From a crisis communications misstep on one of the entertainment industry’s biggest stages and new data showing employees now outpace CEOs in brand trust, to Burger King’s surprisingly human response to a decade of customer complaints, this week’s PR Roundup highlights the power—and pitfalls—of modern communications.
BAFTA Demonstrates How Not to Apologize
What happened: A crisis communications firestorm overshadowed the 2026 BAFTA Awards after John Davidson, a guest and Tourette’s syndrome advocate whose life inspired the film “I Swear,” involuntarily shouted a racial slur while presenters Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo stood onstage. Although host Alan Cumming acknowledged Davidson’s condition during the ceremony, the BBC’s tape-delayed broadcast (of two hours) still aired the slur—despite editing out other moments.
This prompted swift backlash from viewers, industry leaders and civil rights advocates. Critics also faulted BAFTA for failing to immediately check in with the presenters and for what some described as a vague, insufficient on-air apology, further intensifying the reputational fallout.
Within 24 hours, BAFTA and the BBC issued formal apologies, removed the offensive language from the broadcast and launched an internal investigation into how the incident made it to air. BAFTA’s statement sought to balance empathy for Davidson’s condition with accountability for the harm caused, acknowledging the “incomparable trauma and pain” associated with the language.
Communication takeaways: For communications leaders, the episode stands as a stark reminder that pre-event planning, emergency protocols and rapid, empathetic response strategies are no longer optional—especially when disability, race, media technology and live production collide.
Bradley Akubuiro, Partner at Bully Pulpit International and a crisis expert himself, said the event “hit him personally.”
“As a Black man myself, I've spent my entire career in rooms where I was expected to absorb uncomfortable moments with grace, to prioritize everyone else's feelings before my own, and to move on quickly so the room doesn't get too awkward,” Akubuiro says. “Watching Jordan and Lindo compose themselves on that stage and just keep going is a process I recognized immediately.”
Akubuiro says BAFTA had knowledge of Davidson’s attendance and the nature of Tourette syndrome, so the organization should have anticipated a possibility that this could happen.
“Including [Davidson] was absolutely the right decision,” Akubuiro says. “But inclusion requires preparation, especially when the stakes are high. That means briefing your presenters and directly and privately, well in advance, not making a general announcement to the room minutes before the show starts.”
He also notes the importance of having a real-time response plan not just for the presenters and the room and identifying someone to take responsibility prior to any incidents.
“Someone from the organization [needs to] look the affected people in the eye and say, 'We put you in that position and we are sorry.' That didn't happen,” Akubuiro says.
He references the host’s on-air apology which included the phrase, “we apologize if you are offended,”—something that in his opinion, is a crisis communications 101 of what not to say.
"A conditional apology…doesn't reassure anyone,” he says. “It alienates them. BAFTA's written statement the following day was significantly better, more direct…accountable. But by then the initial response had already set the tone. Speed matters, but so does getting it right when you have the microphone, and the whole room is listening."
Employees Now More Trusted Than CEOs on Company Reputation
What happened: Employee voices are now one of the most powerful—and trusted—forces shaping brand reputation, according to The Harris Poll’s latest report, “From Staff to Storytellers: How employee advocacy is reshaping brands.”
The study finds that consumers increasingly view everyday employees, not executives or corporate social media accounts, as the most authentic and influential brand ambassadors. That shift has major implications for recruitment, reputation and communications and marketing strategies, as real employee stories now directly impact whether people trust, apply to or buy from a company.
At the same time, the study shows most workers remain hesitant to post about their jobs, citing personal boundaries, fear of backlash and discomfort, highlighting the delicate balance between empowerment and pressure in employee advocacy programs.
Key findings include:
- Authenticity gap: 49% of U.S. adults say posts from non-executive employees feel authentic, compared to just 12% for executives.
- Trust advantage: 78% say employee posts feel more authentic than corporate accounts, and 74% find employees more influential than traditional marketing.
- Reputation boost: 32% say posts about someone’s job improved their perception of a company or industry, compared to 19% who reported a negative impact.
- Silent majority: 64% of employed adults rarely or never post about their employer, largely due to boundary concerns, fear of risk or discomfort.
- Bottom-line impact: 74% say they’re more likely to apply to a company—and 70% more likely to buy from or support it—after seeing real employee experiences.
Communications takeaways: Latoya Welch, Harris Poll's Vice President of Research for Public Release, says leaders can pave the way for employee advocacy.
When leaders create a safe, optional environment for authentic employee storytelling, they unlock one of the most powerful and overlooked drivers of their corporate brand,” Welch says.
Jody Moore, SVP, People and Operations at Spool, agrees, saying no matter what the initiative or issue, employees need to be prioritized as a core audience.
“Too often, engaging employees is an afterthought,” Moore says. “It's nothing more than send an email, post an intranet story, and move on. But if organizations want to build real advocacy, they have to be intentional.”
Moore offers some suggestions to motivate employees including:
- Invite employees to experience new products before launch
- Involve them in focus groups
- Share campaigns internally before they go live
- When issues arise, communicate early and ensure employees have accurate information before learning about it from the media or in their social feeds
Moore says most importantly, advocacy has to be earned.
“You can’t mandate it (you don't always even have to ask for it),” she says. “The strongest employee advocacy comes from a healthy internal culture where people feel informed, valued and genuinely connected to the mission. When that foundation exists, employees want to tell the story.”
BK Changes its Whopper After 10 Years of Customer Complaints
What happened: Burger King is giving its most iconic menu item a makeover. For the first time in nearly a decade, the fast-food giant is updating the Whopper, swapping in a more premium bun, creamier mayo and paper box packaging, rather than just a wrap, designed to prevent the dreaded “smushed burger” effect.
The changes provide a small but strategic shift meant to preserve presentation and elevate overall experience—without messing with the original flame-grilled patty, toppings or core identity fans fiercely protect. Burger King says the shift stems directly from years of customer feedback, as the brand looks to win back diners while reassuring loyalists that this isn’t a reinvention, just a glow-up.
And the launch puts forth the efforts of Burger King’s leadership to get things right. Tom Curtis, president of Burger King U.S. and Canada, told the media that he gave out his phone number (it appears in a BK press release), and has taken calls from customers for almost two weeks now.
“I’ve spent four hours, six hours a day, including Saturday” on the phone, said Curtis to CNN. “There’s still instances where we let people down every single day, but we’ve got to be honest about that and hit that dead on. I want America to know that we’re doing that.”
Communication takeaways: From a communications standpoint, the rollout checks several smart boxes: listening loudly, responding visibly and keeping expectations firmly grounded. Executives even leaned into the humor. For PR teams, it’s a tasty reminder that sometimes reputation repair starts with fixing the small, everyday frustrations customers never stop talking about.
“For food and beverage brands, the lesson is clear: invite feedback early, and make it feel human,” says Daniella Alkobi, Senior Vice President, Marino.
Alkobi notes that it’s important to go beyond surveys and create channels that are conversational, visible and feel authentic, and make sure to close that feedback loop—which in this case, is an actual menu change.
“From a PR perspective, the real communications value isn’t the stunt, it’s showing how consumer input directly shaped the final product,” she says. “When brands clearly demonstrate that input is heard, prioritized and translated into decisions, it reinforces credibility and makes consumers feel like collaborators rather than critics.”
Nicole Schuman is Managing Editor at PRNEWS.