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Ellen’s Celebrity Defenders Aren’t Helping Her

From Spencer Kornhaber, writing in The Atlantic: Famous people want the world to know that Ellen DeGeneres is nice to famous people. Addressing media reports alleging a culture of harassment and bullying at DeGeneres’s talk show, the singer Katy Perry tweeted Tuesday that she’s “only ever had positive takeaways from my time with Ellen.” Ashton Kutcher, Kevin […]


Ellen DeGeneres — Time for a Crisis Management Lesson

From David E. Johnson, writing for CommPro: Talk show host and comedian, Ellen DeGeneres is the latest celebrity that could be cancelled.  Both she and the top management of her hit talk show, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” are under an internal investigation by the show’s distributor, Warner Brothers.   There are allegations of intimidation, sexual […]


Muddled COVID-19 Messaging: Sometimes the Data Changed; Other Times – Masks, for Example – Your Dishonesty Caught Up with You

It shouldn’t be this hard.  The rules of risk and crisis communications are fairly simple: Tell the truth. Tell it all. Tell it first. Tell it fast. If the situation – or the science – is likely to change as more research is done, warn people ahead of time.  And keep repeating that warning. So […]


The Role of the Board Chair During a Crisis

Achim Schmitt, Gilber Probst and Michael Tushman, writing for JuanRudolfo.com, offer an insightful look at nonprofit governance… Experienced chairpersons know that their success depends on how they walk the tightrope of being too involved or too remote in the company’s strategy execution. Yet when a crisis such as COVID-19 hits and the CEO transforms into […]


Are Employees’ Social Media Posts Still PR’s Problem to Solve?

From Sophie Maerowitz, writing for PRWeek: t may seem like conversations on social media couldn’t possibly get more polarized. But in the face of a pandemic and plummeting economy, during an election year no less, brands continue to find themselves caught in the middle of hot-button issues, forced to choose sides on topics previously thought […]


Land O’Lakes Isn’t Talking About Its Logo Change, and That’s a Big Mistake

From AdWeek: The decision by dairy brand Land O’Lakes to eliminate the kneeling Native American woman offering up sticks of butter on its logo marks the end of a problematic mascot with a nearly 100-year history. As of April 30, she—who, by some accounts, was named Mia—is still featured on products on the website. Land O’Lakes said […]


Newspaper Atones for Ad’s Bad Tone

From our good friend and colleague, James Haggerty and his associate, Thom Weidlich: With everything confronting newspapers these days, including a pandemic and the death of their business model, it’s notable that one — The Tennessean — could present us this week with a laudable crisis response. And this was a crisis that sprung internally, offering the […]


You Took a PPP Loan. Now Get Ready to Talk About It.

By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications EDITOR’S NOTE:  On the morning of Monday, July 6, the SBA released a database with the names and information for all entities that received a PPP loan of $150,000 or more.  You can download that list here.  At this time, it is unclear if and when the names of those […]


Crisis Comms: Saying Nothing is the Worst Strategy

From Greg Friese, writing for PoliceOne.com… t has been more than a week since mass protests and riots erupted in dozens of cities in the U.S. in response to the death of George Floyd. In the days that followed, public safety leaders expressed their grief for Floyd, condemnation of the four former officers, and discussed their […]


Food Brands Tweet #BlackLivesMatter, but What’s Behind the Words?

We remind our clients that apologies must be real, honest and authentic.  We remind our clients that “spinning” is “lying.”  And we remind our clients that if you’re going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk. From this week’s New York Times, an insightful piece by Tejal Rao… It (seems) that, to […]


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