2024 was a year of post-truth politics, polarisation and geo-political instability but what were the year’s biggest PR disasters? Amid the turmoil of a frenzied news agenda, controlling the narrative has never been trickier – for politicians, businesses, institutions and high-profile individuals. Here are the reputation management lessons that we can learn from the year’s most significant PR scandals.
The Post Office:
Rarely has an iconic brand’s image been so thoroughly trashed. Never has a TV drama achieved such cut-through, influencing public opinion and moving the dial politically. ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office, broadcast in January 2024, was a PR disaster for the institution, compounded by the abject performance of senior executives, most notably hapless former CEO Paula Vennells, at the public inquiry.
The overriding lesson from the Horizon scandal was that any crisis lays bare an organisation’s culture and values – the Post Office’s were shown to be rotten to the core. An organisation can recover from a crisis if it acts with sincerity and transparency. Instead, the Post Office retreated into a culture of denial.
Christian Horner and Red Bull Racing:
Ultimately, the Red Bull Racing boss saved his job after allegations of inappropriate behaviour from a female employee but the team’s response to the crisis was tone-deaf.
There were three fundamental problems with the strategy: first, Horner’s accuser was suspended but he wasn’t, which smacked of victim blaming; secondly, the lack of transparency over the report that cleared Horner raised suspicions about its independence; and thirdly, Horner’s attempt to portray himself as the true victim was an ill-advised approach. Ultimately, the saga raised wider questions about the treatment of women in the sport which have not been satisfactorily answered – it was a PR disaster for Formula 1, as well as Red Bull Racing.
Rishi Sunak’s election campaign:
Announcing a snap election outside Downing Street in the pouring rain without an umbrella was meant to avoid comparisons with the hapless former England manager Steve McClaren and “Wally with the Brolly” headlines. Instead, it simply made him look very foolish.
Deciding to cut short a trip to the D-Day celebrations and meetings with world leaders to return home for an ITV interview was a blunder that betrayed a lack of political nous. It cut through to voters like few other issues. Who was advising the Prime Minister and how could they have got it so spectacularly wrong?
The BBC:
2024 was an annus horribilis for the BBC’s spin doctors. The Huw Edwards saga played out over several months; when the newsreader was charged in June 2024 with making indecent images of children it emerged that the senior leadership had been aware of a police investigation since November 2023, yet he remained suspended on full pay for a further five months before resigning. Efforts to claw back the money proved fruitless.
Other scandals involving BBC “talent” – a word now banned by the Director General – involved Strictly Come Dancing stars, and presenters Jay Blades, Jermaine Jenas and Gregg Wallace. Jenas was summarily sacked over misconduct allegations, avoiding a re-run of the Edwards soap opera.
Meanwhile, the BBC became embroiled in an unseemly public haggle with Gary Lineker over the terms of his departure from Match of The Day – albeit the ensuing compromise, with Lineker offered a reduced role, probably suited both parties.
The Captain Tom Foundation:
Can a man’s name ever have been tarnished more spectacularly by his own family? Captain Tom was a Covid hero, bringing a bit of much-needed cheer to the nation with his fundraising efforts. By contrast, it became hard to believe that the Foundation created in his name was anything other than a vehicle for self-enrichment.
The Charity Commission found that a £1.4m book advance was not donated to the foundation, despite repeated assurances to the contrary, and the family had blurred the boundaries between charitable and private interests. In response, Captain Tom’s daughter accused the Charity Commission of “a relentless pursuit” and said she was living in “constant fear and mental anguish.” She claimed that revealing details of a book deal was a breach of privacy, which was hardly going to elicit sympathy as a line of defence – and playing the ‘poor me’ card only compounded the damage.
Keir Starmer’s freebies:
In a PR crisis, optics can be everything. A very apt phrase to describe the freebies scandal that engulfed Keir Starmer’s government in its opening months, given that glasses worth £2,485 were amongst gifts totalling more than £100,000 donated to the Prime Minister’s family. Government spinners claimed that it was ridiculous to compare accepting Taylor Swift tickets with the scandals that dogged previous Conservative administrations, but that missed the point: it’s all about perception.
When you are taking the winter fuel allowance from pensioners, it’s not a good look to be accepting free clothing, accommodation and football tickets. And the more you protest – insisting you are finding somewhere quiet for your soon to study for his exams, for example – the more you miss the point. You need to admit you got it wrong and close the issue down, not keep it running.
Jaguar’s re-brand:
It’s too soon to judge whether Jaguar’s relaunch was a PR disaster or masterclass – if the objective was simply to grab attention for its pivot to electric vehicles for the ultra-wealthy it succeeded, but sacking 85% of your audience is always a risky strategy and the androgynous TV adverts, without a car in sight, were rightly panned.
To many, the language accompanying the relaunch – “we want people to feel rather than think” – smacked of Woke 101 and JLR’s chief creative officer Gerry McGovern seemed a bit too keen to polarise and enrage. The test will come when Jaguar must persuade its customers to part with more than £100,000 for one of its new models and it’s hard to believe that swapping the iconic Jaguar image for a logo more akin to a luxury handbag will help JLR meet that objective.
The Archbishop of Canterbury:
Justin Welby’s resignation was unprecedented in modern times. He took institutional responsibility for the Church of England’s safeguarding failures in the John Smyth abuse scandal but failed to hit the right tone in his response.
Never was this more evident than in his valedictory speech to the House of Lords when he joked about a predecessor’s head being used as a football during the 1381 Peasants Revolt. Read the room: your audience is not always the one in front of you, there is always a wider audience to consider, and, for abuse victims, frivolity was not the appropriate tone to strike. Nor was self-pity.
Gregg Wallace:
Had Gregg Wallace apologised for his behaviour, admitted he needed to reflect on multiple complaints from women and promised that he could and would change he might have saved his broadcasting career. Instead, he delivered a master class in how not to do crisis management.
Being in the eye of media storm makes people behave emotionally and irrationally – even when they are receiving advice. Wallace’s ill-judged social media post, claiming that the complaints had come from middle-class women of a certain age and there were only 13 of them was the final nail in his coffin and triggered more, increasingly serious allegations. He apologised and said he would take time away, but the damage had been irretrievably done.