The Crisis Beat

In this Episode, we examine the sudden resignation of Toronto Mayor John Tory after it was discovered he had an affair with a staffer some 30 years his junior. Interestingly, his approach marks a return to ethical and old-school crisis communications and accountability that is worth studying. We also review the handling of an emergency landing by Flare Airlines, and how their communications team w...

In this Episode, Mark and Brady explore the Holiday Airline mayhem that gripped North America. Discount Canadian Airlines Sunwing and Westjet stranded passengers and lost baggage. In the US, Southwest - an airline renowned for customer service, culture, and profitable performance - cancelled an enormous level of flights, and ultimately revealed major failings of underinvesting in communication tec...

In this episode, Brady and Mark delve deeper into Benoit's image restoration theory through a 2012 case study on US crisis communications about food safety following incidences of Mad Cow disease in the food supply. Mark and Brady also discuss Elon Musk, FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, the birth of evidence-based medicine at McMaster University and Dr. Gordon Guyatt, Prion / Protein Diseases and 'This...

Sports celebrity endorsements are worth big bucks and these deals are usually built on good character as well as the required incredible athletic performance. What happens when these public leaders don't live up to their image? Mark and Brady do a deep dive on the impact of Tiger Woods' 2009/2010 sex scandal as the ultimate case study, with discussion of economic impact as well as best practices,...

Mark and Brady explore their curiosity related to influencers, the online segment of often grassroots-developed entertainers whose online brands are reaching epic proportions of success. In this first foray into the topic, the team examines the case of Song Jia - or Freezia - a female South Korean influencer and reality star whose career briefly derailed over accusations she was wearing some count...

Rogers Telecommunications Inc. is one of Canada's tech giants, responsible for one third of the mobile market in Canada. On July 8, 2022, the entire Rogers cellular and internet service crashed, leaving Canadians without service - and without a lot of clarity on when service would be restored - for at least 16 hours. Rogers had also endured a similar outage in April of 2021. In the aftermath, Roge...