The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

The Top PR Wins and Fails of 2025: Part One

• www.mollymcpherson.com • Episode 342

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This week’s episode kicks off Part One of The Top PR Wins and Fails of 2025 by pulling straight from the headlines and social media feeds that dominated the year. Instead of rehashing scandals, it digs into the decisions behind them: who understood the moment they were in, who badly misread their audience, and who confused being everywhere online with being trusted. From cultural power plays to celebrity miscalculations, the pattern is clear and a little uncomfortable. You can win the attention economy and still lose credibility. Part Two, covering the top five PR wins and fails of the year, drops next week.

If you work in strategy or communication, join Molly on December 17 at 12 PM ET for a 60-minute live media training that breaks down a crisis in real time. RFK Jr is being hit from two sides at once. Now Olivia Nuzzi’s memoir is out, weeks after Tatiana Schlossberg’s essay landed a punch. We'll walk through the headlines, the data, the sentiment, press coverage, then map out what a competent response would actually look like. Click here to attend. 


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Molly McPherson:

Hey there, welcome to the PR Breakdown. I'm your host, Molly McPherson. Today's episode is the first half of the top crises of 2025, good and bad. But I'll start off right now by saying the number one crisis for me is getting COVID the week before the holidays. So I'm starting off this episode apologizing for my voice right out the gate. If you want to watch this reveal on video, you can find it on YouTube and on Substack. I revealed it on a live chat. This is the podcast recording. If you want to hear the top five wins and losses of 2025, I'll reveal it this Friday, December 19th at 12 p.m. Eastern Time. Let's get to the first half of the list of the top 10 PR wins and fails of 2025. Before we jump in, here's how I'm judging this. This is my opinion only. It's based on how I look at reputation in my work every day. My metrics, strategy, what choices did they make? Did it help them or hurt them? Reputation. Did trust go up or down? Press, volume, tone, good press, bad press, or no press, and the big one: reputation versus legal wins. You know, people can win in court and still lose public trust. And that matters. My number 10 PR win is South Park. They dealt with major behind-the-scenes business drama with the Paramount Plus issues and distribution chaos, but they came out on top. Their current run, season 27, has been one of the strongest-rated seasons in years. Huge viewer spikes and several episodes pulling in a lot of positive press and new viewers. I've popped in and out of South Park because of my son Connor, but this season, he was home for the summer before he went back to college. We were watching skewing the White House, Trump with Satan's child. There's so many takes that are absolutely hysterical. And the reason why it's a win is because I think it is bringing in so many viewers. Now, they did have one big reputational challenge. Episode two, which was my favorite episode, it was the Got A Nut episode. They uh highlighted an award for young master debaters. They had Cartman modeling himself as Charlie Kirk as a campus debate persona. And that was really the first time I understood who Charlie Kirk was. And then all of a sudden, he ended up murdered, which meant that could have been a lot of trouble for South Park. But they pulled the episode and kept moving on. So why it's a win is because they've stayed culturally central and relevant and also politically dangerous, which is all about their whole brand promise. That's why we're calling it a win. Number 10 PR fail, cracker barrel. In August, the restaurant chain rolled out a simplified logo and a broader modernization plan that removed the barrel, the old timer mascot, and the old country store type wording. That triggered heavy criticism, particularly from conservative commentators. So there was a very steep one-day drop around 10, 12%. So that logo shift was framed in the right-wing media as going woke, which of course then revives a long-running culture war narrative. It was a big story. And when I mention the press metric, some of it is kind of personal. I look at when the press reaches out to me. There are certain stories out there. All of a sudden, every press outlet is getting a hold of me, usually like national networks. And that was definitely the case for this one. I ended up doing an interview with NBC, and it aired on the Today Show. The CEO of Cracker Barrel told investors that the last few months have been difficult, emphasized that guest trust was damaged, and said their playbook now is really just going back to that Southern Americana positioning in an effort to win back traffic. I had people tell me in my DMs about people who did the brand redesign, and they said they were absolutely mortified. The number nine PR win, this is the one that I didn't want to say on the live because I thought, oh, I'm going to get hate from this one. Candace Owens. And it's not because I agree with her, because I don't, but strategically, she executed a brutal pivot. Now, if you're not familiar with Owens, she rose to prominence in the late 2010s through viral videos and appearances defending Donald Trump. She attacked Black Lives Matter, and she argued that systemic racism is overstated. She's worked with organizations like Turning Point USA. And she's hosted shows and podcasts for right-leaning outlets, including the Daily Wire, where she was let go from there. But she has developed a large social media following that treats her as a key right-wing influencer. But she has shifted of late into more general pop culture stories. Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Justin Baldone, Megan Markle. She's just like a Megan Kelly. She wants to get the views and the clicks. So she's moved from being a niche political figure into an algorithm-dominating pop culture commentary. And it worked. And now she's even bigger because she is the villain in the Erica Kirk story, where a lot of people view Erica Kirk as the villain. Many people are noticing that Erica Kirk now is doing a lot of higher profile interviews, Fox News, the recent CBS, Barry Weiss Town Hall. She was also part of the New York Times Book Summit. But she's condemning these conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk's killing. And she's explicitly saying to Owens and others to stop.

Speaker:

The podcaster Candace Owens. Okay. At one time, a friend of Charlie's, at one time, an employee of Turning Point. She has been one of the main peddlers of these conspiracies. And she is making a huge amount of money on it. She is building her business off of these lies. What do you want to say to her and the other people that are putting these lies out into the world right now? Stop. That's it. That's all I have to say. Stop.

Molly McPherson:

Candace Owens is responding. She's using her show and platforms to double down. She's implying that there's an inside job. She's questioning Turning Points finances, releasing texts involving Charlie to support her suspicions. She's also gone very personal against Erica Kirk, accusing her of quote, Meghan Markle syndrome, which is you want privacy but publicity and on your own terms. And she compares Erica's appeals for deference as a widow to the tactics that Owens used to complain about around Black Lives Matter. The current state of the feud, if you're watching it, I have to give the nod to Candace Owens here because she's using evidence. She's does have a prior relationship with Charlie Kirk, and it is getting her a lot of the views. And so at the end of 2025, that's a PR win. Loser number nine, Blue Origin, and every person on that flight. You remember the Blue Origin flight that launched an all-female crew, including Gail King and Katie Perry. This took place in April of this year. It launched in West Texas. It was in space a little over 10 minutes. But the reason why this was such a big fail, a massive fail, were the reputational casualties. Lauren Sanchez, who's now Lauren Sanchez Bezos, of course, married to Jeff Bezos. She didn't receive as much reputational blowback because this type of grasp for relevance is kind of part of her brand, so it fits. But Katy Perry, Gail King, they lost serious reputational currency doing this flight. As most people saw, it wasn't really going into space. It was a brief micro gravity period where people could float around a cabin when they can look back at Earth. But there were a lot of camera-friendly activities. And Gail King later talked about being both terrified and exhilarated. Katy Perry made headlines because she was singing a snippet of what a wonderful world. And she brought the Daisy in space and referred back to her daughter, Daisy. Then when the capsule and the booster came and landed safely, King and Perry both kissing the ground. I just know it was a massive, massive fail. Winner number eight, a name I never would have put on this list, but it's Tatiana Schlossberg. And by extension, Caroline Kennedy, her mother. This isn't a PR crisis. It's a life crisis, but the communication was strategically brilliant. She published an essay in The New Yorker. It was published on November 22nd. That's a symbolic date. It was the anniversary of the JFK assassination. Saturday releases, not something common. You don't typically see that. But in this case, this release owned the Sunday News Cycle and it carried into the week. And her piece emphasized such substance about illness and grief and motherhood and fear and mortality, but then widening that emotional frame to her mother, Caroline Kennedy, and everything that she's gone through. She lost her father to an assassin's bullet, her uncle to an assassin's bullet. She lost her mother, Jacqueline Onassis, at a very young age. She was in her 60s when she died, but she also lost her brother, JFK Jr. in 1999, of course, on a flight over the Vineyard Sound, along with his wife, Carolyn, and her sister. Caroline Kennedy has experienced a lot of grief. And for Tatiana to bring her in was important. But it also created a very controlled line of demarcation between Caroline Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Caroline Kennedy, back in January of 2025, she made a plea, put it on video, and she's normally social media shy to say that Congress should not confirm her first cousin, RFK Jr., to be the head of Health and Human Services. She called him a predator and then laid it out. In the live chat Herb in the community, he said this is the Kennedys are Molly's Roman Empire. And that's somewhat true because I know a lot about the Kennedys. I don't even need to research any of it because I know so much about it. But there has always been a line between the RFK kids and the JFK kids, that Jackie Onassis is the one who put that line there. She felt, if you read history and the books, that Ethel and RFK's kids were kind of wild. And when RFK was killed, there were 12 kids, or actually 11. Ethel, his wife, was pregnant with their last child worry, but they always were just kind of wild children. Jackie Kennedy wanted to separate her two kids from that kind of rabble-rousing crew. And she did a very good job of that. There's just always been a stigma with that side of the family, and it continues. And Caroline Kennedy and Tatiana Slosberg made sure that line remained. Which leads us to the number eight PR loss. That's RFK Jr. And by extension, his wife Cheryl Hines and Olivia Nootsi. RFK Jr.'s public reputation and behavior has been in the headlines for decades. His wife Cheryl Hines recently had to take the reputational fallout by proximity. She had to go out and do the damage control when the story about Olivia Nootsi, so she was a fast-rising Washington correspondent. She wrote for New York Magazine, and she's profiled a lot of politicians, including RFK Jr. And in 2024, it emerged that she had undisclosed a quote, personal digital relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while covering his presidential campaign. So that led New York Magazine to put her on leave and then part ways with her. Since then, her relationship with her fiance, Ryan Lizza, he worked for Politico, those two were going back and forth with each other. So that became a personal entanglement, to put it lightly. Then Vanity Fair came in, named her as a West Coast editor, just as Simon and Schuster announced that her memoir, American Canto about Trump and RFK Jr. and her own implosion, which it definitely is. She would make my list, but she's so late and not that many people know her. She'd probably be in my top 20 list. But she is a part of the RFK Jr. story. So she's framing it now that she admitted doing something wrong. But if you know RFK Jr. and how he works, it is absolutely playbook. And that's the reason why he is on this list right now, because it seems as if every turn with RFK Jr. chips away at the legacy, not only the Kennedy family, but his father, Robert Francis Kennedy. And that's what puts him on this list. A PR winner, somewhat controversial when I announced it on my live chat. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. The reason why I added them as a PR win is because they are the couple that shows how to manage a long-term celebrity split without detonating your entire brand. Nicole Kidman is in the middle of divorcing Keith Urban after their separation went public on September 30th, citing irreconcilable differences after 19 years of marriage and two daughters together. Now, online there's a lot of chatters of affair rumors, not just with Keith Urban, but also with Nicole, more on Keith's side. Nicole is solidly a list. Keith, I'd say, is a list adjacent. But the two of them together were able to navigate this without letting it blow up, which is the reason why I consider it a win. They didn't feed the machine, they managed it. Loser number seven. Now, this person could also be on a PR win list, but overall he's going to be on the loser list because I think he's going to pay for things down the road. And even though this guy has a lot of fans and a lot of people in his corner, he's still getting a lot of losses here. And that is Justin Baldone. As you know, he is deeply embroiled in an ongoing legal battle with his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively, who is suing him and Wayfair, his production company that he worked with, for sexual harassment, retaliation, and alleged smear campaign. Right now, Blake Lively is seeking more than $160 million in a suit against him for reputational damage. Now, there's been a lot of back and forth with the legal cases. His countersuit against Lively in the New York Times was dismissed in mid-2025, but in the civil trial on her claims has been pushed to May 2026 because of the judge's calendar. The overall PR industry problem is alleging that a crisis firm who worked with Justin Baldone engaged in a broader Aster Turf online campaign against Blake Lively. I have strongly come out and said that I do not believe that Justin Baldoney's team was a part of this massive PR smear campaign. I think a lot of celebrities out there and publicists engage in these negative back and forth campaigns, but I really believe that this entire lawsuit stemmed from Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. More specifically, Ryan Reynolds. I don't think he liked how close Blake and Justin Baldone were. But the fallout has hit Justin Baldone very hard because right now he is not working. I just did an interview with People Magazine that should be out soon if it's not out already. And we were discussing the fact that he does not have a lot of work. He's taken a major financial hit. And reputationally, studios might bulk working with him, even though the public is there's a big significant group of the public who are on his side. I think legally and financially, he's taking big losses, regardless of the public sentiment. So stepping out of the spotlight, whether voluntary or not, can read his dignity and that contrast matters. However, in the long run, I think he's taken a huge hit. PR winner number six, Chris Martin and Coldplay. At a July 2025 Coldplay show at Gillette Stadium, the camera landed on astronomer CEO Andy Byron and his HR chief people person, Kristen Cabot.

Speaker:

Oh, look at these two. All right, come on. You're okay? Oh, what? Either they're having an affair or they're just very shunning.

Molly McPherson:

And when they realized they were on screen, they pulled apart and Chris Martin joked. That clip went viral, and Internet sluice did their job, identified both executives, and within days, Byron resigned or was forced to resign, followed by Cabot as the company astronomer tried to contain the fallout. The reason why I put him as a PR win is because on later tour stops, Martin briefly addressed the incident in one of those moments that you knew people would pick up online, and then that would be shared virally. But it was a way for him not to come out with a statement about it. He could stay out of the mix. And a lot of press out there, including the BBC, they framed the whole saga as essentially neutral or even mildly positive for Coldplay's brand because it casts Martin as an unwitting catalyst rather than a villain and focused the scrutiny instead on astronomer leadership and PR strategy, which is exactly where it belonged. And that's why it's a win. He got the awareness bump without becoming the villain. And PR loser number six, Diddy. From a reputation standpoint, Sean Combs is effectively in R. Kelly territory right now. His brand is radioactive. His business empire has been gutted. The serious conviction that happened in July 2025 when he was convicted on two prostitution-related counts tied to his so-called freak-off parties. So he was acquitted of the marquee headline racketeering and sex trafficking conspiracy charges. Since then, he's been sentenced to a multi year prison term. A list collaborators, brands, institutions will likely Distance themselves from Diddy because they don't want to be associated with that type of risk. It far outweighs any upside for branding with Diddy. It's not just a scandal. It's like a seated reputational tune. There's no comeback narrative that feels plausible right now for Diddy. All right, everyone. Thank you so much for your patience with my voice as I work through this list. Next week's episode will be the PR wins and losses one through five. But if you want to know what they are a little bit early, you can tune into my Substack. You can find me at Molly McPherson, and we'll have a live chat. That way you can jump in and give your feedback on what you think about the list, what you think of my choices, and who you think I might have missed. You can join me on Substack on Friday, December 19th at 12 p.m. Eastern Time. Otherwise, I'll see you here next week. Bye for now.

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Molly McPherson

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