Crisis communications

What we can learn from Burger King’s latest PR error

Veganism has become an increasingly popular movement over the past few years, and clearly where there’s tofu, there’s gold, with £740m sales of meat-free food in 2018. The latest brand to try to tempt the green market (which has grown fourfold in the past four years, according to the Vegan Society)...


Are you prepared for when a PR crisis hits?

Many people in the legal community were shocked to learn of a major fire at the Law Society that started Saturday evening and in to Sunday. Thankfully no one was hurt, and the Society’s main building seems largely untouched. But staff have still lost space, work and, of course, personal...


The biggest PR disasters of 2019

It’s been a big year for people and companies putting their foot in it, but which PR mistakes have been a meme-seeker's triumph, and which have been enough to sink a career?

How not to give an interview

If you’d told us a year ago that one of 2019’s biggest TV moments...


An express lesson in how to mop up a PR disaster

Many years ago I applied to be a press officer for Prince Charles. I didn't get it and instead went on a journey to protect the reputations of the legal sector. So when the ginormous PR disaster of epic proportions unfolded recently starring Prince Andrew vs Emily Maitlis I felt...


Does sorry need to be the hardest word in PR?

Sorry-not-sorry. It’s such a cliché – we make fun of it. No one likes to mess up, and we strive to avoid it. But social media has an immediacy that is part of its power – consider all the angles, ponder the wisdom of a post, and you might miss...


Five ways to prepare for a crisis before it happens

Suppose you get a call at 11 o’clock at night from an employee alerting you to a social media disaster that’s taken off on your company’s Twitter account. Screenshots of the tweet have now gone viral and the prestige reputation you’ve spent years building, has now gone up in flames, all...


Sainsbury’s song and dance mistake

Who doesn’t like a show? I’ve a strong suspicion that Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe does, and has seen the acclaimed London production of the musical 42nd Street, providing him with the tune he now regrets humming when he thought he was not being filmed, ‘We’re in the money!’, in between...


Thameslink’s first-class fail

Humour on social media can be a high-risk, high-stakes thing. This is nowhere clearer than in the now-famous Twitter spat between Thameslink and Poundland. Thameslink’s woes stem from the introduction of a new timetable. If you want to know how that’s going, go to National Rail Enquiries’ ‘Live Departure Boards’ page,...


Giving to charity won’t wash the moral taint off a sleazy event

It's been a tough week for men who attended the Presidents Club fundraising dinner 2018. One moment they were drinking champagne with their mates and perhaps allegedly trying to cop a feel of a ‘host’ who’s young enough to be their daughter while bidding for lunch with Boris Johnson –...


How to avoid being part of a social media horror story

Halloween divides the population. There’s the group who live for it: loving the excuse to dress up, spending hours or even days preparing for their big night. There’s the half-hearted: a ripped Primark t-shirt and a dousing of fake blood and they’re away – they look ridiculous but they don’t...