Reputation Town

In this episode, John and Warren discuss the latest in the Canada/US trade war (Elbows Down!), the reputational impacts of the Air Canada strike and the way it was handled by the company, the controversy around Cracker Barrel's rebrand, Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad, a few mins about the Coldplay concert cheating scandal (sorry, we missed a few weeks of pods!), the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's show, the state of the UK and how it's being covered in the media and a man in Lindsay, Ontario has been charged by police for defending himself with a knife after a man broke into his home in the middle of the night, allegedly with a crossbow -- a discussion of self defence laws in Canada and the public's growing frustration with what many see as antiquated and inadequate laws when it comes to protecting your home, your family and your belongings in Canada. Thanks for listening!

In this episode, John and Warren discuss some recent stories in the PR and issues management realm, including the growing backlash against Sportsnet's 30% price hike on its hockey programming, an RCMP spokesperson who appeared to say that Canadians exhibiting traditional values might be becoming extremists, Boston Consulting Group's controversy regarding a Gaza related project, Rogers allegedly used 1,000 human customer service employees to train a new AI tool and then proceeded to fire all those employees (and require them to sign NDAs in order to get their severance) and we revisit Jaguar's woke rebrand, which doesn't seem to be going well, with April sales down 97.5% compared with the year earlier. 

This week, John and Warren talk about Jake Tapper's new book and the accusations that he was part of the journalistic coverup he's highlighting, MLSE's handling of yet another disappointing year for the Toronto Maple Leafs, YouTube creator Luke Nichols (Outdoor Boys) quits the platform at the peak of his fame to focus on his family, murky water in Stoney Creek during labour disruption and is Tom Cruise the last real action movie hero?

We hit on a bunch of stories this week, including Coinbase flipping the script on hackers trying to extort the company, the viral customer service video from Frontier Airlines, NHL owner Doug Cifu reprimanded by the league for getting into a Twitter battle with a fan, Walmart says it will have to increase prices because of tariffs, Toronto City councillors give themselves a hefty pay raise, Tim Horton's sliding quality, Bernie Sanders justifies flying private and a Nova Scotia police news conference about two missing children starts on an interesting note. 

This week, we break down some of the more recent PR stories in the headlines, including the communications from the Vatican around the new Pope, the curiously low viewership numbers for Michelle Obama's new podcast, Ron MacLean appears to be on a reputation management tour, what happens if you're a celebrity who's named during the Diddy trial, Pierre Poilievre drops the ball in stunning fashion and a former Facebook/Meta insider has a best-selling book talking about some of the company's shady practices. 

In this episode, we catch up on some of the stories of the recent past, including LA Mayor Karen Bass's on-camera freeze-up in response to the California wildfires, Delta's handling of the upside-down plane crash in Toronto, Trudeau's handling of the trade war with the US and a look at some Canadian celebrities making headlines, including Mike Meyers and Number 99. 

This week, we welcome back our friend Molly McPherson to help us wrap up 2024 and break down some of the top PR crisis stories. We didn't discuss our topics with each other ahead of time, so in this episode, you're getting our real-time reactions and breakdowns to these stories, including the strategies behind them (or lack thereof) and any lessons learned. Thanks to Molly for joining us and we hope you enjoy this year-end episode. 

This week, John and Warren talk about the ongoing Canada Post strike and the damage it's causing, both to Canadians and to the organization's brand, Paul Bissonnette steps up to defend Arizona restaurant staff and finds himself in a 6 on 1 brawl, Paul Krugman retiring from the NYT and how he'll be remembered, Toronto Public Library gets itself into hot water after a staffer refused to let a lost young girl use a phone to call her mother, journalist Taylor Lorenz makes a post apparently celebrating CEO killings and more. 

This week, John and Warren talk about the controversial rebrand from Jaguar, the reputational implications from the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight, including for Netflix, which had technical trouble serving its live audience, Space X's COO answering questions about government contracts and the move millions are making to social media platform BlueSky. 

In this 50th episode of the Reputation Town podcast, we do a breakdown of the US Presidential election, looking specifically at the elements of media relations, whether podcasts have eclipsed mainstream media, etc. We also discuss the complicated legacy of comedian and former late-night talk show host Mike Bullard, who recently died at the age of 67. And finally, we look at McDonalds' effective handling of its recent E. coli contamination crisis.