What Just Happened? A Polpeo Podcast

How does a global brand make a mistake so culturally insensitive that it triggers boycotts, political condemnation, police scrutiny and store closures? In this episode of What Just Happened? , Kate Hartley and Tamara Littleton discuss Starbucks Korea’s ‘Tank Day’ promotion, launched on the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, when tanks were used to suppress pro-democracy demonstr...

What happens when employees turn a company’s own communication channels against it? How should organisations handle redundancies in an era where every meeting can be recorded, every internal message can be leaked and every disgruntled employee has a platform? In this episode of What Just Happened? , Kate Hartley and Tamara Littleton revisit the 2013 HMV redundancy crisis, one of the most famous so...

Ahead of the recent Championship playoff final, with the winners promoted to the Premier League and also set to benefit to the tune of £200 million, Southampton admitted to spying on Middlesbrough’s training sessions in an attempt to gain a competitive edge. What began as a bizarre story involving an analyst intern hiding behind a tree with a camera quickly escalated into a full-scale reputa...

What makes an apology believable? And what turns an apology into a crisis of its own? In this episode of What Just Happened?, Kate Hartley and Tamara Littleton revisit themes from their conversation with crisis communications expert Abby Mangold, exploring the messy, highly human territory of public apologies, CEO misconduct and organisational redemption. The discussion looks at the difference bet...

In July 2024, a faulty software update to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform caused around 8.5 million Windows devices to crash. The incident disrupted airlines, hospitals, banks, broadcasters and public services, with the UK economy alone estimated to have lost around £2 billion. In this episode of ‘What Just Happened?’, hosts Tamara Littleton and Kate Hartley are joined by ma...

When a fake pop-up shop called Mumumelon appeared just five doors away from a Luluemon store in London, eyebrows were raised. It turned out to be a climate-focused activist campaign focused on exposing a perceived gap between Lululemon’s sustainability messaging and its actual environmental impact. And it left the company in somewhat of a dilemma: start legal action and invite scrutiny, or risk tr...

Reputational damage rarely stems from a single incident, but from patterns of failure that expose deeper cultural issues. In 2024 a door blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight and, while not fatal, this reignited concerns rooted in 2018 and 2019 crashes involving Boeing aircraft that killed 346 people and were linked to design flaws and failures in safety processes. What emerged was not just a tech...

After going into administration on 2nd March, the fallout for BrewDog’s investors, employees and reputation has been rapid and calamitous. The collapse led to the company being acquired by US beverage firm Tilray, saving some jobs but leading to 484 redundancies and the closure of 38 UK bars. Crucially, the “equity punks” – around 200,000 crowdfunding investors – have lost their...

On 27th February, President Donald Trump ordered the US Government to stop using technology from AI company Anthropic, developer of the Claude LLM. “ We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. The issue arose when Anthropic refused to accept new terms from the US Department of Defence that would have gr...

The Coldplay kiss cam incident in July 2025 was a great example of what can happen when a CEO is inadvertently caught in the line of fire for behaviour that is misaligned with company values. Leadership scandals can attract huge and intense public attention, and organisations need to prepare for such time as one of their senior leaders behaves badly. In this episode of ‘What Just Happened?’, hosts...

In April 2025, Marks & Spencer suffered a significant ransomware cyber attack that severely disrupted its operations for several months and cost the company an estimated  £300 million  in lost profit. Among the impacts were the theft of customer data, the failure of online sales and empty store shelves. In this episode of ‘What Just Happened?’, hosts Tamara Littleton and Kate Hartley are joine...

Del Monte is a globally recognised brand that has been in existence for nearly 140 years. But in 2023, The Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism uncovered allegations that security guards at Del Monte Kenya had assaulted and even killed people suspected of stealing pineapples. Reports also revealed a decade-long pattern of brutality, including sexual violence, and claims that innocen...

In March 2022, Florida’s Senate passed a bill to ban discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity in primary schools. The so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill stirred up major controversy at Disney, which has a complex history with the LGBTQ+ community, when it stayed silent despite having a significant presence in the state and being a major employer at the Disney World theme park. In this epis...

Until 2014 Shell had enjoyed a 50-year-long brand partnership with LEGO. But it came to an abrupt and high profile end after Greenpeace’s “Everything is Not Awesome” campaign, which targeted the long-standing partnership due to Shell’s Arctic drilling activities. Initially reluctant to end the deal, LEGO faced mounting public pressure after Greenpeace released a viral, emotionally powerful video t...

During the medal presentation at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Luis Rubiales, then-president of the Spanish Football Federation, forcibly kissed Spanish player Jenni Hermoso on the lips. The act, which Hermoso did not consent to, led to widespread condemnation and calls for his resignation. Rubiales initially defended his actions, but eventually faced suspension by FIFA and later was foun...

In January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 suffered a dual engine failure shortly after take-off from LaGuardia Airport due to a bird strike. Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles conducted an emergency landing on the Hudson River and, remarkably, all 155 passengers and crew survived. In this episode of “What Just Happened?”, hosts Kate Hartley and Tamara Littleton are jo...

This episode of “What Just Happened?” explores the widespread abuse committed by former Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed and its lasting impact on the Harrods brand. Decades of sexual assault allegations came to light after Al Fayed’s death in 2023 and, despite previous media investigations and survivor reports, systemic failures – including legal threats, NDAs, and a culture of fear –...

This episode of “What Just Happened?” explores the growing threat of deepfake technology in corporate settings. In 2024, a major incident involving engineering company Arup saw a finance employee tricked into transferring £20 million after a video call with deepfaked colleagues. Hosts Kate Hartley and Tamara Littleton are joined by legal expert Emma Woollcott to discuss the criminal side of the ac...

In this episode of “What Just Happened?”, hosts Kate Hartley and Tamara Littleton talk to the whistleblower at the heart of one of the biggest corporate bribery scandals in history, Jonathan Taylor. A former lawyer for SBM Offshore, Taylor uncovered and reported a $240 million bribery scheme involving governments and oil companies worldwide. Despite alerting the authorities, he faced years of reta...

The TalkTalk data breach of 2015 was one of the most high profile cybersecurity incidents in the UK. Initially attributed to sophisticated hackers and feared to have exposed the personal data of over 4 million customers, it was later revealed to be the work of teenagers using basic techniques to exploit vulnerabilities in the company’s database. But the damage was already done for TalkTalk. In thi...

In 2011 Wells Fargo bank was thrown into the centre of a scandal that resulted i n it being fined $185 million for creating over 2 million fraudulent accounts without customers’ knowledge. D riven by aggressive sales targets, the bank saw a 43% drop in new account openings and a 55% drop in credit card applications. O ver 5000 employees were fired. In today’s episode of ‘What Just Happened?’...

In March 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 completely disappeared and became one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. The Boeing 777, carrying 239 people, lost contact with air traffic control shortly after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur and, despite extensive search efforts, the plane was never found. In today’s episode of ‘What Just Happened?’, hosts Kate Hartley and Tamara Liitleton are...

This week’s show discusses the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, the largest marine oil spill in history. Hosts Tamara Littleton and Kate Hartley, along with special guest Zaiba Malik, look at how the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers and caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, severely impacting the environment and local communities. BP faced financial colla...

In this episode of “What Just Happened?,” hosts Kate Hartley and Tamara Littleton, with special guest John Brown, explore the enduring relevance of the Nestlé versus Greenpeace controversy over palm oil and deforestation. We delve into how Greenpeace’s campaign against Nestlé in 2010 highlighted the broader issue of palm oil production’s impact on rainforests. Nestlé made several...

The horse meat scandal that erupted in 2013 had a huge impact on major UK food brands and supermarkets. And in this episode of “What Just Happened?,” hosts Kate Hartley and Tamara Littleton, with special guest Dr Mukta Das, discuss how horse meat came to be found in food products and what the impact was. ‘Horsegate’ began when the Food Safety Authority in Ireland discovered horse DNA i...