While there are numerous examples of companies handling issues and crises poorly (read some of our blog posts about them here, here and here), we also like to recognize those companies that respond swiftly and appropriately to a potential PR catastrophe. Recently there have been two such instances, one involving Royal Caribbean and the other Papa John’s. Early on Memorial Day, a fire broke out on Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas...

The past several months have been trying for the $2 billion-a-year compounding pharmacy industry. First, it was a multi-state meningitis outbreak caused by contaminated steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center (NECC). The outbreak, due to unsanitary conditions at NECC, has sickened 730 people, killing more than 50 – and six months later, people continue to fall ill. Investigators examined foreign materials from unopened...

On March 9, 2013, my husband and I sailed on the Carnival Dream as we celebrated our honeymoon. We were treated to the usual cruise luxuries—hot meals, unlimited soft drinks and beautiful ocean views. Carnival treats its customers well, and we were confident that the company had learned from the Carnival Triumph engine room fire. Unfortunately, our high hopes were dashed as we found ourselves stuck in port with more than 5,000 passengers...

PR professionals will be the first to tell you: Rehearsal is the key to a successful speech or presentation. Not only are speakers that are well rehearsed more confident, but rehearsal can also help the speaker stay on message, make key points more clearly and communicate more effectively. Without practice, however, an important speaking engagement can turn into a PR disaster. Politics aside, Clint Eastwood’s 12- minute speech during...

Gauging the overall success of a public relations campaign is simple enough in hindsight, but recognizing the moment when it reaches a tipping point and the weight of public opinion shifts and congeals around a particular point of view is much harder. Managing a PR issue is usually a drawn out process, and it’s often difficult to know when a change in public opinion is occurring. Even when it’s all over, the post-mortem analysis...