Crisis Management

It’s been a rough week for Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s LeanIn.org, a nonprofit “committed to offering women the ongoing inspiration and support to help them achieve their goals.”

It’s natural for people to come and go from an organization, but if you’ve got a mass exodus on your hands, there’s a problem. Of course, there are the usual clues—suddenly showing up in a suit and leaving for an inordinate amount of “doctor’s appointments,” for example—but are you aware of the more subtle indications that some of your employees are ready to bolt?

Tim Armstrong was a media darling when he ran Google’s advertising sales, marketing and operations teams. But it’s been a different story since he became chairman-CEO of AOL in 2009, as Armstrong has struggled to right the AOL ship. The latest episode may not help matters, particularly when it comes to the perception of whether Armstrong is in full control of the company.

If you were ever seeking to characterize the defining element of a crisis in 2013, you need look no further than the two crises we tackle this week.

PR News’ PR Agency Elite Awards recognize agencies in 23 practice areas, such as branding, business to business, community relations, crisis management, digital/social media, internal communications, media relations, mulitcultural PR, nonprofit/association and reputation management. All of the finalists will be celebrated at a luncheon on Sept. 10, 2013 at the Grand Hyatt in New York.

The Children’s Place has removed a controversial T-shirt from its stores after a backlash on social channels. But the real question for The Children’s Place is how can the company be so out of touch with its customers?

Alex Rodriguez faced a pretty tough pitch last night, but it had nothing to do with returning to the baseball diamond after several months on the sideline.

A 20-person brawl at a Chuck E. Cheese outlet in Wisconsin is just the latest episode of violence at the fast-food chain that caters to kids. Earlier this week a dad and his young son… Continued

If Anthony Weiner thought his campaign woes couldn’t get any worse, then Barbara Morgan likely changed his mind. Morgan is Weiner’s communication director and yesterday she responded to a former intern’s tell-all article in the Daily News with a barrage of insults and obscenities, which adds yet another layer of discreditable behavior to the campaign.

A four-year-old lawsuit concerning the false advertising of Vitaminwater as a health drink continues to cause problems for Coca-Cola. The soft drink giant’s legal team has argued from the beginning that: “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.”