A Tasty Reputation Recipe for the Cinnamon Toast Crunch Debacle
by Howard Fencl, Crisis Communications If you’re of my vintage, when you were a little kid, you couldn’t wait for mom to get home on grocery shopping day so you could tear into a new box of breakfast cereal loaded with enough sugar to make months of payments on your dentist’s vacation home for one […]
New York Gov. Cuomo is the Textbook Example of How Not to Apologize
From Lisa Leopold, writing for The Conversation… New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s two apologies for alleged sexual misconduct are straight out of a master class in how not to say you’re sorry. The governor, who had become something of a celebrity during his nationally broadcast press conferences early in the coronavirus pandemic, is now embroiled in a sexual […]
Why Oprah’s Interview with Harry and Meghan Matters
From Tom Jones, writing for Poynter… Why should we care? What’s the big deal? Don’t we have more important things to worry about than some soap opera half a world away? That was the general feeling among many following Sunday night’s Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Millions of […]
Inside the PGA Tour’s Shutdown at the 2020 Players Championship
From Ryan Lavner, writing for the Golf Channel… What they recall now, a year later, is the dizzying speed. How the novel coronavirus mushroomed from an international issue into a global pandemic. How in the span of a day, they retreated from 40,000 maskless fans to no spectators to zero tournaments – period – for […]
Beware Humor on Social Media – the Joke May Be on You and Your Reputation
By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications The funny thing about trying to be humorous on social media is that it’s too often not funny – and can be quite damaging. Exhibit 1: On March 8, Burger King United Kingdom posted this to Twitter: “Women belong in the kitchen.” On International Women’s Day. The motivation actually was […]
Is Fighting Fake Videos Mission Impossible? No, But Tom Cruise Fakes Show Online Threats Rising
By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications Deepfake videos have been making news and shaking up people who worry about truth and fact for several years now. The recent release of Tom Cruise deepfakes on Tik Tok shows the technology has reached a new, disquieting level of realism. Chris Ume, the visual effects artist behind the Cruise […]
A Peek Inside a Crisis War Room From Chicago Navy Pier’s Top Communicator
By Sophie Maerowitz, writing for PRNews… In this installment, we hear from Payal Patel, communications director at Chicago Navy Pier, who shares her approach to a crisis war room, as well as her take on PR’s role in the tourism industry’s recovery. PRN: What is your role at Navy Pier in Chicago? What are some […]
Texas Storm Communications Show Stark Messaging Contrasts
By Nicole Schuman, writing for PRNews… On top of a global pandemic and unprecedented economic downturn, Texans also had to deal with the fury of Mother Nature over the past week, when an unlikely winter storm wreaked havoc on one of the nation’s largest states. In an area not exactly used to dealing with snow, […]
Tone-Deaf or Bad Timing? Lady Gaga’s Reputation Management Nightmare
by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications “Help! I’ve been shot! I’m bleeding out of my chest!” Wednesday night on Sunset Boulevard. A man walking three French bulldogs is jumped by two creeps demanding he hand over the pricey animals. He refuses. One of the assailants blasts him in the chest with a semi-automatic weapon. Two of […]
Monumental Crisis Management FAIL: Ted Cruz’s Mexican Vacation
By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications As is now clear to the entire country, Senator Ted Cruz apparently skipped class the day they taught Crisis Management 101. As his constituents and fellow Texans faced a winter storm that may be the costliest in the state’s history, boiling snow for drinking water and burning furniture to heat […]