Katie Paine

Few thought 2022 would eclipse 2020 and 2021 as a year of PR crises. Wrong. Fortunately, 2022 included some useful lessons for 2023.

Few thought 2022 would eclipse 2020 and 2021 as a year of PR crises. Wrong. Fortunately, 2022 included some useful lessons for 2023.

Often organizations try too hard to either capitalize on hot news topics or avoid them altogether. Neither strategy is particularly effective. First we have Burger King trying waaaaay too hard to leverage not one but two major news events. On the other side, doing its best to avoid the news at all cost was the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which went into a media death spiral as a result.

The crisis ended in days and many pundits predicted that rather than suffering serious damage, the value of the KFC brand was enhanced by the very public demonstration of loyalty that the crisis evoked. The only lasting damage may be that once you’ve seen the ad, you will forever associate those three letters with the brand. And, sure, there were parties who complained about the implied language meaning of the rearranged letters, although that damage seems light.

Our measurement guru Katie Paine looks ahead at 2017 and predicts that media measurement will change and that data will continue to surge in terms of qualifications for incoming PR pros.