Subway's biggest mistake was selecting Jared Fogle as the company's spokesperson. Fogle, who reportedly lost a significant amount of weight eating basically nothing but Subway sandwiches, helped position the brand as a healthier option. However, in 2015, Fogle was charged with child abuse and possession of CSAM, creating a disastrous public relations nightmare for Subway.
AFP Director of Communications Gregoire Lemarchand confirmed that the photo was removed after the agency was made aware of the White House's displeasure. He insisted that the decision was based on internal editorial standards.
Giant Spoon created a campaign for the emerging electric vehicle brand Lucid that was essentially a short action film, directed by James Mangold and starring Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet.
It's human nature to want to act immediately and alleviate pressure when you find yourself in hot water. But sharing news that isn't complete yet or telling the public too much too soon can turn up the temperature even more. Avoid the need for a public retraction later by accurately, concisely and clearly communicating with your audience from the start.
For the first time, we introduced a comprehensive methodology that started with a formal submission process and included peer recognition, client surveys, employee surveys and media surveys. Survey participation was optional. Some firms felt uncomfortable asking clients for help or didn't want to burden staff. We respect that. Survey data was additive, not punitive-used when evaluating firms with comparable impact. We noted when response rates were particularly high or low, recognizing that high scores with robust participation are especially impressive.
If you want PR that actually moves the business, you need a selection process that rewards execution, and here's how you can do just that. If you are hiring PR because you want "more visibility," stop. Visibility is not the goal. The goal is trust at scale. The right PR partner earns you credibility you cannot buy with ads, and the wrong one turns your story into noise. Your job is to choose an agency that builds equity, not one that chases attention.
The tension in the boardroom is familiar. A founder scans their search results before an investor call and realizes the problem isn't visibility, it's credibility. Despite months of marketing spend, the company's public narrative feels fragmented, shallow, or worse, indistinguishable from competitors making similar claims. Down the hall, another company faces a different reality. Its leadership team enters meetings with third-party media coverage that clearly explains what they do, why it matters, and how they stand apart in a crowded market.
With community opposition growing, data center backers are going on a full-scale public relations blitz. Around Christmas in Virginia, which boasts the highest concentration of data centers in the country, one advertisement seemed to air nonstop. "Virginia's data centers are ... investing billions in clean energy," a voiceover intoned over sweeping shots of shiny solar panels. "Creating good-paying jobs" - cue men in yellow safety vests and hard hats - "and building a better energy future."
It could be seen as protesting too much, but San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and his office have produced a slick but kind of awkward video in which various city departments confirm how "ready" they are to host the Super Bowl. The video below, which was posted Monday, follows Mayor Daniel Lurie's playbook of using social media to promote what a good job he's doing and what fine, rebounding shape the city of San Francisco is in.
Selling a business doesn't make you rich, according to Rory Godson - even though he sold Powerscourt for over €50m At the end of every week, public-relations powerbroker Rory Godson sits down with a list of clients, and works out how much service his company, Powerscourt, has given them. "Typically, our clients will pay us a retainer - X pounds or euro a month," he says. "And our culture has always been that we owe them.
Start-up founders often underestimate the power of public relations, but doing so comes at a cost: at best, missed opportunities; at worst, a crisis that spirals out of control without a lifeline. PR is not a glossy "top coat" applied to a finished product or milestone. Entrepreneurs would do better to see it as a foundational tool that creates organizational wins, not just announces them.
What will be their tune this Wednesday? You've got to hand it to Sport Ireland - they say what they like, and they like what they say. Take the press release three days before Christmas, 'Sport Ireland welcomes 2025 as most successful year ever for Irish high-performance sport', when they rolled out their big hitters for a collective pat on the back.
According to an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), Portland outsourced Wikipedia edits relating to some of its high-profile clients, including the state of Qatar. TBIJ said it had evidence of alleged Wikipedia edits made on behalf of Portland between 2016 and 2024. Between 2016 and 2021, many were made by Web3 Consulting, which is run by a consultant allegedly used by Portland to make edits.
I hope you haven't been worrying too much about Kimberly Guilfoyle, whose ex-fiancé, Donald Trump Jr., recently announced that he is engaged again, to a woman he appears to have started dating before most people, possibly including Guilfoyle herself, knew his previous relationship had ended. Despite the breakup and her subsequent combination promotion-banishment, Guilfoyle is thriving in her new role as the United States ambassador to Greece.
Social media lets us reach people more directly, through Twitter and Facebook and an ever-growing array of new platforms. It used to be B2B and B2C but now it's B2P, with P being people. Social media cuts across channels and is all about engaging with individuals, holding conversations not relying on press releases and launches. There are huge opportunities there, but the 24/7 scrutiny brings new threats, too.
It was a distinctly clever, if somewhat surprising, choice from Altman who has mostly kept his personal life out of the media spotlight. But Altman is a salesman, and a good salesman understands the optics of good television. So he talked about being a dad and being worried that his son-who wasn't crawling at six months-was developing slower than other children (spoiler: he's not). "I cannot imagine having gone through, figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT," Altman told Fallon. "People did it for a long time, no problem. So clearly it was possible, but I have relied on it so much."
