• Members of Telluride‘s ski patrol agreed to a new contract with the resort, ending a contentious two-week strike that divided the town. Locals feared the ongoing strike would cripple the town’s economy if it continued.
• The U.S. House of Representatives failed to override President Donald Trump‘s veto of a water pipeline that would have brought clean water to heavily Republican southeastern Colorado. The override vote needed the support of two-thirds of House members, but only received 58% of votes.
• Tony Dokoupil‘s first week as anchor of the CBS Evening News has been a bit of a train wreck, and someone was going to pay the price. That person is Javier Guzman, the show’s No. 2 producer, who was fired after Wednesday’s show.
• The National Rifle Association has filed suit against its own charitable arm, alleging that the NRA Foundation is unfairly using the NRA brand to attract a rival donor base and undercut it.
• NASA announced it will bring four astronauts home from the International Space Station a month early due to a medical emergency. The agency did not disclose additional details, citing medical privacy concerns
• The Corporation for Public Broadcasting that has funded NPR, PBS and local radio and TV stations across the country for more than 50 years will shut down after Congress zeroed out its federal grants.
• “High School Musical” actress Ashley Tisdale has gone to war with what she says are toxic members of her moms group, which include other quasi-celebrities such as actress Hilary Duff and singer Meghan Trainor.
• American Chloe Kim, a two-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder, dislocated her shoulder while training and may miss next month’s Winter Olympics.
• Denver Fire officials have called in the ATF to help investigate the five-alarm fire that burned a 283-unit apartment building set to open in May. How big was the fire? Approximately 18 million gallons of water were used fighting it.
• The Miami Dolphins fired head coach and Smoky Hill High School alumnus Mike McDaniel.
• Class-action attorneys have filed suit against McDonald’s alleging that the restaurant’s McRib sandwich doesn’t actually contain pork rib meat. The attorneys claim it does include pork shoulder, heart, stomach and tripe. Mmmm.
• More than a dozen Denver-area gas stations sold gas that was contaminated with diesel, causing vehicles to stop working shortly after driving off.
• Actor Mickey Rourke says he is embarrassed by a GoFundMe that has raised more than $100,000 for him after media reported that he was facing eviction from his home. He wants people who contributed to get their money back.
• Elon Musk‘s Grok has responded to complaints about the chatbot being used to create sexualized images of people without their consent by limiting that capability to paying users, a move critics say allows Musk to profit off the issue without actually solving it.

Who won the week?

• Linhart PR promoted Shannon Mueller and Libby Pinkerton to Account Director positions, and Sarah Marconi to Account Executive.
• Athena Health named Ashley Jensen Vice President of Integrated Communications.
• The Denver Broncos earned the No. 1 AFC seed in the NFL playoffs, and, with that, a bye this weekend.
• Denver‘s homicide rate fell nearly 50% in 2025 to an 11-year low.

Dawn Doty, who most of us know from her 13 years at Linhart PR followed by her decade as a PR professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, passed away Friday. She was 61. Dawn was passionate about helping people, and her expertise and demeanor made her a perfect professor for emerging public relations professionals. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the University of Colorado Boulder chapter of PRSSA.

Stacey Sepp, the co-founder of Xstatic Public Relations and a beloved member of Denver‘s PR community, passed away at the age of 48. Sepp had previously fought advanced melanoma, and that experience turned her into a passionate advocate for funding and research to explore treatments or potentially cures for the disease. Donations in Stacey’s memory may be made to the Melanoma Research Foundation or the National Alliance on Mental Illness Colorado.

If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that reputations don’t usually collapse in a single moment — they erode through bad judgment, weak governance, tone-deaf leadership and an inability to read the room. This year’s most consequential public relations disasters didn’t just dominate headlines; they became cautionary tales studied in real time by crisis communicators, journalists and executives.

From storied institutions that couldn’t stop stepping on rakes, to public officials undone by vanity projects, to once-untouchable brands and leaders discovering that cultural backlash moves faster than any crisis response team, these episodes share a common thread: preventable mistakes compounded by poor communication. In several cases, the original problem wasn’t even the biggest issue — it was how leaders responded when scrutiny arrived.

The list below spans college athletics, utilities, federal agencies, professional sports, government, corporate America and pop-culture moments that exploded into full-scale crises seemingly overnight. Together, they offer a sobering snapshot of how quickly credibility can evaporate — and how unforgiving the public can be when accountability, transparency and humility are nowhere to be found.

Now, onto the list:

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN FOOTBALL PROGRAM

Just when you think the University of Michigan football program has hit rock-bottom, they keep digging. In the past few years, the program fired assistant coach Matt Weiss after he was found to be hacking into female students’ social media accounts to steal private photos of them, fired assistant coach Connor Stallions for leading a sign-stealing campaign against opponents that violated NCAA rules, suspended then-head coach Jim Harbaugh for several games over recruiting violations, received four years of probation and millions of dollars in fines over the aforementioned sign-stealing scandal, and watched Harbaugh leave for the NFL as the NCAA punished him with a 10-year show cause penalty that would prevent him from coaching in college.

As terrible as all of that is, the university hit yet-another rock bottom when they abruptly fired head coach Sherrone Moore this month for having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. That relationship came to light when she tried to break it off, and he allegedly broke into her home and threatened to kill himself in front of her. Moore was the offensive coordinator at Michigan when the sign-stealing campaign happened, and he didn’t even last long enough as the head coach to finish serving his suspensions for that scandal. He was set to miss the first game of next season as part of his punishment.

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COLORADO GOV. JARED POLIS

The best elected officials have the ability to bring the community together, and that is exactly what Gov. Jared Polis did this year. Unfortunately for him, that unity stemmed from near-universal opposition to his proposed legacy project – a winding, $29 million pedestrian bridge originally intended to connect the State Capitol to the City of Denver‘s Civic Center Park. When city officials balked, Gov. Polis’ team adjusted the termination point of the bridge from Civic Center Park to the state-owned Lincoln Veteran’s Park.

Public opposition to the bridge’s cost and overly elaborate design – perhaps most notably from 9News‘ Kyle Clark – became overwhelming and Polis tried to find a graceful exit. He announced that he would launch a public opinion poll to solicit feedback on whether to move forward, and 94% voted against the bridge. Gov. Polis then announced, “If needed, I will chain myself to the Capitol plaza to prevent it from being built,” as though he wasn’t the singular driving force behind the project.

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BILL BELICHICK

As the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick was the man Denver Broncos fans loved to hate. Now, most of us just feel sorry for him. Well, some of us. Once viewed as the greatest coach in NFL history, Belichick’s Patriots team posted four losing seasons after star quarterback Tom Brady left. Fired by the Patriots, Belichick was unable to secure another NFL job and instead took the head coach position at the University of North Carolina.

The then-71-year-old also started dating a then-22-year-old, Jordon Hudson, who became a controlling figure in his life. Belichick had always been known for his autocratic style as a coach, so it was stunning to see a controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Belichick that featured his young girlfriend visibly interrupting and managing the interview on his behalf. The footage raised concerns about Belichick’s judgment and even his competence. 

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XCEL ENERGY

Xcel Energy‘s crisis response team is certainly well-tested, with the regular reliability and rate battles it fights with the Colorado PUC. But this year, the company layered several new challenges to its garden-variety crises. Xcel is the regulated monopoly that serves Denver, a designation that expires in 2026, and it must receive voter approval for it to continue. Unfortunately for Xcel, the Denver City Council refused to send an extension measure to the ballot, citing the need for reliability improvements and stronger accountability first.

As bad as that was, Xcel also agreed to pay $640 million to settle lawsuits associated with the Marshall Fire in Boulder County that caused an estimated $1.7 billion in damages. There were at least three reasonable theories for how the fire started, and only one involved Xcel – that high winds caused a fallen Xcel transmission line to spark the fire. Nevertheless, Xcel was willing to pay $640 million to avoid the uncertainty of a jury trial.

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CRACKER BARREL

Nothing is less fun than being a political football in today’s culture wars, a fact with which Cracker Barrel would no doubt agree. The company hired a new CEO whose directive was to grow the restaurant’s revenues that had stagnated, and the company sought to introduce a new brand and image that would attract younger and more urban customers. That move – which included a new logo that dropped the image of a man in overalls and new, more modern interiors – provoked a backlash from long-time customers who liked the restaurant the way it was.

Appealing to new customers without alienating old customers is challenging enough, but many of the company’s conservative customers described the redesign as “woke,” a term that quickly attracted right-wing media and political attention. Even President Donald Trump weighed in on social media, urging Cracker Barrel to “go back to the old logo” and “admit a mistake.” The company ultimately abandoned the new logo, but its stock has plunged more than 60% (from $72 to $27) in the past five months.

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THE ‘COLDPLAY COUPLE’

At a Coldplay concert this summer, the “kiss cam” captured what appeared to be an intimate moment between two audience members. When the camera lingered, the woman recoiled and the man ducked out of view. Lead singer Chris Martin joked, “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.” The clip went viral, and internet sleuths quickly identified the couple as a company named Astronomer’s CEO and Chief People Officer — both married to other people. Astronomer placed both executives on leave and later accepted their resignations.

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COLORADO ROCKIES

The Colorado Rockies have desensitized us to how anemic the team’s performance is year after year, but 2025 set a new low for the franchise. The team opened the season with an 8–42 record, the worst 50-game start in Major League Baseball in more than a century, and they finished the season at 43–119, which was their third straight season losing 100+ games. The season was so bad that the owners, the Monfort family, finally were motivated to fire the team’s GM and clean house.

Who would want the job? Plenty of people, according to The Wall Street Journal, which described the Rockies’ GM role “as the sport’s ultimate sadistic challenge.” Said the WSJ: “Their major-league roster is a disaster. The farm system is in shambles. They are notoriously slow to evolve and sit years behind their rivals. Oh, and they also happen to play their home games in an environment that is fundamentally incompatible with playing the sport of baseball.” Rockies fever – catch it!

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TYLENOL

Tylenol is no stranger to crisis communications, and its stunningly successful response to the 1982 Tylenol cyanide poisonings is still taught in college crisis communications classes today. The ubiquitous tamper-proof seals on nearly all medication today were introduced by Tylenol in response to the poisonings. Forty years later, though, it would be a different PR crisis that the company would have to manage.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump held a press conference and claimed that the active ingredient in Tylenol – acetaminophen – could cause autism if used by pregnant women. The science does not come close to supporting that claim, but media coverage was overwhelming. It immediately turned Tylenol into a MAGA/MAHA political issue. Adding insult to injury, it took President Trump three attempts to correctly pronounce “acetaminophen” during his televised press conference, even with whispered coaching from his subordinates standing behind him.

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THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA)

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) endured one of the most tumultuous years in its history. In January, 67 people died when an American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter near Reagan National Airport, and investigators blamed FAA understaffing and communication breakdowns for the tragedy. Then, in June, the FAA restricted flights at Newark International Airport – the take-off point for as many as two-thirds of United Airlines‘ European flights – due to a severe shortage of air traffic controllers and failing, outdated electronic equipment.

Things really came to a head this fall during the U.S. government shut down. Already overworked and now unpaid air traffic controllers began calling in sick, creating nationwide delays. The FAA was forced to respond by cutting 10% of flights at 40 major U.S. airports to ease severe air traffic controller staffing shortages and fatigue.

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MEDIA CAPITULATIONS

In 2025, several major broadcast networks demonstrated that principle often bends under financial pressure. CBS, ABC and others chose to resolve disputes with President Donald Trump not through prolonged legal fights or unwavering editorial defense, but through financial settlements and accommodations that made clear business sense. Faced with the prospect of costly litigation, regulatory retaliation and sustained public attacks, media executives opted for balance-sheet certainty.

From a corporate standpoint, the decisions were rational: limit exposure, protect shareholder value and move on. The damage, however, was reputational. By treating journalistic conflict as a line-item expense to be managed rather than a standard to be defended, these networks reinforced President Trump’s long-held belief that institutions will fold if the price of resistance is high enough. The settlements may have been financially smart, but they sent an unmistakable signal — that enough pressure, applied relentlessly, can turn even the largest media organizations into willing negotiators.

• iHeartMedia is going through another round of mass layoffs, and KOA NewsRadio morning host Marty Lenz was among those let go.
• Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems has been sold to Scott Leiendecker, a former Republican elections official who has renamed the company Liberty Vote. The new company has promised “to engage in a ;top-down’ review of Dominion’s equipment ahead of next year’s midterm elections, and that it would ‘rebuild or retire’ machines as needed.”
• Former NFL quarterback and current Fox Sports NFL analyst Mark Sanchez managed to both get himself hospitalized with stab wounds and be the one charged with felony assault. The 38-year-old Sanchez was allegedly drunk when he attacked a 69-year-old delivery truck driver, who in turn pulled a knife.
• People are using AI to “revive” beloved-but-deceased celebrities, and the late comedian Robin Williams‘ daughter is begging people to stop doing it.
• James Bond fans are not amused by Amazon‘s Photoshopping of classic promotional artwork now that it owns the Bond franchise due to its purchase of MGM. Artwork on Prime for “Dr. No,” “GoldenEye” and “Casino Royale” featured new images of Bond with guns Photoshopped out. After an outcry from fans, Amazon reverted back to the original images.
• The Denver Board of Ethics cleared DIA CEO Phil Washington over concerns about nine highly expensive plane tickets he and his staff purchased for a conference in Spain, but they still managed to get their kicks in. The board announced they were “appalled” by the purchase and were concerned by Washington’s “seemingly cavalier attitude in responding to (the) complaint,” but that no ethical violation had occurred.
• Some 350 hikers were rescued and 200 remained stranded on Mount Everest following a weekend of heavy snowfall. Most of those stranded were “tourist” climbers at elevations closer to 16,000 feet than the summit, which is 29,000 feet.
• Four journalists resigned from three newspapers in Alaska after their corporate owner made significant edits to an article about Charlie Kirk’s death, “appearing to yield to pressure from a Republican state lawmaker who had criticized the coverage.”
• University of Colorado had football coach Deion Sanders underwent surgery to address blood clots.
• The U.S. government shutdown is causing flight delays at airports across the country as air traffic controllers who are not getting paid are calling in sick.
• The estate of the late PBS painting instructor Bob Ross will sell 30 of his paintings to help raise funds for PBS stations suffering from federal budget cuts.
• Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the Loyola basketball superfan, good-luck charm and team chaplain who became an NCAA basketball tournament staple, died. She was 106.

Who won the week?

• President Donald Trump brokered a peace deal between Israel and Hamas that will see the return of hostages taken by Hamas two years ago.
• Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Machado, who has been in hiding since last year’s Venezuelan presidential election, was recognized for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela” and “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
• WNBA star Angel Reese will make history as the first athlete to walk in a Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
• If you’re a fan of exotic foreign foods when you travel, good news! DIA has added a Taco Bell.

Join me for an interactive media and PR event unlike any other. Sixteen of the past year’s most talked-about crises will go head-to-head in a March Madness–style bracket. A panel of journalists and communications experts will break down each matchup and attendees will then vote to decide which PR disaster advances to the next round. By the end, we’ll crown the “champion” of PR disasters.

Details:
2:00 – 3:30 pm
Wednesday, Oct. 22
Auraria Campus; St. Catejan’s
101 Lawrence Way, Denver CO 80204

Space is limited. Please RSVP by Friday, Oct. 17.

• The Big 12 publicly reprimanded and fined the University of Colorado $50,000 for a derogatory chant – “F— the Mormons” – from Buffaloes fans that targeted BYU during last weekend’s football game. Colorado coach Deion Sanders also apologized on behalf of the athletic department.
• How badly behaved were the American fans at this year’s Ryder Cup golf tournament? Legendary golfer and two-time U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson apologized to the winning European team, saying, “As a former player, Captain and as an American, I am ashamed of what happened” when drunken fans lobbed profanities and insults – and a few beers – at the European competitors.
  • The PGA, which hosted the tournament, had helped incite the fan behavior and then denied that it was excessive. After Tom Watson‘s apology, PGA officials finally realized they couldn’t gaslight the public any longer, and PGA President Don Rea Jr. issued his own apology to the European golfers.
• The Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced it is reopening the investigation into the 2005 death of gonzo journalist and author Hunter Thompson at his Aspen-area home, 20 years after local authorities originally ruled it a suicide. CBI investigators acknowledge there is no new evidence.
• WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert appears to have the support of no one at the moment – not fans, not players and not owners – and reports are that she has already agreed to resign once a new collective bargaining agreement is reached with players. We’ll see if she lasts that long.
• A tow truck driver who stole nearly 50 cars across the Denver area and sold them to salvage yards was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
• Netflix is facing calls for a boycott from Elon Musk, who is not happy it offers the animated show “Dead End: Paranormal Park” that features two transgender characters.
• The internecine battle between the Brinkerhoffs, owners of La Loma restaurants, seemed to come to an end several weeks ago, only to flare up again after yet another lawsuit has been filed.
• Members of the Trump administration lost their minds when the NFL announced that Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny would perform at the halftime of the Super Bowl. Corey Lewandowski, chief adviser to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, announced that ICE would have a presence at the Super Bowl, because we all know that Home Depot parking lots, restaurant kitchens and Super Bowls are where people here without authorization often congregate.
• Disability advocates are blasting RTD board members for their decision to begin charging for its “Access-on-Demand” service that covered the cost of ride-share services for disabled passengers. The program costs RTD $17 million annually, which is approximately 1.42% of the transit system’s budget.
• Congratulations to FIFA for finding innovative new ways to price gouge. Most sports leagues would be content to just jack up the face value of tickets to events like the soccer World Cup, but FIFA has introduced a new wrinkle: in addition to jacking up the face value of tickets, it will charge both sellers and buyers a 15% fee for tickets on its official ticket resale platform. Tickets are already listed for tens of thousands of dollars, and some are more than 10 times higher than their face value.
• ESPN had an awkward moment this week when two of its playoff baseball announcers promoted the NHL’s season opening slate of games that will be carried by ESPN. After the first announcer shared the NHL games that will be shown, the second announcer, not a hockey fan, dryly shared, “There is zero chance I’ll be watching; I’m just gonna be honest with you.”
• A Gallup poll finds that the advertising and PR community is viewed favorably by only 29% of the public, ahead of only the pharmaceutical industry and the federal government. Perhaps even worse, the airline industry is viewed more favorable than us.

Who won the week?

• Pax8 named Tom Gavin as Chief Marketing & Communications Officer. He formerly was with Salesforce, Coupa, Workato and the ONE Campaign.
• The addition of Chef Hosea Rosenberg’s Santo restaurant at DIA makes it the only airport in the world with three Michelin-listed restaurants under one roof, joining Mister Oso and Mercantile Dining & Provision. Katie Shapiro has the details.
• Reporters normally hate to be part of a story, but the Clear Creek Sheriff’s Office is crediting reporters with CBS4 and Fox31 for recognizing and reporting an armed burglary suspect who was in the background of their live morning shots from Clear Creek County.
• Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokić didn’t agree to a contract extension this summer, which caused some concern about his long-term future. But Jokić told reporters this week that his “plan is to be a Nugget forever.”

• We are eight months into the new administration, and we have entered uncharted territory, at least for modern times. President Donald Trump coerced ABC and its affiliate stations into suspending the late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!“ after he and his followers objected to a joke Kimmel told related to the assassination of MAGA activist Charlie Kirk. Nexstar, which owns 32 ABC affiliates as well as the Fox affiliate in Denver, applied pressure to ABC by saying it would not air Kimmel’ show on its stations, a fairly transparent effort to curry favor with the Trump administration as it seeks federal regulatory approval of its acquisition of Tegna (owner of 9News).
  • President Trump later said that the federal government might revoke the licenses of broadcast television networks that he feels are “against” him.
  • Meanwhile, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr suggested that ABC‘s morning show “The View” would be the administration’s next target.
• If you drive in Denver, you should be aware that part of Mayor Mike Johnston‘s plan to solve the city’s budget crisis is to issue more photo radar tickets.
• The record label for recording artist D4vd is refusing to promote his new album after the body of a 15-year-old girl was found in the trunk of a Tesla registered to him that had been towed. Police are continuing to investigate the situation, and no arrests have been made.
• Axios Denver disclosed it has only 600 paying members, and it has launched a campaign to grow that to 1,000. For context, The Colorado Sun has more than 15,000 members. You can become a member of Axios Denver here, and a member of The Colorado Sun here.
• Country music singer Zach Bryan didn’t appreciate that fellow country musician Gavin Adcock called him not “that great of a person,” so much so that Bryan scaled a security fence at a festival where they were both performing in an attempt to confront Adcock while screaming, “If they open up this f***ing gate, I’ll f***ing kill you.” I’m thinking Adcock may have won this debate.
• Winners of Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes are learning the hard way that nothing is forever, not even “Forever” prizes that guaranteed $5,000 per week for life. The company filed for bankruptcy, and winners are no longer receiving their prize money, forcing many who stopped working decades ago to scramble to find jobs to pay their bills.
• A poorly designed cooling fan is causing some $100,000+ Corvettes to burst into flames while their owners are refueling them at gas stations. GM went straight to the “Cliche Messaging” section of its crisis response manual, telling The Wall Street Journal, “The safety of our customers is the highest priority for the entire GM team…”.
• Corey Hutchins‘ “Inside the News in Colorado” newsletter uncovered perhaps the most apt comparison for the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and it has a local connection – the 1984 murder of Denver talk radio host Alan Berg by white supremacists.
• Los Angeles Clippers owner and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says he and his team were “duped” into investing more than a $100 million into a now-bankrupt company that allegedly offered a no-show endorsement deal to Clippers star Kawhi Leonard. Critics argue that the Clippers knowingly were channeling additional salary that would otherwise be subject to an NBA tax to Leonard through the endorsement scheme.
• Casa Bonita employees represented by the Actors’ Equity Association – namely costumed characters such as “Black Bart” and “the Sheriff” who roam the restaurant – have filed an unfair labor practice charge against the restaurant because of its plans to sit them down for the month of October to let patrons dress up to celebrate Halloween.

Who won the week?

• GFM|CenterTable promoted Liz Soby to Director of Operations and Client Service.
• Linhart PR promoted Kelly Brown to Senior Account Director.
• Despite economic concerns, a Page Navigator Benchmarking Report found that 81% of respondents said their communications budgets have held steady or increased over the past two years.
• Three Denver restaurants – Kizaki, Margot’s and Mezcaleria Alma – earned their first Michelin stars – and one – Wolf’s Tailor – became the first two-star restaurant in the state.

• Ogilvy is laying off 700 employees, or about 5% of its workforce, and shuttering its DEI division. Meanwhile, We. Communications is laying off 2% of its staff globally.
• CBS parent company Paramount has agreed to pay $16 million to President Donald Trump to settle his lawsuit against “60 Minutes.” Experts were certain Paramount would prevail in the suit, but noted that Paramount needs governmental approval for its plan to sell itself to Hollywood studio Skydance.
• It was a tough week for Colorado board members:
  • The University of Colorado Board of Regents voted 7-1 to censure fellow member Wanda James for publicly and repeatedly attacking the credibility of the University of Colorado School of Medicine that she represents.
  • The RTD board chair has stripped Director JoyAnn Ruscha of a committee chair position and travel expenses this year after determining Ruscha was “unprofessional and demanding ” to RTD staff members,
• Prada is dealing with a problem in India. The fashion house either was “inspired by” or “culturally misappropriated” the Kolhapuri chappal-like sandal that it featured in a Milan fashion show. Indian social media exploded with protests, and Prada quickly apologized. It added that it is “opening a dialogue for a meaningful exchange with local Indian artisan communities.”
• The attorney representing an Aurora dentist accused of murdering his wife has withdrawn from the case a week before trial because the attorney was arrested for arson related to a fire at his own home.
• Carnival Cruise Lines can’t be happy about a new Netflix documentary that revisits its infamous 2013 “poop cruise” when a catastrophic power outage created “postapocalyptic scenes of passengers sleeping on pool decks, hoarding food and collecting biohazard bags to relieve themselves.” Happy cruising!
• The Denver City Auditor‘s office apparently has a new tagline for 2026 – “We’re tired. You do it.” Having attended about as many community meetings as they want, this year they have instituted a social media hashtag – #AuditDenver2026 – so that members of the community can suggest what gets audited.
• Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in jail pending sentencing after he was convicted of transporting prostitutes. Combs was found not guilty on more serious charges, but he also faces more than 50 civil lawsuits.
• The Denver Animal Shelter has been forced to increase its weekend adoption hours because it has been inundated with animals turned over to it.
• The Trump administration is withholding about $7 billion in K-12 funding nationally that includes about $70 million to Colorado schools. The administration says it wants to review whether the funding, which has been approved by Congress, will be spent according to the president’s priorities.
• Amazon will soon have more robots than people working in its warehouses. If you are an Amazon investor, you can mentally move this one to the “Who Won the Week” section.
• The Glastonbury Music Festival in England went sideways quickly when two performers – Bob Vylan and Kneecap – shared anti-Israel comments from the stage. Government officials threatened criminal investigations and the department that regulates broadcasters demanded to know why the BBC aired the comments while live streaming the event.
• The Wimbledon tennis tournament has experienced both its hottest opening ever and the largest number of seeded players eliminated in the first couple of rounds.

Who won the week?

• America celebrates our 249th birthday today. We have survived a civil war, a depression, two world wars, a Cold War, two pandemics, slavery, internment and the Cuban Missile Crisis over the course of those years. Here’s hoping we make it another 249 years.
• Former New York Mets star Bobby Bonilla received his annual $1.2 million payment from the team this week despite having retired in 2001. How did he manage that? In 2000, the Mets wanted to buy out the remaining $6 million on his contract, but instead of paying him that amount, they agreed to make annual payments of $1.2 million for 25 years starting in 2011. At the time, that seemed like the smart financial decision for the Mets because – and I’m not making this up – their investments in a Bernie Madoff fund were returning such strong results.
• George Constanza bobbleheads that will be given away to attendees of a New York Yankees game in August are pre-selling on eBay for five times the cost of tickets to the actual game.

• Boulder‘s Comprise PR has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a move that CEO Doyle Albee says will allow him to “right-size things.” Said Albee, “We’ve had plenty of work, we just haven’t been paid for all of it. I absorbed 30% to 35% of my billings last year. Three clients went bankrupt (and others) just have some payment issues. It was just a gut punch that we just couldn’t economically recover from.”
• One of The Washington Post‘s most respected columnists, Ruth Marcus, resigned abruptly after the newspaper’s publisher spiked a column she wrote that was critical of the editorial section’s new direction.
• The town of Amagansett in the Hamptons has now spent tens of thousands of dollars – $24,800 alone to an arbitrator – in an attempt to determine who stole a $25 gift card from a local elementary school. After 1,400 pages in testimony from more than a dozen witnesses, they still have no idea who took the gift card.
• Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred has been accused of using high-pressure tactics … on her own clients. “Allred consoles women on camera, (but) in private she scolds and intimidates them and threatens to drop them as clients if they disobey her,” some clients say. She reportedly told one client who was experiencing a panic attack, ““How old are you? Get a hold of yourself.”
• Meta has secured a ruling that prevents a former Facebook employee from promoting her book that alleges that CEO Mark Zuckerberg misled investors and American regulators, and that Meta’s chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan sexually harassed her. The ruling didn’t address the veracity of the allegations; it just determined that they likely violated a non-disparagement agreement.
• Pro tip: The best way to ward off evil spirits on your airline flight? Start swallowing rosary beads. They’ll turn the plane around, but I guarantee you won’t become possessed.
• Major League Baseball introduced a new series of “Overlap” hats, and almost immediately removed three of them due to … questionable content? The design of the hats overlayed the team logo – usually a stylized letter – on top of the team name. Unfortunately, the result for several teams was not exactly what was intended. The Texas Rangers‘ version spelled “TeTas” (a vulgarity in Spanish), the Houston Astros‘ spelled “AsHos” and the Anaheim Angels‘ spelled “AnAels.” The now-withdrawn hats are selling for as much as $1,000 on eBay.
• Fifteen-time golf major champion Tiger Woods ruptured his Achilles tendon while working out preparing for the 2025 Masters tournament.
• The owner of the Denver Pavilions says the property is “in a tenuous situation” due to an $85 million loan that must be paid off in the next three months. Current tenants include H&M, Lucky Strike and Regal Cinemas, but other tenants who have left recently include Sephora, Hard Rock Cafe and Banana Republic.
• The stock market has dipped into what economists call a “correction,” falling more than 10% in less than a month.
• An American Airlines flight was able to make an emergency landing at DIA minutes before one of its engines caught fire. Videos posted to social media showed many of the passengers evacuating onto the wings of the plane, which is what the engines are attached to, so someone may want to look into that.
• The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs showed up on the Trump Administration‘s list of more than 50 universities it is investigating for DEI-related “racial discrimination.” I imagine the UCCS spokesperson’s first response was, “I think they spelled Boulder wrong.”
• Meanwhile, University of Colorado regent Wanda James is disputing allegations that she inappropriately used her public position to benefit the marijuana dispensary she owns.

Who won the week?

• Children’s Hospital Colorado promoted Rachael Fowler to media relations strategist.
• Former CBS4 sports reporter Marcia Neville was the first woman in the state to hold that position when she started in 1983. She just received the Dorothy Mauk Pioneer Award this week for her work increasing coverage of girls and women’s sports. The award is named after Denver Post reporter Dorothy Mauk, the first full-time woman sportswriter at a major U.S. daily newspaper.
• Aurora Quest K-8 student Vedanth Raju won both Denver’s regional science fair and the Colorado state spelling bee in a six-day span this past week. Someone should start a GoFundMe to send that kid to South Padre for spring break.
• Apple announced that it has green-lighted a fourth season of “Ted Lasso.”

• Last year was not great for global PR firms. Edelman reported a 5% drop in 2024 revenue while WPP fell 1.7%. “It was a challenging year for PR, but also for the entire communications sector,” said Edelman CEO Richard Edelman.
• Denver Broncos outside linebackers coach Michael Wilhoite was arrested on felony assault charges after allegedly punching a police officer in the face in a disagreement about his unattended vehicle at DIA.
• Computer and printer company HP has been caught trying to force customers to use its online support channels by setting a minimum 15-minute wait time for anyone phoning its call center. The wait applies even if representatives are available to talk with customers.
• Bowers & Wilkins sound systems are options in a number of higher-end cars ranging from Aston Martin to McLaren to BMW. Volvo even offers it as an option, but some buyers in China were surprised to find that their brand new Volvos featured knock-off “Bovvers & VVilkins” sound systems. Volvo has launched an investigation into the dealers.
• The Westernaires, the Golden-based organization that features youth horseback riders who perform tricks, is rolling like it’s still the 1990s. The organization has refused repeated requests to stop dressing up “non-Native riders in Indigenous-inspired clothing to perform sacred Native American dances and reenact Custer’s Last Stand.”
• A Buffalo Sabres announcer stationed next to the ice between the team benches dropped an “Ah, f—!” live on air after he was hit in the forehead by an errant puck. Don’t know if there is an FCC exemption for that, but there should be.
• It was a tough week for property developers with Denver connections. Brad Eide, a developer with Elevate Cos., was allegedly body slammed by Nick Steitz, a former NFL lineman-turned-CBRE-real estate broker, at a golf outing in Lakewood. Meanwhile, The Denver Post reported that former Colorado real estate developer Boris Mannsfeld “was found face down in a pool of blood … at his Belize luxury development project…. Police told local reporters that Mannsfeld died from a gunshot to the back of his neck.”
• The NBA playoffs are still almost two months away, but a time-tested rule of thumb says only one of three teams is likely to win the championship: the Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers. The Denver Nuggets did not meet the “40-20 rule” by winning 40 games before they lost 20, a litmus test that 90% of NBA winners achieve.
• If you are looking for real-estate bargains, good news! The asking price for a Palace of Versailles-like castle in Evergreen was reduced by $10 million. You can now have it for a mere $50 million.
• Hundreds of NOAA and National Weather Service employees were laid off this week, potentially threatening the flow of information that local meteorologists use to create accurate forecasts.
• At one time, Skype was king of the video chat services, but then the pandemic hit and Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, Webex and Google Meet, among others, took off. Skype announced this week it is shutting down.
• Two strip clubs – Diamond Cabaret and Rick’s Cabaret – have been ordered by the Denver auditor to pay nearly $14 million in back pay and penalties to dancers and other workers. Expect them to pay all $14 million in one-dollar bills.
• You may have had a bad week, but it could have been worse – you could be the family of a two-year-old who was mistakenly named “Unakite Thirteen Hotel.”

Who won the week?

• Kristy Bassuener is the new Vice President of Communications and Outreach at the Rose Community Foundation.
• Former 9News and MSNBC producer Kerry Leary has joined Be Clear Communications as a senior associate.
• My GFM|CenterTable colleague Carissa McCabe has joined the board of Project Angel Heart.
• Vail native Mikaela Shiffrin won her 100th World Cup race, a quest that had been sidelined by injuries she suffered in a crash in November.
• “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt announced he will step down from that position after a decade. He said he will remain with the network and continue to host “Dateline.”

• If you own real estate in Aspen – and I assume the demographics of Denver PR Blog readers are such that you do – there’s good news: three of the 10 most expensive home sales in the country last year occurred there. If you haven’t already bought your chalet, well, tough break. I hear good things about Meeker if you are looking for the next hot market.
• Some of the best baseball players in the world have what is known as a meth-chic look – long stringy hair, disheveled beards, etc. In related news, the New York Yankees, a team that hasn’t won a World Series in 15 years, has changed their policy and will now allow players to have beards for the first time in five decades.
• The right-leaning New York Post reports that President Donald Trump ordered the iconic Resolute Desk removed from the Oval Office for a deep cleaning after Elon Musk‘s son wiped a booger on it during a recent reporter Q&A event. The newspaper described President Trump as a “known germaphobe.”
• If the villains in James Bond‘s next movie are Walmart executives who look like Jeff Bezos‘ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, don’t be surprised. The Broccoli family that has owned the intellectual property rights to the film franchise for decades sold them to Amazon MGM Studios. It must have been for a lot. Barbara Broccoli has previously said of the Amazon team, “These people are f— idiots.”
• The U.S. is facing the worst flu season in 15 years. An additional concern: “The two predominant strains that are circulating right now are known to be more severe and have more severe outcomes, especially in high-risk patients.”
• Meanwhile, a measles outbreak in west Texas continues to grow and has now spread into New Mexico.
• Meghan Markle‘s lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard never quite found its footing, so she has rebranded to As Ever. Now we will see whether the name was the issue, or if it is the polarizing Duchess of Sussex herself.
• TFC? Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is relocating its headquarters from Louisville, Kentucky to Plano, Texas.
• The NHL did something no one thought possible: it made America care about a hockey game in February. Unfortunately, the U.S. lost that game – the final of the 4 Nation’s Face-Off pitting Canada against the U.S. Canadians were quite generous following the win, however, offering to make the U.S. their 11th province.
• A high-end burglary ring that targeted athletes such as Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Travis Kelce was busted in part due to selfies the criminals shared online posing with the loot they stole.
• A judge in Mississippi ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial from its website criticizing a local mayor and city council, a decision that has alarmed free speech advocates.
• Yesterday, the Colorado GOP announced that Steve Bannon, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump, would headline the group’s annual fundraising dinner in March. Today, Bannon is making headlines for what many say was a Nazi salute at the end of his speech at the conservative CPAC conference this morning.
• Hyde Park Jewelers in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center was the victim of a slow-motion robbery that saw thieves steal $12.3 million in jewelry and watches over eight hours.

Who won the week?

• Rockford Gray added Alton Dillard, Katie McLean and Serena Woods as senior consultants.
• Genelle Padilla has joined Fox31 as a weekday anchor/reporter.
• 5280 has tapped Mark Antonation to be its new food editor. He has previously worked at Westword and the Colorado Restaurant Association & Foundation.
• We may have gotten 15 inches of snow overnight in parts of the Denver foothills, but the Colorado Rockies will play their first spring training game today in sunny Arizona.
• Grammy-nominated rapper ASAP Rocky was acquitted of charges of shooting a former collaborator. He had faced up to 24 years in prison.
• Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary show drew 14.9 million viewers, more than three times the average number of viewers for regular episodes this season.
• If you are not a fan of ice ages, good news! Scientists have reduced the chances of the football-field-sized “Asteroid 2024 YR4” hitting earth in 2032 from 3.1 percent to 0.28 percent.

• The electronic payment processor Stripe terminated 300 people, or about 3.5% of its global workforce, and many of them received the news via an email that inadvertently included an image of a yellow cartoon duck. The head of HR followed up with another email that said in part, “I apologize for the error and any confusion it caused,” but left unsaid “but you are still fired.”
• CNN is laying off about 200 employees as part of shift to from a cable-first to a digital-first model. That transition is driven in part by historically low television ratings. Sadly, there is no indication that those who were fired received an email with an emotional support cartoon duck.
• A former CBI DNA scientist who worked on thousands of cases, has been charged with 102 felonies alleging that she manipulated evidence. Prosecutors worry that more than 1,000 convictions could have relied on her evidence, and an unknown number of cases may not have been prosecuted due to her faulty findings.
• The Salt Lake City-based NHL hockey team – temporarily named Utah Hockey Club while it tries to finalize its permanent name – had its first choice, the Utah Yetis, rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It is not distinctive enough.
• Everyone always says they want to be in The Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately for one local company, its moment came with the headline, “Vail Resorts Has an Epic Problem.”
• The NFL forced the New England Patriots to remove its Bluesky social media account because the league has not “approved” the Twitter/X competitor.
• Jewelry designer Lynn Ban, who starred in the Netflix reality series “Bling Empire: New York,” died following emergency brain surgery due to a skiing accident in Aspen.
• The head of Panama’s football federation was suspended after he called one of the country’s star players “fat” and “out of shape” after she complained about the lack of investment in the sport.
• Allen Media Group television stations were forced to back away from a plan to fire local meteorologists and replace them with a Weather Channel feed after a backlash from viewers.
• One of the bigger stories coming out of the Australian Open tennis tournament this year has been the media. One of the biggest sports anchors in the country was forced to apologize after he insulted Novak Djokovic and his Serbian fans on air, and U.S. player Ben Shelton criticized the post-match, on-court interviews as being “embarrassing and disrespectful.“

Who won the week?

• The City of Lone Tree‘s Melissa Gallegos has been elected to the board of the Emergency Services Public Information Officers of Colorado (ESPIOC).
• Former 9News anchor Christine Noel has accepted an anchor position at Fox31 following a short stint at a station in Houston.
• In the fourth quarter of 2024, rent prices in Denver dropped by an average of nearly $70 from the previous quarter. It is the biggest decline since records started being kept 44 years ago.
• DIA set a passenger traffic record in 2024 with more than 82 million passengers traveling via the airport.
• Denver had 65 “murder incidents” in 2024, which is an 11% drop from 2023 and a nearly 30% decline from 2021’s peak of 92, per an Axios Denver analysis of police data. Sixty-five still seems like a lot, but I guess we’ll take our wins where we can.
• The movie “Moana 2” surpassed $1 billion in ticket sales, a feat that has become rarer in the post-pandemic movie environment.
• What’s the going rate for tipping a pizza delivery guy who trudges on foot through half a mile of snow-covered, closed streets? Apparently $2. But a police officer who witnessed it helped spur a GoFundMe campaign that has raised $30,000.

• A Southwest Airlines pilot was removed from a plane and arrested for being inebriated as he was seated in the cockpit performing preflight checks.
• Toyota Motors’ trucking unit will plead guilty to criminal charges and pay $1.6 billion in civil and criminal penalties for concealing excess emissions from diesel engines sold in the United States..
• Meanwhile, American Express has agreed to pay $230 million to settle allegations that it was engaged in fraud probe and deceptive marketing practices.
• And Capital One has been accused by federal regulators of cheating its customers out of more than $2 billion. The bank allegedly deceived customers into accepting interest rates that were a tiny fraction of what they appeared to be.
• A group of investors that includes former Facebook and Skype executives is trying to raise $5 billion to do to the NBA what LIV Golf did to the PGA. And the nascent international basketball league just announced that Maverick Carter, LeBron James’ longtime friend and business partner, has joined the effort as a consultant.
• A Philadelphia Eagles fan whose foul-mouthed and misogynistic attacks were captured on video and shared via social media was banned for life from Eagles games and fired from his job. The chef’s kiss: he worked for a DEI consulting firm.
• Apple is temporarily disabling its AI summaries of notifications from news and entertainment apps amid media reports of wildly inaccurate results.
• DIA ranks sixth nationally for number of guns confiscated at TSA checkpoints. Four of the top 10 were located in Texas, and the airports in Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston topped the list.
• A Pakistan International Airlines ad is being criticized as evoking the 9/11 terror attacks. The ad shows a plane flying toward the Eiffel Tower with the tagline, “Paris, we’re coming today.”
• MSNBC President Rashida Jones has stepped down amid ratings that have cratered following the November presidential election.
• More than 400 Washington Post employees have signed a letter to owner Jeff Bezos asking for a meeting to discuss their concerns about the future of the newspaper.

Who won the week?

• Johanna Erickson is now Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Special Olympics Colorado.
• Jesse Granger has taken the External Communications Manager position at Google Fiber.
• Turner PR has been retained as agency of record for Travel Wisconsin.
• Verde Brand Communications has been named agency of record for the eyewear brand VALLON.
• The Kennedy Center announced that comedian and talk-show host Conan O’Brien will receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
• The house featured in the movie “Home Alone” sold for $5.5 million, $250,000 over its asking price.

• The niche online car rental service Turo is getting massive media attention, but unfortunately for the company it is because its cars were used in both the New Orleans and Las Vegas terror attacks on New Year’s Day.
• We are getting an inside glimpse into the world of celebrity publicists and crisis communications, and it is every bit the cesspool you imagined. Actress Blake Lively obtained text messages between producer/actor Justin Baldoni and several of his crisis communications consultants that outline a media smear campaign to delegitimize the actress as she prepared to go public with claims that he behaved improperly on set. “All of this will be most importantly untraceable,” said Melissa Nathan, one of the crisis publicists, apparently unaware of how group texts work.
  • Not happy with the resulting media coverage, Baldoni has filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. Expect it to be withdrawn just before discovery starts.
• De Beers is sitting on a $2 billion pile of unsold diamonds as demand for the gemstone has slumped to levels not seen since the 2008 recession. “It’s been a bad year for rough diamond sales,” said De Beers’ CFO.
• Two Oregon men who set out in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to find conclusive proof that Sasquatch exists died of exposure. Weather conditions in the Cascade mountains had been below freezing in the days before and during the search, which included snow and freezing rain.
• United Airlines almost created its own operational meltdown when the food it served to employees at DIA on Christmas Day resulted in food poisoning.
• All five college football teams – Georgia (SEC), Arizona State (Big 12), Oregon (Big 10), Clemson (ACC) and Boise State (Mountain West) – who made the playoffs by virtue of winning their conference championships have already been eliminated.
• The Washington Post has assembled the list of 2024’s weirdest celebrity apologies.
• The cruise industry reported that December 2024 was the worst month for mass gastrointestinal illness outbreaks in more than a decade. Bon voyage!
• The Times Square Applebee’s offered a New Year’s Eve celebration package that starts at $850. And it sold out.
• A glowing-hot piece of space junk more than eight feet in diameter and weighing more than 1,000 pounds fell from the sky and crashed in a remote village in Kenya. No one was injured, but scientists warn we should expect more incidents like this as low-orbit space gets more crowded with satellites. Google “Kessler Syndrome” if you want to know more.
• The U.S. Surgeon General has proposed putting cancer warnings on alcohol, a move that could further depress sales that were already trending down since 2023.
• Westerra, the sixth-largest credit union in Colorado, selected New York-based Impact PR & Communications as its public relations firm.

Who won the week?

• 2024 was a mixed bag for the conglomerates that own Denver‘s television news stations. Tegna’s (9News) stock was up 20% for the year, but Nexstar (Fox31) was down 1% and Scripps’ (7News) was down 82%. CBS4 is owned by CBS, which is owned by Paramount, and Paramount’s stock was down 28% for the year. Even more concerning is that 2024 was a presidential election year, which resulted in about $18 billion in political ad money being spent with local television stations.
• Red Rocks Amphitheatre was the second-most attended concert venue in the country in 2024, trailing only Madison Square Garden. Globally, it ranked No. 4, behind MSG, the O2 Arena in London and Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional.
• Actor Will Ferrell attended a post-Christmas L.A. Kings hockey game dressed as Buddy the Elf. This Buddy, however, had a three-day beard and was chugging beers with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Ferrell, in character as Buddy, said it had been “a tough holiday season.”
• After eight years of acrimonious negotiations and legal filings, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie finally reached a divorce settlement. They had been married for two years when they filed the initial divorce papers.

There is an element of chaos theory to a PR crisis. Some are horrific, but seemingly have little long-term impact. Others appear relatively benign but ultimately serve as a catalyst for a corporate death spiral. The truth is that the true impact of a crisis is often best judged years after the fact. So, in that spirit, feel free to enjoy the 2020 list of Biggest PR Disasters to see which ones had a meaningful and lasting impact. 

And if you are more interested in this year’s list of PR disasters, here you go:

VIC VELA

Colorado Public Radio reporter and podcast host Vic Vela was beloved because of his engaging social media presence and inspiring personal story of overcoming drug and alcohol addiction. It came as a shock in January when CPR fired Vela for what it claimed was his failure “to address his hostile behavior.” Vela went on the public relations offensive, filing a lawsuit and conducting media interviews claiming that CPR fired him for asking for accommodations to help maintain his sobriety. The strategy seemed to have worked, and Vela and CPR reached a financial settlement in April.

In July, Vela accepted an on-air position with New Mexico PBS, but that came to an end in September when he announced he had relapsed and lost his new position as a result. This unfortunate series of events highlights the ongoing challenges faced by individuals in recovery. Addiction is a complex and deeply personal struggle, and relapses can be a difficult part of the journey.

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MATTEL

The toy manufacturer was hit with a class-action lawsuit after mistakenly printing the URL of a porn site on the packaging of its “Wicked”-themed children’s doll rather than the movie’s official website. It’s fair to say Mattel likely received more media coverage in 2024 than it has in the past few years combined, which may have benefited the Universal Pictures movie. “Wicked” is the eighth-highest-grossing movie of 2024. 

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SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS

After years of rumors and allegations, singer and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested in September on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He was taken into custody and denied bail, meaning he will remain in jail at least until his trial. 

Media and lawyers representing Combs’ alleged victims quickly began circling, and numerous celebrities who attended Combs’ famous – now infamous – “White Parties” also faced intense scrutiny. Several, most notably rapper Jay-Z and actor Cuba Gooding Jr., have been sued for allegedly sexually assaulting women associated with Combs. Meanwhile, rumors of large confidential settlements involving other, as-yet-unnamed celebrities continue to swirl in Hollywood and New York City.

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UNITEDHEALTHCARE

UnitedHealthcare became a symbol of public frustration with the American health care system when its CEO, Brian Thompson, was shot and killed outside a New York City hotel. Rather than being universally condemned, the alleged assailant was celebrated by some on social media as delivering a blow against what they perceive to be greedy insurance conglomerates.

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BOEING

Boeing has joined the ranks of Facebook, Uber and Subway as repeat offenders vying for spots in the PR Disasters Hall of Fame. You might have thought that the two 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people, and the subsequent 20-month grounding imposed on the aircraft that disrupted air travel globally, would have been rock bottom, but it wasn’t.

In January, a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max flight. No one was killed, but the images of the plane making an emergency landing with a massive hole in its side went viral worldwide. The subsequent investigation found a pattern of shoddy construction by the vendor who assembled parts of the plane for Boeing. As bad as that was, it would get worse.

Things worsened in September when a seven-week employee strike halted most production, exacerbating Boeing’s financial troubles. After the strike, the company announced 17,000 layoffs and was forced to raise $25 billion through stock sales, debt and loans to avoid a junk bond credit rating. Since the initial crashes in 2019, Boeing’s stock has dropped nearly 60%, even as the S&P 500 rose 216%.

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CROWDSTRIKE

It is likely you had never heard of the cybersecurity company Crowdstrike until July, when a bug in the company’s automated software update shut down computer systems around the world, including at 60% of Fortune 500 companies. When the 72-hour outage was over, Crowdstrike customers had lost more than $5 billion in revenue and the company’s stock price had dropped 22% – approximately $20 billion.

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UNITED AIRLINES

United Airlines may be based in Chicago, but it feels like Denver’s hometown airline. That is one of the reasons it was so shocking to learn that Denver Broncos legend and NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Davis had been handcuffed and escorted off a United flight in July – in front of his family, no less – and immediately banned from flying the airline again.

A flight attendant claimed Davis struck them, while Davis insisted he had merely tapped the flight attendant’s arm to ask for ice. There were plenty of witnesses, and United, after a quick investigation, apologized to Davis, fired the flight attendant and restored Davis’ ability to fly on the airline. Davis sensed the incident was racially motivated and his PR team went to work, posting Davis’ thoughts on social media and talking to media outlets ranging from CNN to the “CBS Morning Show.”

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IVY LEAGUE PRESIDENTS

It can’t be easy running a university when your students lean liberal and your alumni and biggest donors are largely conservative. The attack on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza only heightened those tensions. Congressional hearings on campus “wokeness” and antisemitism coincided with the resignations of five of the eight presidents of Ivy Leagueuniversities – Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Cornell and Yale. 

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AURORA, COLORADO

In crisis communications, one of the first questions we ask is whether there are photos or videos of whatever issue a client is facing. It makes an enormous difference. That proved true in Aurora when video of several members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were shown on surveillance cameras trying to enter an apartment carrying high-powered assault weapons. That video led to claims that gangs had taken over entire apartment buildings, which snowballed into claims that the city of Aurora had been overrun by Venezuelan gang members. 

Aurora hit rock bottom when former and future President Donald Trump announced he would hold a rally in Aurora to bring attention to the city’s plight. Aurora’s Republican mayor, Mike Coffman, pleaded with Republicans nationally to stop misrepresenting his city, to no avail. In fact, Trump doubled down, naming a proposed deportation initiative “Operation Aurora,” further entrenching the city in controversy.

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NETFLIX

Legendary boxer Mike Tyson’s return to the ring at age 58 to fight Jake Paul was the talk of the sports world in November, but only some of it had to do with the boxers. The fight was streamed on Netflix, one of the platform’s first major live sporting events, and, well, it proved the company was not up for the moment. Wannabe viewers reported massive buffering and freezing issues due to Netflix technical issues, and Netflix responded by suggesting subscribers check their internet connections, as if that was the problem. Meanwhile, nearly 8 million people bypassed Netflix altogether, watching the fight on Twitter via a livestream from the phone of former NFL player Antonio Brown, who was in the crowd. 

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PRINCESS KATE

Some of the biggest PR disasters come from unforced errors, and Princess Kate Middleton provided a textbook example this year. After undergoing a surprise abdominal surgery in January, she disappeared from public view for several months. As weeks passed, British media scrutiny grew, and increasingly wild rumors spread. To calm the frenzy, Kate released a photo of herself with her three children on British Mother’s Day in March.

However, the media quickly realized the image had been photoshopped, sparking outrage and fueling even more conspiracy theories. Instead of quelling speculation, the poorly edited photo intensified it. Kate apologized and released unaltered photos in an effort to regain public trust. This incident underscores the intense public scrutiny faced by high-profile figures and the challenging decisions they must make to protect their privacy. In hindsight, Kate’s actions may reflect the immense pressure she was under while quietly dealing with significant personal health challenges.

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LEGACY MEDIA

Experts are still assessing the winners and losers from President’s Trump’s re-election, but a consensus early loser is legacy media. While Trump campaigned through alternative media –such as podcaster Joe Rogan, influencer Adin Ross and professional wrestler Logan Paul – mainstream outlets such as The Washington Post and The New York Times became walled-off echo chambers for left-leaning audiences. Adding injury to insult, billionaire owners of The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times blocked the newspapers from making presidential endorsements, creating a flood of subscriber cancellations that primarily hurt reporters and editors.