The Four Global PR Crises of the Year

What we, the little people, can learn from the big troubles of major companies

They are giant corporations serving millions and generating billions. Then, something goes wrong, and as the Americans say, a certain organic material hits the fan. How did they react? Which companies were well prepared and acted with poise, and which ones spiraled out of control?

1. Another one down: Boeing’s airplane crashes

Six years ago, two fatal crashes involving Boeing 737 MAX planes occurred one after the other. At the time, the MAX was the newest version of the world’s most popular passenger jet, with nearly 16,000 Boeing 737 aircrafts of all models flying millions of passengers at any given moment. Unsurprisingly, people began paying close attention to the model they were about to board, sometimes even causing them to change their travel plans.
Safety inspectors quickly identified the problem: in certain conditions, a software bug in the autopilot system caused the plane to suffer an “uncommanded roll” at low altitude, regardless of the pilot’s attempts to stop it. The new model was developed under intense competitive pressure with Airbus, leading to design compromises and insufficient safety evaluations. Boeing managed to weather that storm, the first time that is: executives were swiftly dismissed, and the company pledged “full transparency” in addressing the quality issues.
But then came 2024, and the 737s continued to crash. Even though the two most recent crashes were actually not Boeing’s fault at all (one in Uzbekistan due to a Russian missile strike and another in South Korea due to a bird strike), their stock still plummeted. Boeing’s handling of the current crisis was poor, partly because it relied on the same tools as before: emphasizing transparency by disclosing extensive technical details about production flaws. By doing so, they essentially admitted that the company had long known about faulty planes but did nothing about it. Transparency is definitely important, but a proactive and reassuring response matters much more. How about, less of “here’s where we went wrong” and more “here’s what we’re doing about it now”?

Commentators in the U.S. also noted how swiftly Boeing went from being a 110-year-old corporate icon into a punchline of late-night TV hosts, accelerating its downward spiral (see John Oliver's coverage). Late-night shows in the US are still extremely influential and a viral joke on one of them can rebrand a company’s public image in seconds. Boeing’s PR crisis managers should have been on alert for that front too.

A key takeaway: effective crisis management requires mapping all media avenues, understanding how your field is being covered on each platform and assessing the potential damage each can cause.

2. Unattended Baggage: Delta’s software crash

In mid-July during the peak of travel season, the software company responsible for Delta Airlines’ cybersecurity systems issued a software update. The update turned out to be faulty, shutting down Delta's entire booking system. For five chaotic days, approximately 7,000 Delta flights were canceled, impacting 1.3 million passengers.

Delta responded well, clearly implementing a pre-prepared crisis management plan with a proactive rather than passive approach. Many companies facing PR disasters focus first and foremost on quickly silencing the noise and rush to hire “fixers” that make bad press disappear. Delta, on the other hand, remembered their top priority: their customers.

The airline immediately rolled out a dedicated customer service unit that proactively contacted affected passengers helping them to rebook flights — even with other carriers. Each passenger was informed upfront — before public outrage could spread — that Delta would fully reimburse their tickets and cover all accommodation costs.

This proactive service effort left a surprisingly positive impression. Most passengers felt they had experienced an unfortunate but well-handled mishap rather than a disastrous failure. While Delta incurred direct losses of $550 million, still that might be less costly than if millions of customers had vowed never to fly Delta again.

Key takeaway: If you don’t have a crisis plan ready, you have no basis with which you can adapt in real time.

3. Looking Back in Anger: The Oasis reunion ticket scandal

Since the early 90’s, Manchester-born brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher led the wildly successful pop-rock band Oasis. Despite their fame, the Gallaghers’ relationship was famously volatile, and in 2009, they called it quits. Fifteen years later, the two surprised the music world by announcing a global reunion tour which would kick off in July 2025.

A staggering 1.4 million tickets were up for sale for their UK shows alone, with tens of millions of fans competing over them. Within minutes, every ticket was sold out, leaving millions devastated. The trouble started when Ticketmaster, the primary seller, applied “dynamic pricing,” similar to how airline tickets become more expensive depending on algorithms of supply and demand.

The result? Ticket prices soared to hundreds of percent above face value, constituting what some would consider blatant exploitation. On top of that, thousands of scalpers bought tickets and resold them at even more outrageous prices on platforms such as Viagogo. Devoted fans who missed the original sale were now confronted with tickets going at thousands of pounds per piece.

The tabloids in the UK, long obsessed with the wild antics of the Gallaghers, gleefully pounced on the fiasco. Soon enough, regulators deemed the practice illegal and voided thousands of tickets while refunding affected fans. The Gallaghers themselves also stepped in and acted like the responsible grownups they became, adding new shows with tickets that were sold only via a monitored lottery system with fixed prices.

Key takeaway: Even if your brand thrives on chaos, when a crisis hits, remember to act responsibly and tend to those who made you who you are.

4.Off-Track Drama: Red Bull's scandals

While star driver Max Verstappen cements his legacy as one of Formula 1’s all-time greats, Red Bull Racing public image has shifted from a winning corporate machine into a vipers’ nest of internal feuds. The PR crisis at hand isn’t just an isolated event — it’s also rooted in deeper management issues.

Red Bull’s team is run by a two-headed monster: Christian Horner, the official team principal, and Helmut Marko, an 82-year-old “senior advisor” who wields significant behind-the-scenes influence. Their vague division of authority has fueled constant rumors about whether they work in harmony or can barely stand each other. Not much about the workings of the stern and rather secretive Austrian organization reaches the public. Until it does.

Early in the season, just as rivals McLaren and Ferrari closed the performance gap, a scandal erupted: an employee accused Horner of “misconduct”. Was it sexual misconduct? Bullying? impoliteness? It was hard to tell. Red Bull chose to handle the situation with a hardline approach: We will do the investigating, we will draw the conclusions, and all of it will stay in-house.

An anonymous law firm hired to investigate the incident by the team itself, cleared Horner (what a surprise!) and the accuser was subsequently dismissed. Then, multiple journalists covering motorsports received an anonymous email containing a press packet with WhatsApp screenshots between Horner and the accuser. Still, nothing more than that leaked — perhaps due to Red Bull’s intimidating influence or merely the lack of moral courage on the part of the press. And so for some time, the case was forgotten, and the public attention was diverted toward the weak performance of Mr. Sergio Perez’s, the team’s #2 and his ties with the Mexican billionaire Carlos slim.

On the surface, Red Bull emerged unscathed, successfully crushing the rumors. But this season may just be remembered as the tipping point between long-standing dominance in the race and losing to newer competitors in the World Constructors’ Championship (a loss which bears a heavy financial burden).

And the lesson for the upcoming season? A PR crisis usually doesn’t happen in isolation — it’s often a symptom of deeper issues within an organization which may themselves be the bigger problem.

And finally, a message to managers’ that cross their fingers and hope ‘nothing will leak’: even (and maybe especially) a boarded up entrance will attract curious inquirers. Especially for a brand like Red Bull (whose slogan is ‘Red Bull gives you wings’) that evokes the association of extreme sports and boundless freedom — a fortified and gloomy info wall heavily undermines the brand’s core values.