Does the term ‘PR disaster’ send shivers down your spine?
Us too. And no, we’re not being dramatic. A PR crisis can significantly impact a business’s bottom line - or in the worst cases, shut it down altogether.
That’s (unfortunately) not an excuse to hide under a rock, though. As a public relations professional, you’re likely to experience a PR disaster at some point in your career. What separates the good from the great is how you handle it - and as the examples below show, even the biggest PR teams aren’t immune from a fumbled crisis response.
The following PR crisis examples will talk you through what happened, and how to handle a PR disaster - or in some cases, how not to…
Let’s get started.
Boeing loses consumer trust
Boeing’s got a spot at the top of our list of 2024’s worst PR disasters for a reason.
Boeing’s got a spot at the top of our list of 2024’s worst PR disasters for a reason.
At the start of the year, one of its planes lost a door plug while the aircraft was mid-flight. This terrifying situation would be enough to damage a brand’s reputation by itself - but it wasn’t an isolated incident. Boeing planes had two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019, and a few months after the plane lost its door plug, a Boeing United Airlines flight lost a panel in-air.
After an audit, the FAA reported “multiple instances where [Boeing] allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.”
A business’s lack of care when it comes to passenger safety is, to put it politely, a big PR fail - and Boeing will have its work cut out trying to regain consumer trust.
How Boeing handled it: in short, not well. Boeing’s initial statement was criticized for its brevity, lack of technical detail, and absence of empathy - while CEO Dave Calhoun avoided live press releases and instead released a pre-recorded statement.
Calhoun and two other stakeholders later resigned, notably with substantial payouts.
Moves like this are more about short-term optics rather than meaningful change; Calhoun isn’t due to leave until the end of the year, signaling a lack of commitment to the change the business needs. The result? More bad PR for a business that doesn’t need it.
A comprehensive statement with full transparency around technical issues would have been more effective here, along with the CEO’s immediate departure. That said, it’s important to note that this is fundamentally a problem for the business, not the PR team, to fix - the best PRs in the world couldn’t overcome years of consistent safety failures. Until its new leader is able to start making changes, Boeing’s reputation is unlikely to recover.
Brewdog fails to go public thanks to staff treatment
Beer brand Brewdog’s no stranger to a PR crisis - but its most enduring might be how it treats its staff.
In 2024 alone, the business came under fire for dropping its commitment to the real Living Wage - the UK wage rate based on the cost of living - and for firing an Asian staff member after she complained about its flagship branch hosting members of the far-right EDL group.
These incidents are the latest in a long line of people and culture problems for Brewdog. The business had to apologize in 2022 after employees signed an open letter describing a “culture of fear” driven by CEO James Watt. This PR disaster was swiftly followed by a BBC documentary featuring claims of a toxic and misogynistic work culture.
These reports prevented Brewdog from going public and resulted in Watt eventually stepping down as CEO.
How Brewdog handled it: Brewdog took an unapologetic stand on both incidents, saying it needed to reduce staff pay to mitigate heavy financial losses and commenting it stands by its decision to fire its staff member.
There’s no other way to say it: Brewdog’s defensive response to both incidents is the epitome of poor PR strategy. Its team would have done well to consider the Brewdog core values - integrity, for example - and its 2022 commitment to improving the treatment of its staff.
Responses that transparently demonstrated Brewdog’s pledge to its team would have been more effective here. These could look like a clear demonstration of plans to reintroduce the Real Living Wage, or a review of the firing of its employee. Hosting a group like the EDL would have prompted many brands with similar values to issue an apology, too.
Bumble fumbles its rebrand launch
Next up on our list of recent PR crisis examples is Bumble’s rebrand ad campaign. It hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in May - and the blunder is now known as the ‘Bumble fumble’. Ouch.
Billboards with copy reading “You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer” and “Thou shall not give up on dating and become a nun” were intended to poke fun at frustrations with modern dating apps. Instead, the business came under fire on every social media platform from LinkedIn to TikTok. The reason? Not acknowledging the circumstances that might cause a woman to choose celibacy - like safety concerns, reproductive rights, or sexual orientation.
How Bumble handled it: here’s how to do public relations crisis management right. Bumble chose Instagram as its crisis communication channel, issuing a swift apology and sharing some of the feedback the campaign received.
The comms also detailed how the brand would make amends: taking down the ads, making a donation to charities and organizations supporting women, and offering the billboard space to these bodies.
Listening to complaints, responding, and clearly showing what will happen next is fundamental to an effective PR crisis response. Going forward, a brand play demonstrating Bumble’s core values - integrity, kindness, equality, confidence, and respect - would help its recovery.
Ticketmaster’s prices go off the charts
American live music ticket marketplace Ticketmaster’s long been criticized for having too much of a monopoly over the global live music space - and 2024 was no exception.
When tickets for Britpop band Oasis’s long-awaited reunion went on sale, frustrated fans dealt with hours of queues, losing their spots due to ‘bot-like behavior’, and prices up to 75% more than advertised. These unexpected price increases were thanks to ‘dynamic pricing’ - which adjusts ticket prices based on levels of demand.
How Ticketmaster handled it: this debacle is a great example of a business passing the buck. Neither Oasis nor Ticketmaster released a holding statement. Instead, they moved straight to the blame game. Oasis’s spokesperson blamed Ticketmaster for the misstep. Ticketmaster blamed “promoters and artists” and commented that it was looking forward to cooperating with the subsequent investigation.
This brief, defensive response failed to appease disappointed fans, and indicated that Ticketmaster hadn’t learnt from its much-criticized response to its 2022 PR trouble too.
A holding statement from Ticketmaster would have been a better start - followed by an apology to the fans who missed out due to technical issues, a clear explanation of its next steps, and follow-up communications.
Worst PR disasters of 2024: final thoughts
Navigating a PR disaster is tricky - but as Bumble shows, doable.
Where Boeing, Brewdog, and Ticketmaster fell down this year is a failure to learn from past mistakes - and in some cases, a failure to reflect on the internal issues that created these crises in the first place. A PR disaster should never be the catalyst for change in an organization. But, if it happens, the best a business can do is learn from it - and make that clear to the public, too.
You’ve seen the worst PR disasters of 2024 (so far - there’s still time for new entries to make the list). Next up - take inspiration from the best by checking out our list of the Best PR campaigns of 2024 and last year’s best PR campaigns, too.
