Kara S Alaimo, Columnist

The Five Biggest PR Blunders of 2021

Public relations lesson No. 1: Word of how companies treat their staffers gets around quickly.

December 31, 2021 at 2:30 PM UTC

Kara Alaimo is an associate professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is the author of “Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — and How We Can Take It Back.”

Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman: Never mind.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

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It’s been a year of big challenges for many companies, with an ongoing pandemic, labor shortages, supply-chain bottlenecks and record inflation. As if all this weren’t enough, some corporations added to their own afflictions with self-made crises caused by dreadful public-relations judgment.

Back, by popular demand, here are my picks for the five worst corporate PR decisions of the year: