PR Disasters of 2019

I am part of a couple different Facebook groups for communications professionals.  Members use these groups to connect with resources for stories, vendors, locations for events, etc.  I pop in a couple times a day to see what is happening.  Sometimes I make a comment or offer a suggestion.

Today, one of the more active participants was asking the group to share what they thought were the worst PR disasters of 2019.  Last check there were 50+ comments ranging from Hallmark’s decision to pull a LGBTQ ad (and then reversing the decision), Boeing, and of course, Peloton.
But to me, none of these really are “PR disasters” but rather poor business decisions that once they became public, became something for the PR team to handle.

I’ve written about this before. More often than not it is an operational issue or a business decision that is the “disaster.”

Could the disaster have been averted if the PR person was at the table when these decisions were being made? Perhaps.

So rather than focus on PR disasters, I’ll pose this question.  What were some of the best PR efforts you saw this year?