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 […]
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 […]
KPMG’s Bill Michael Resigns After Telling Staff to ‘Stop Moaning’
Recently, we were asked to comment on the story below. Our quick analysis: it’s not like he said something accidental, or something he didn’t mean. His words clearly expressed his beliefs. And those beliefs were not consistent with the values of KPMG – and appropriate action was taken. From Mark Sweney & Joanna Partridge writing in […]
Goodell Super Bowl Pre-Game Interview Showcases PR Fundamentals
Nicole Schuman at PRNews writes: From a PR standpoint, highlights of CBS’s Super Bowl pregame show didn’t come from Miley Cyrus’s concert for essential workers or the moving piece celebrating the 30th anniversary of Whitney Houston’s performance of the national anthem. It came from a simple interview that many viewers may have missed while preparing […]
CNN Public Editor: It’s Time to End the Panel Discussion Format
From Ariana Pekary, writing for The Columbia Journalism Review: THIS MONTH WE WITNESSED A VIOLENT RAMPAGE at the US Capitol. In the middle of the insurrection, CNN decided a political panel was the best means of following the unfolding catastrophe. As members of Congress were on lockdown, Anderson Cooper held court with political analysts Rick Santorum, […]
Building Trust in a Time of Turbulence
Our country is still working to make sense of the events in Washington DC on January 6th and many organizations are wondering how to maintain business-as-usual in a world already buffeted by almost a year of Covid-related disruption and tragedy. This piece by Weber Shandwick, a global communications firm we know and respect, not only […]
National Law Review “Go To Thought Leader” Award Honoring Excellence in Legal Thought Leadership Goes to Hennes
Bruce Hennes Receives National Law Review Award Bruce Hennes, chief executive officer of Hennes Communications and a nationally known expert in crisis communications, reputation management and media engagement in crisis situations, has been named by the National Law Review as one of 2020’s “Go-To Thought Leaders” for columns he has contributed to the publication’s website, […]
Political Action Committee & Personal Political Contributions Become the Next Reputational Challenge for Businesses, Law Firms & Their Clients
By Bruce Hennes & Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications Aesop perhaps said it best: “You are known by the company you keep.” It appears many organizations are learning the true meaning of that phrase in the wake of the Republican vote against certification of the Electoral College results and the January 6 U.S. Capitol riots. In […]
Crisis Management Lessons Learned From the 2020 Political Scene That Can Apply To Any Organization
Arthur Solomon, a former journalist, was a senior VP/senior counselor at Burson-Marsteller. In the past, we’ve found him to be an astute observer of the scene. Here, he offers advice aimed at public relations firms, but also applicable to any professional service firm, nonprofit, government agency or company. Of course, Art’s opinions, written for CommPro, […]