December 9, 2025 • 39 mins
This week’s episode gives you a front row seat to my Friday live sessions, where culture, crisis, and community collide in the best possible way. Think of it as a sampler plate of reputational highs and lows. Some hits. Some misses. A few absolute disasters. And plenty of sharp commentary from the people who show up ready to spar.
We dug into the stories bubbling across media, politics, entertainment, and news.
Here’s what we got into:
• The tightening screws around Pete Hegseth and the trip wires Trump keeps casually laying in public.
• Signal Gate, and why the smallest digital habits always tell the biggest story.
• The American Eagle campaign, Pantone’s baffling color of the year, and the new era of rage bait.
• Spotify Wrapped’s identity crisis, including why the app suddenly thinks everyone is eighty.
• The Lizzo Substack pivot and why her cancellation narrative leaves out the part that actually mattered.
• The Belichick and Jordan Hudson saga that refuses to stop producing plot twists.
• Erica Kirk’s full rebrand tour and what happens when an influencer decides to shed the bling.
• The royal chaos machine that somehow keeps spinning even when no one is asking it to.
• The early contenders for 2025’s best and worst crises, including a few names the audience threw in with real enthusiasm.
If you want the unfiltered version, join us live next Friday. Right now, the streams run through Substack, but soon you’ll be able to watch on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. The room always warms up fast. The opinions never stay polite for long.
Until then, pay attention to what people actually react to, not what the talking points tell you. That’s where the truth hides.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
Hey there, welcome back to the PR Breakdown.
I'm your host, Molly McPherson.
Welcome back to all mylisteners, or welcome in.
Either way, you picked a goodone.
This week's episode is a tasteof the live sessions I do every
Friday, or at least I'm tryingto.
On Substack soon, thanks toSubstack Technology, I will be
(01:41):
able to live streamsimultaneously on TikTok,
YouTube, Instagram, andFacebook.
So everyone's gonna be joiningthe party soon.
If you haven't checked in on mySubstack live chats, every week
we dig into the hot stories thatare bubbling up in culture and
crisis land.
I bring the stories I'mwrestling with, I'm watching,
(02:06):
I'm trying to figure out.
And then the community in thechat brings their knowledge,
their questions, and yes,thankfully, their sharp humor.
For this episode, I pulledtogether the PR hits and misses
that we were all talking aboutlast Friday.
Think of it as a sampler plateof reputation chaos unfolding in
(02:28):
real time, or at least a coupledays ago.
And you know how it goes.
Give people the floor or thechat, and suddenly everyone has
votes, opinions, links, clips,and I encourage it.
So take a listen to the episodeand come back next week when I
break down the best and worst PRcrises of the year, 2025.
(02:50):
I've been asking people onsocial media and in these live
chats to share their choicesbecause coming up with my list
is half the fun.
The other half is definitelygetting your list.
You're gonna hear some of thechoices that came in the chat
last week, and I would love tohear yours as well.
Take a listen, and hopefullynext time you can join us live.
(03:12):
Hello everyone.
I did a pivot here.
Typically on Fridays, I do mytop, what do we talk about?
Our top PR stories for the weekthat I'm watching
reputation-wise.
But it is the end of the year.
I thought, why not give you someof the PR hits and misses for
the week?
I want to get your thoughts onit as well.
(03:34):
And then give me your choices.
Let's do the quick hits of theweek.
Does anyone have any thoughts,hits and misses for the week?
I'm doing so many.
I have best and worst hits.
We got to settle on what we'regonna do.
I'm just gonna give you a coupleof them, and then we're going to
end here with our list becausewhen people start thinking about
(03:56):
2025, and as Manny pointed out,yesterday was the impromptu,
that was Vaultish.
I like how he said that it wasVaultish list.
And the names were fabulous.
They were really, really good,the brands and the names.
But I had someone come into myDMs and start giving me Scuttle,
which is one of the great thingsthat I love, is when people give
(04:19):
me scuttle about certain things.
Someone also mentioned to methat AdAge named Astronomer, the
ad, the Ryan Reynolds producedad with Gwyneth Peltrow for
Astronomer.
And I know so many people thinkthis.
I am not one of them.
It was listed as one of theirbest ads of 2025.
(04:41):
I'm not quite sure of the metricthat they are using, but my
metric of reputation makes it amassive, massive fail when you
send millions, probably, sixfigures minimum, maybe up to a
million.
I think I read a million to RyanReynolds to fix a reputation
(05:04):
problem when he's in the middleof a reputation problem.
So go ahead for your list.
We can put down Ryan, we can putdown Blake.
So many people already did that.
So quickly for this week, let'sjust do our PR hits and misses
for this week.
I have a couple.
Right before I hopped on, I wastexting back and forth with a
client.
When people are pissed offonline and what they complain
(05:25):
about, and then when they startto complain, they start to poke
and dig.
And then that's how these criseshappen because they usually
start with something.
That's going to be my leadofffor my list for the week.
The watch list that I sent isthe first story.
So every Monday, if you're inthe membership, you'll get this
list because I also want to knowwhat you're watching too.
100% Pete Heggseth.
(05:46):
The screws are tightening sohard on this guy.
But what I noticed was the presson Sunday with Donald Trump when
he was explaining Pete Hegsethand doing the second shot.
He was agreeing doubling down insupport of Pete Hegseth.
But to me, how he said it almostwhen he came out and doubled
(06:09):
down, it's he set a tripwire.
Pete Hagseth is on his way out.
He's setting up Pete Hagseth tofail.
And then Pete Hegseth is settingup Admiral Frank, but actually I
think he goes by Mitch, Bradleyto fail.
So it is a cluster clock, if youknow what I mean.
So I actually think PeteHagseth, and it even though the
(06:31):
Pete Hagsh is a Secretary ofDefense, I won't call him
anything else.
In my work, in my client work,it's the same thing.
And like I was saying, when Iwas going back and forth with
this manager, there are justtells that are out there.
And the tells on Trump andwatching him, I was watching the
cabinet meeting live this weekbecause Greg, he was doing the,
they needed them to fill in onthe new news.
And then I kept it running, andthey happened to his station
(06:52):
happened to run the cabinetlive, and I'm watching Trump
fall asleep.
It's not only all the othersundowning in the middle of the
day, the things that arehappening, but I don't think he
cares.
He just doesn't care about anyof these people.
All right.
So Hegseth, definitely one ofthem.
Another one, I threw this intoday.
Is it just me?
Let me know.
(07:12):
Did anyone get their Spotifywrapped?
All right.
So, and let me know this week ifyou guys have anything else this
week.
Also, Signal Gate is crushing.
That's what I want to say.
The screws are tightening onPete Hegseth.
Remember the whole signal gate?
I did a podcast about that awhile back of Pete Heggseth
using Signal app.
Oxford University names RageBait as word of the year.
(07:34):
I think, oh, what did someonejust tell me this?
I think it was on TikTok.
They were comparing.
I know what it was.
Well, thank you, Gregory.
So we all know American Eagle.
Now, I'm gonna tell you thisright now.
You guys let me know.
Is American Eaglereputation-wise a win or a loss?
We kind of talked about ityesterday.
But American Eagle, what do youthink?
(07:54):
And it and it ties hand in handwith Sidney Sweeney, right?
But Oxford University, theirnames Rage Bait is Oxford
University names Rage Bait asword of the year, and Greg says
it's two words.
And he's right, it is two words.
Nothing gets by Greg.
But there's rage bait choices.
American Eagle to me is a ragebait ad campaign.
(08:16):
The other ad campaign from thisweek, Spotify thinks you're 80
because you stream jazz andclassical.
Okay.
My 23-year-old was 73.
My 21-year-old was 74.
Or no, 77.
I was 70.
Yeah, that's why the whole thingis great.
The stock market says AmericanEagles will win herb.
(08:38):
Yeah.
I'm going to put them in the wincolumn.
I think they'll probably be inour win column.
I think they're going to be inour win column.
But the other brand, did anybodysee?
And this is what someone wastexting me on the back end
there, a journalist, the pantomecolor of the year.
I posted it on Substack todayand also on Threads.
Anybody see the Pantone Color ofthe Year?
(08:58):
And I wrote back to thisjournalist.
They're at a network, they writefor a network.
I said, it seems very AmericanEagle-esque.
Did anybody see the Pantonecolor of the year?
I had posted when I heard thename of it.
It reminded me of PrivateDancer.
It's cloud.
It's cloud.
Yeah, it's not a color.
It's like a creamy, it's like anoatmeal that's been sitting out
(09:19):
for a couple days.
Pantone's president talked aboutit, really?
And she's a black woman.
Oh, I have to see then theresponse from Pantone.
It's not getting good vibeshere.
Now you could say they chosethis cloud white because where
we are right now is in nothing aworld of nothingness, like
nothing.
But yeah, so it's cloud dancer.
(09:40):
So yeah, in my head, all I canhear the brain worm is I'm your
private dancer.
But to make it in this day andage of animals, do I want to say
xenophobic?
I guess I could.
I wonder how it landed.
Cloud Dancer is a NativeAmerican name.
Oh, that's in there as well.
Caleb, you love private dancer.
So there's that.
So there's Pantone.
(10:01):
I said this is going to be a badcrisis and they will not
recover.
They will not recover from this.
It wasn't a cancellation.
They're still in it.
So yesterday, I'm at my salonand I'm sitting there on
Substack, and there someone hasjust opened a Substack and doing
(10:23):
something that is straight outof the Molly McPherson playbook.
I am not talking about Blake.
I'm it is not Blake, which bythe way, December 17th, 7 p.m.
Eastern time, Dr.
Abby is coming in the vault.
We are going to do a one-yearroundup on Blake Lively, Ryan
Reynolds, and Justin Baldone.
(10:45):
Will Blake and Ryan be on the2025 list?
What do you guys think?
What do you think?
Okay, Herb saying Ashton, Joeand Sophie.
No, Caleb, I like your timing,but not Joe and Sophie.
No, same time of year.
I'll do more hints.
I'll do, I'll do more hintsbecause I have to.
Oh, Ashton could you, by theway, his wife, Amila, right?
(11:05):
Where did she pop up recently?
I think she did an article aboutbeing in the mom's group or
something like that.
And I thought, ooh, that wassmart.
So she's trying to distanceherself brand-wise from her
husband, Ashton.
Yeah, something in town.
She was doing something in town.
Do you think by the at the endof 2024 that we'll still be
talking about Blake Lively atthe end of 2025?
(11:26):
No.
Well, yes, Louise, I did becausea year ago, the Friday before
the Christmas holiday is whenBlake Lively filed that
complaint against JustinBeldoney.
So we are going to do a one-yearrevisit.
So December 17th, 7 p.m., if youwant to join me in the vault.
It's for members only in thevault.
We are doing a deep dive withDr.
(11:47):
Abby.
I'm going to talk about thereputation of it, and Dr.
Abby's going to talk about thepsychology.
Mila Kunas, thank you, Herb.
I can always rely on you.
Reveals she's head of the HOA.
That's what it was.
Oldheimers Association.
For her, and I love this, herBeverly Hills neighborhood.
It's like she tried, but shedid.
Oh, Prince Harry Skit on StephenKilbert Colbert.
(12:11):
Even as a Brit, Carla, you're aBrit.
Who the Washington Post, anopinion essay in the Washington
Post, it was so biting aboutMegan's new program comparing
her to Wallace Simpson.
It was really, really good.
That when you're a royal in loveand you've been excommunicated
or by choice, which really kindof in a way, Harry's not a king,
(12:32):
but they kind of excommunicatedthemselves.
What do you do?
You sit and you make jam and yougo on Stephen Colbert.
You go on Stephen Colbert,right?
Okay.
So we bounced around a lot.
But no, this artist, and thenI'll wrap here and then we'll go
to our list, our tops.
Sephora's Christmas ad.
Someone tell me, what was theSephora Christmas ad?
Did they do something?
(12:52):
Yeah, it's not Wallace Simpson.
Yeah.
Like Wallace Simpson, theyquoted that Wallace Simpson said
something.
Love, love is a difficult thing.
When you sacrifice for love,which let's face it, so this
artist is on Substack now.
And this artist posted there'stwo essays on there Mariah and
Sephora.
So I'll look at the Sephora adwith Mariah Carey.
(13:14):
Interesting.
But this artist was canceled twoyears ago and is still canceled
and went on Substack and wrotean essay about being canceled.
And I'll give you the title,I'll give you the title of it
and see if you can guess it fromthe title.
Cancel Me Again, a canceledwoman's take on why everyone
(13:35):
should get canceled at leastonce.
Who wrote that article?
I saw that right away, and I hadto read it.
And I read it and I alreadystarted writing it.
I went, girl, but I can't writethat because then I'll be lashed
at that.
But but when I say girl, I callmy daughters girl, I call
everybody girls.
I want to write, girl, you werenot canceled because of these
(13:56):
reasons.
And do you think who do we got?
Sherry, Chris, you got it.
Straight out of the MollyMcPherson playbook of when
you're canceled on one platform,you go to a you go to the
opposite platform and you writethere.
So Lizzo showing up on Substack,it's like showing up on
LinkedIn.
(14:17):
I mean, you would never expectit.
But she's in the replies.
I mean, I believe that that'sher in the reply.
I was reading her essay aboutbeing canceled, and she's naming
all these things that she did.
And my podcast next week isgoing to be about it.
But I read it and she said, Thisis what the reasons why she was
canceled.
(14:37):
Doing a smoothie detox, wearinga mask, not wearing a mask,
playing a crystal flute, crying,complaining, saying I make music
for black women, unknowinglyusing, do you remember that when
she used the slur in a song?
Which I think was before thecancellation, and she changed
the song, whatever.
She talked about, I don't knowif she went to a Lakers game
where she went on, she was inthe court and she kind of had an
(14:59):
outfit on that showed her buttcheeks.
But anyway, but when this wholearticle she's saying about being
canceled, hey, if you haven'tbeen canceled, yet what did she
not do in this article?
What did she not do?
She did not name the reason whyshe was canceled.
She was not canceled for thosereasons.
And she does mentionconservatives came after her or
whatever.
When conservatives come afteryou, especially if you're a
(15:20):
singer, if you're Lizzo, you'rea black singer, you're a black
singer, loud, proud, you are allout.
You are you and you make noexcuses who you are.
Her brand was fantastic.
It was close to it was notcanceled for those reasons.
Yeah, conservatives may not haveliked what Lizzo did, but that's
not why she was canceled.
(15:40):
If conservatives don't like youand you're Lizzo, that's not
cancel.
That's engagement.
That's what makes you big.
It's a pain.
You're not being canceled.
You're being boosted becauseit's negativity online, and
that's what makes peopleimportant online.
You were canceled because of howyou treated your dancers.
And more than that, and itactually that wasn't the reason
(16:01):
why you were canceled, really.
I'm actually writing thisarticle, my rebuttal to Lizzo
right now.
And it's actually more of aLizzo let me help you.
She was canceled because shehired Marty Singer, who is a
lawyer, Bill Cosby, CharlieSheen.
Come on.
And the response was to go afterthe dancers.
(16:22):
That's why Lizzo was canceled.
She wraps up my PR miss for theweek.
That is my biggest PR miss forthe week.
And she does not deserve to comeback.
Now, I will say I don't blameLizzo because this is her
representation.
She needs new representationbadly.
And reading her article, maybeit's just me if you guys want to
(16:44):
read it.
I feel parts of it were her, andthen other parts weren't her.
And if I had to guess, her teamis made up, she has the lawyer,
Marty Singer.
Who else Marty Singer in ourgroup?
Remember, we talked about MartySinger?
Jeremy Renner hired MartySinger.
That's how I look at it as areputation manager.
How do you know someone's guiltyin Hollywood or in the whole
(17:05):
entertainment world?
Is when they hire Marty Singer.
Because he's the lawyer who getsoff people who are guilty.
And Lizzo, but they think, oh,he's a bulldog, but he does not
understand online sentiment andhow it works.
He does not understand.
There is zero accountability toit.
So that's our podcast next week.
What do you guys think about thewhole Lizzo thing?
(17:27):
Is it just me?
Am I screaming in the woods?
Okay, so that's my week.
That's my week for oh, I joinedlate.
I'm in Lizzo's private channel.
You are?
Who else is in Lizzo's privatechannel?
What is what is Lizzo's privatechannel?
Lizzo's Substack rebrand is sowild, isn't it?
(17:49):
It is so contrarian to herbrand.
It is so contrarian to herbrand.
I completely agree.
I think oh, this is what I wassaying.
Her team does not have a truereputation manager on there,
someone who understandsreputation management.
She has publicists, and here'sthe thing: this is nothing
against publicists, but too manypeople in the entertainment
(18:12):
industry or in the space, andeven if it's not entertainment,
even if it's, I deal with a lotof content creators and
influencers.
One person actually, I'll saythis on TikTok.
I posted, what are the oh,juictey?
What kind of juicy T is shedropping in that private
channel?
Exactly.
But speaking of Juic T, and I'mjust gonna give you the heads up
right now, I cannot tell you thejuicy tea but someone in my
(18:35):
comments asked the asked askedme, how come you didn't comment
on this?
And I let it go.
And the reason why I didn't isbecause I was hired to help
someone because of that saidcrisis that was unsaid to me,
but it but it was huge.
And this person, but it's thesame thing.
They get publicists who come inand they hire publicists who act
(18:59):
like crisis managers.
Publicists are there to getpress for people, to get
engagement.
Crisis managers and reputationalmanagers like me, we're out
there looking for risk and wetell you what not to do.
We want to pull you back in.
And publicists want to put youback out there.
When when a crisis happens, whatthese publicists do is they go
(19:20):
out, they put the stuff outthere to try and claim it, and
you can't.
That's when you lose it.
I think it was just a ploy tochange your image.
Yeah, it was.
Lizzo is trying sometimes whenyou feel that someone watches
you and takes advice from youseriously.
I think someone on Lizzo's teamlooked at my stuff because I've
(19:41):
done a lot of Lizzo content.
I think I did six posts twoyears ago, but I did a
documentary with ABC News.
I did the nightline NPR, andI've said the same thing over
and over in my playbook.
And actually, this big kind ofcrisis that happened in the news
that I really can't comment on.
The person at the center of ittold me.
(20:03):
They said, I follow you.
And this was a statement that Ithought would follow your
framework.
And I was, oh my gosh, youforget.
You forget the power of socialmedia.
I was wow.
And I did say on the thing, Iwent, nicely done, but there was
a butt in there because therewas this outlier thing that they
had to deal with.
I'm really happy you mentionedthat.
(20:23):
I didn't do that research yet.
I'm gonna thank you for that inthe podcast.
Speaking of Divine, Erica Kirk,I forgot to add her on our list,
you guys.
I think I'm gonna give EricaKirk.
I'm not a fan, but people in myvault know in my community here,
we know I'm obsessed with EricaKirk.
I'm obsessed with Erica Kirk.
And the reason why I'm obsessedwith her is she is reputation in
(20:45):
real time.
We are watching the chameleon,the chameleon.
Miss Demure, yes.
I posted that, I think yesterdayor two days ago, when she showed
up at the New York Times BookSummit when she showed up on
stage in a capelet and the LouisBaton standing there with the
cape and the sweater dress andall the bling is gone.
(21:07):
Erica Kirk is one of our people.
So, what's your list, you guys?
So coming out next week, OliviaNutzi.
So with the JFK or at The RFK,she's gonna get for the week,
she's gonna get thumbs down forthe week.
Thoughts on the Pantone Color ofthe Year.
We talked about that.
That is apparently growing to bea PR miss, like a big time miss.
(21:31):
But I learned in the chat that,oh, Dr.
Oz, funny, a client that I hadthis week, someone really,
really big in a space, I'll justsay.
I was I was going through alltheir stuff and I said, Let's
clean up our media section,okay?
You have Jay Shetty, Dr.
(21:53):
Oz, and Mel Robbins.
That doesn't carry the flex thatyou think it does.
I didn't say it with that snark,but they went, what?
Really?
I went, Really?
Take it off.
There's a Vice News doc.
Oh, oh, Ryan.
There's a Vice News document, uhdocumentary about Jordan Hudson
(22:14):
and Belichick coming out nextweek that will be amazing.
Guess who is supposed to be onextra on Tuesday?
Me, because I'm in thedocumentary.
Core Extra.
They have reached out to me, theproducers of Vice, twice to do a
back and forth with.
Is it Derek Howe?
Derek Huff.
Is he Huff or Howe on Dancingwith the Stars?
I keep going round and round andI keep forgetting it.
(22:37):
And they said it yesterday, orthey sent me another email
yesterday, like, can you do aninterview with him, Derek Howe?
We'll do the intro, blah, blah.
I'm like, I can't.
I'm traveling, I'm speaking, I'mon stage.
But yeah, I'm appearing, Iappear in the Vice News
documentary about Jordan, JordanHudson and Bill Belichick.
I filmed it when it was warm inNewton, Massachusetts.
Yeah, so I hope I hope you watchit.
(22:57):
It's it, oh, and can I tell you,it will be amazing.
It will be amazing, 100%.
It's gonna be great.
Yeah, Jordan.
Oh, oh, well, is that gonna beBill Belichick in our list?
And Jordan Hudson, JordanHudson, Jordan Hudson.
What would she be?
A win or fail?
Honestly, you guys, what do youthink?
Because no one likes her, right?
(23:20):
But she's someone kind of like aGwyneth.
I'm not that I putting out thelevel of a Gwyneth, but people
hate watcher.
And so she's getting so muchpublicity, even like she was
supposed to be on Dancing withthe Stars.
And she can't, and actually,that was breaking as I was doing
the interview with Vice News.
(23:41):
And I told the producer, theydidn't even know that.
I told them that about JordanHudson being asked, and they and
she got pulled four hours beforefilming or something.
It was crazy.
She got they got pulled becauseshe wouldn't cooperate.
She was being difficult, sayinga win.
I think I might give her a win.
Jordan Hudson is American Eagle.
Oh, you're right.
(24:02):
They're gonna get the win.
We may not like it, but they'regonna get the win.
Bill is totally on the list withthe upcoming Hall of Fame vote
coming up.
Oh, I see that.
Kraft and Belichick.
And I'm gonna be honest, betweenall of us, part of the reason
why I was happy I couldlegitimately say I don't want to
do the interviews for the Vicething, because even
participating in it, I kind offelt a little because when
(24:23):
you're in Patriots Nation, youjust kind of support the cause.
And I don't want to be comingout against a coach.
I think Jordan is crashing withBill's win lost red.
Yeah, I know.
It's I I saw that there's avideo of him helping her with
the coat.
They can't, it can't, right?
Mike Vrabel compared to BillBelichick.
Mike Vrabel is almost in a waykind of erasing all this stuff.
(24:45):
On another side note, does theU.S.
care for Steven Bartlett?
Oh, Carla.
That's so interesting.
Remember when I said the MelRobbins, Dr.
Oz, Jay Shetty?
I kind of feel, even though Idon't, I personally don't put
him in there, but I think in theworld, there's, I think it maybe
(25:06):
it's just me.
You guys let me know if youthink this.
That in the reasonable world,that's a word that I use a lot
in my work.
I always tell people whenthey're getting attacked by
trolls.
Just remember, just look for thereasonable people, you know?
But reasonable people now arevery anti-grift, which is why
the Jay Shetty's, the RachelHollis, the Mel Robbins of the
(25:27):
world make me insane.
Because it's grift.
The fact that a Mel Robbins ispeople go to her for therapy
makes me insane, really.
But some people put StephenBartlett in there because he he
platforms these people, right?
But you tell me, Carla.
(25:48):
I mean, that's kind of your neckof the woods, your your neck of
the island.
Mel Robbins is not a therapist.
Bartlett is a huge grifter andoh, and spreader of
misinformation.
See?
Yeah, I actually kind of saidthe same thing about this, about
appearing, because there wereclients that appeared with them.
(26:09):
And and I ended up saying, Hadyou come to me, I would have
said, no.
It makes total sense.
But I forgot what he did.
I did a post about it.
I can't remember what it was.
There was a big thing.
He's terrible, Michelle.
Yeah.
The Times took him apart, thenhid the article behind a
paywall.
I think I remember this.
Carla, tell me what he did.
I forgot.
(26:30):
The BBC went for him midwaythrough the Dragon's Den season.
He's also on the red pill listas he's done interviews claiming
when you're at the top ofeveryone, he wants to take you
down and the BBC don't protectyou, which is not true given the
volume of scandals and coversup.
Yes.
Trump canceled Kennedy CenterProductions for the Feature
Drawing to be held there.
Okay.
Of course.
Oh my gosh.
(26:51):
He kissed a player withoutconsent.
Thank you, Selma.
That's it.
That's what it was.
Thank you for telling me.
That's exactly what it was.
Yep.
So it really tracks.
Right?
It tracks.
Okay, you guys.
So give me also, give me yourlist, though, for just for our
year list, our roundup.
(27:11):
So I had a lot of people in thechat, in our thread, my
community thread in the vault.
Give me their choices.
I think I already know my numberone positive.
I think I already know it.
I think it's gotta be solid.
Tell me who Sydney Sweeney,Duffy, Karen Reed.
Where does Karen Reed fall, youguys?
Oh, Travis and Taylor.
(27:32):
Yeah, we talked about thatyesterday.
Yeah, I mean, geez.
Do you get any better than that?
Cracker barrel.
Yep.
He's apparently overinflated thenumbers, but it was bad comms on
his part.
The millions were for the agencygroup, not social chain of
loans.
The times went digging into theaccounts.
Oh, and he's also creating hisown media agency now.
Oh, that's what they all do.
That's what they all do.
(27:53):
I know, right?
Megan Markle! Megan Markle! Hasanyone even mentioned Meghan
Markle in our 2025 list?
What does Megan?
Is Megan positive or negative?
If we're looking atanalytically, okay, I actually
have to come up with myparameters too.
Press mention, public sentiment,social engagement.
(28:16):
Those are the three things.
And then maybe the outlier isare they garbage or not?
But where does Megan Marklefall?
Seriously.
She gets press crazy, though Irefuse to ever do any more press
around with Megan Markle.
I'll do it on my own, but I'mnot going to ever do press
because the press always,always, always for clicks.
They always make it negative.
Always.
(28:36):
And I'm sick of that.
She's pivoting.
Oh yeah, Carla, you're UK.
I would love your opinion, butnot there yet.
I think Markle is positiveconsidering how low she started.
You know, what are we basinghigh and low?
I honestly think her suits Tigyears.
That was the right direction.
Did you guys follow her then?
(28:56):
I followed Tig really early, andI feel she was different than so
many other actresses out there.
She got the royal, let's say thepedigree of it all, but I think
she missed out on millions ofendorsement deals and other
things.
I think she was cusping to bemuch bigger, not because of her
acting, which I think is mid atbest, but she was a terrific
(29:21):
influencer.
And going the Harry route, theUK are bored to death of the
hate articles.
I'm sad about her lack of effortand her philanthropy.
Yeah.
But they need to make money.
They need money.
They need money.
Someone else just reached out tome too.
I'd have to talk to them,someone who worked with her.
(29:41):
I'm like, oh yeah, we can chat.
We can definitely chat.
Just seems to be going incircles.
It was a huge sacrifice for her,and she missed out on a lot,
Carla.
Yeah.
Don't you think?
I think she put up with a lot ofcrap.
Meghan Markle put up with a lotof crap, no doubt racism.
Even now, all this stuff, Redditserves me so much royal stuff.
You have the loyalists, and thenyou have there's just so many
(30:04):
different groups, and they'llnever think differently ever.
And it creates all thisengagement, but the relevancy of
the royal family, it's waning.
And then you look at William,Prince William now.
Do we put William in there atall?
Catherine, wait, was Catherine'scancer?
That wasn't 25, was it?
Someone helped me.
That wasn't March 20.
No, that was 24.
(30:25):
Publicists here.
TPUSA PR blunders are historic,despite media suppression,
Candace destroying them.
Oh, interesting.
Someone else mentioned turningpoint.
PR-wise.
Press mentions, lots.
Oh, we'll come back to theBurrell family.
Lots of press mentions.
But when you have the Candace ofthe Worlds, yeah, not that we're
(30:46):
giving Candace the platformthere, but I don't know, right?
How many more millions did theymake?
I don't know.
That's a tough one.
That's a tough call.
There's a lot of former turningpoint, former workers making
statements on TikTok.
Really?
Oh, I got to start looking atthis.
I will say, like when you watchthe video, and again, we all
know my obsession with EricaKirk.
When she brought the Medal ofFreedom back with the staff and
(31:08):
all the staff looking at it,going, oh, doesn't look like one
staff member at Turning Point.
It's Erica.
Is that is that just me?
Manny, you are going tointroduce me to the former
employees or current employeesof Turning Point TikTok
algorithm.
I'm thanking you now.
They're young kids in their 20s.
How can you not be obsessed withit?
(31:29):
I know.
I just am.
Because Erica Kirk, and someonewas just calling me out on this,
saying, okay, so you're notChristian.
That whole prosperity, gospel,evangelical, conservative
Christian, conservativeCatholic, JD Vance of it all.
And then Usha not wearing aring, not once, twice.
(31:51):
And then Erica Kirk appearing atthat summit, which was smart, by
the way, on her part, brilliant.
But she is struggling so hard.
Oh, here's the PR angle of EricaKirk.
What do you do when your brandwas being submissive,
subservient to your husband,being the mom?
And now you're the CEO, justtrotting around everywhere.
(32:13):
I'm too scared to let thealgorithm get taken over by.
How about Kate and Will notwearing Queen's Royal of Order
pin at the banquet?
Not that I know what that means,but on Reddit, I know what that
means because a lot of peopleare talking about it.
My only level of knowledge isKate's crown, Tiara, was
crooked.
Is that just me?
It looked really crooked.
It looked really heavy.
(32:34):
And Kate Middleton or Catherine,Princess Catherine, looks really
thin, too thin.
And all the pregnancy rumors.
Oh, who are the pregnancyrumors?
Oh, with Erica Kirk?
Are there pregnancy rumors withit?
Could you imagine?
She said that she wished thatshe was pregnant with Charlie
thing.
Prince Will's PR team has hadtheir work cut out from.
(32:54):
Prince William looks so sour oflate.
Reddit came for me for sayingsupportive things about Megan.
I'm also scared of that place.
Oh, Reddit came for you.
Oh, Carla.
Wow.
Oh, yeah.
Reddit will come.
I truly think Erica Kirk isshacking up with JD Mance.
I will say there is a friendshipthere.
(33:15):
Let's just say there's energythere.
I think there's energy there.
Reddit is such a schizophrenicplatform, but I would be lost
without Reddit.
I love Reddit.
And I'm not afraid to admit it.
All right, you guys, we'recoming up to the top of the
hour.
Help me out.
If you have anything for 2025,if she had a cheating scandal,
it would completely destroy hercareer and JD's reputation.
(33:37):
I might, I, I, a solid, solidopinion, right?
Your opinion is solid.
There's this ability in thismovement.
And in my annoyance is lessabout the bigger world of it
all, the TPUSA, the Erica Kirksof the world.
And just personally, because Iknow so many people personally,
as someone who grew up and wentto Catholic schools my entire
(33:59):
life, K through college, it'sthe hypocrisy.
Because you just have thosecertain people who are now
conservative Catholics.
The hypocrisy of it all.
But they all find ways tojustify it, right?
There's some divine reason whyhaving all this money in the
world is okay.
(34:20):
There's divine reason why we cansay all these horrible things
and treat people horribly.
The bar is pretty low.
Yep.
I mean, yet to work out whatsugar means, but I'm guessing
it's not as sweet as it sounds.
Oh, Carla, what is it in sugar?
I disagree.
Megat doesn't like JD's wife.
Oh, I know.
They do not like his wife.
And they're rooting for Erica.
I think they no, oh no.
The conversation they mentionedhere was cheating.
(34:43):
If cheating pregnancy, if it gotthat.
But if JD divorced Usha and thenhooked up with Erica, oh, I
think they'd have a parade.
I really do.
Oh, sugar's what Reddit callsme.
Oh, gotcha.
If she hadn't affair with JD, itwould be conservative wedge.
Yeah.
So I don't think they'd havelet's talk about above the fold.
It wouldn't be an affair.
(35:06):
JD's marriage would already beover.
Okay.
Oh, and okay.
And the bus coming out of theTrump administration that runs
over people after it runs overPete Hagseth and the Admiral and
JD Vance, it's gonna run overUsha.
That bus is gonna run overfirst, it will run over Usha.
(35:27):
It will.
It will, it will.
Erica Kirk has the same story asSerena from the Handmaid Sale.
I don't know.
It would be a cult love story.
Oh, oh, Cash Patel, thank you.
Cash Patel.
I think the knives are out forCash Patel too.
Oh my god.
I read I think The Atlantic hadan article about Cash Patel.
(35:48):
Oh, he is, as I said in mything, the worst.
That was my in my post I didthat because my daughter Quinn
and I love Ben Schwartz.
We love him.
So to speak of Cash Patel shouldnot even be in the FBI, much
less leading it.
Usha is being talked about bythe South Asian community as a
positive conservative rolemodel.
(36:11):
Well, she is, but also she's gota pretty strong background, but
she is conservative.
Look who she clerk for.
Yeah, Cash should be nervousright now.
Cash is a liability.
Chris, Cash is walking around.
Don't be suspicious.
Don't be suspicious.
That's very funny.
Who isn't a liability in theWhite House?
(36:31):
I know, Michelle, it's such apeculiar question, but if you
think about it, there's so manyreasonable people out there that
would say every walking personin the White House is a
liability, frankly.
But in Mega World, their poweris weighted differently.
Even if you're not a strategiccomms person, you might find it
interesting or be able to use iton your work.
So that's gonna be at noon.
(36:53):
And then at 7 p.m.
Eastern time, noon Easter time,and then 7 p.m.
Eastern time, we're gonna do alive deep dive with Dr.
Abby, Blake Lively, RyanReynolds, the Justin Baldone.
And really, it's less aboutJustin.
Because we're doing the one yearroundup.
All right, first openly gay man,who are we talking about?
(37:15):
Who talking about Jonathan?
Her?
Who are we talking about?
All right, you guys.
This was great.
Oh, wait, yes, first gay mannamed Sexiest Man of the Year.
Is that true?
Is that true?
Interesting.
Okay, you guys, this was fun.
You guys, this was fun.
(37:35):
This was great.
All right, everyone.
Thank you so much for joining.
Maybe we gotta put JonathanBailey on the pop list for that.
Any other UK people here?
Louise, are you serious?
CIPR uses my lives for crut.
Olivia Nutzi on the BulwarkPodcast.
Oh my god.
Yeah, we're gonna get into it.
(37:55):
Olivia Nutzi's this this book,this this rollout for Olivia did
not go as planned.
All right, everyone.
Thank you so much for joining.
We try to be here every Fridaywhen we can.
We'll be here next Friday atnoon.
We'll set up the stream and thenhopefully I can just stream to
all places at once.
All right, everyone.
Thanks for joining me and have agreat weekend, everyone.
(38:18):
All right, that was our rundownfor the week.
A little community chaos, alittle Molly chaos, a little
cultural analysis, and plenty ofreputational face plans.
If you like this sneak peek ofthe live session, remember, come
join me every Friday.
Right now it's on Substack, butsoon the live streams will hit
TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, andFacebook.
(38:39):
The room always gets lively, andthe more, the merrier.
Next week we level up with theofficial list of the year's best
and worst PR crises.
Some choices you'll agree with,some you might not, and some may
force you to rethink, hmm, whata real PR crisis looks like.
Until then, pay attention towhat people actually react to,
(39:01):
not what the talking points tellyou, because that's where the
truth lives.
That's all for this week on thepodcast.
Thanks for listening.
Bye for now.
All right, that was our rundownfor the week.
A little community chaos, alittle Molly chaos, a little
cultural analysis, and plenty ofreputational face plans.
(39:22):
If you like this sneak peek ofthe live session, remember, come
join me every Friday.
Right now it's on Substack, butsoon the live streams will hit
TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, andFacebook.
The room always gets lively, andthe more, the merrier.
Next week we level up with theofficial list of the year's best
and worst PR crises.
(39:43):
Some choices you'll likely agreewith, some you may not, some
choices you'll likely agreewith, some you may wonder.
I don't know if that classifiesas a crisis.
Maybe that's just Molly'scrisis.
Maybe that's just Molly'sversion.
Some choices you'll agree with,some you might not, and some may
force you to rethink, hmm, whata real PR crisis looks like.
(40:06):
Until then, pay attention towhat people actually react to,
not what the talking points tellyou.
Because that's where the truthlives.
That's all for this week on thepodcast.
Thanks for listening.
Bye for now.
Hey there, welcome back to the PR Breakdown.
I'm your host, Molly McPherson.
Welcome back to all mylisteners, or welcome in.
Either way, you picked a goodone.
This week's episode is a tasteof the live sessions I do every
Friday, or at least I'm tryingto.
On Substack soon, thanks toSubstack Technology, I will be
(01:41):
able to live streamsimultaneously on TikTok,
YouTube, Instagram, andFacebook.
So everyone's gonna be joiningthe party soon.
If you haven't checked in on mySubstack live chats, every week
we dig into the hot stories thatare bubbling up in culture and
crisis land.
I bring the stories I'mwrestling with, I'm watching,
(02:06):
I'm trying to figure out.
And then the community in thechat brings their knowledge,
their questions, and yes,thankfully, their sharp humor.
For this episode, I pulledtogether the PR hits and misses
that we were all talking aboutlast Friday.
Think of it as a sampler plateof reputation chaos unfolding in
(02:28):
real time, or at least a coupledays ago.
And you know how it goes.
Give people the floor or thechat, and suddenly everyone has
votes, opinions, links, clips,and I encourage it.
So take a listen to the episodeand come back next week when I
break down the best and worst PRcrises of the year, 2025.
(02:50):
I've been asking people onsocial media and in these live
chats to share their choicesbecause coming up with my list
is half the fun.
The other half is definitelygetting your list.
You're gonna hear some of thechoices that came in the chat
last week, and I would love tohear yours as well.
Take a listen, and hopefullynext time you can join us live.
(03:12):
Hello everyone.
I did a pivot here.
Typically on Fridays, I do mytop, what do we talk about?
Our top PR stories for the weekthat I'm watching
reputation-wise.
But it is the end of the year.
I thought, why not give you someof the PR hits and misses for
the week?
I want to get your thoughts onit as well.
(03:34):
And then give me your choices.
Let's do the quick hits of theweek.
Does anyone have any thoughts,hits and misses for the week?
I'm doing so many.
I have best and worst hits.
We got to settle on what we'regonna do.
I'm just gonna give you a coupleof them, and then we're going to
end here with our list becausewhen people start thinking about
(03:56):
2025, and as Manny pointed out,yesterday was the impromptu,
that was Vaultish.
I like how he said that it wasVaultish list.
And the names were fabulous.
They were really, really good,the brands and the names.
But I had someone come into myDMs and start giving me Scuttle,
which is one of the great thingsthat I love, is when people give
(04:19):
me scuttle about certain things.
Someone also mentioned to methat AdAge named Astronomer, the
ad, the Ryan Reynolds producedad with Gwyneth Peltrow for
Astronomer.
And I know so many people thinkthis.
I am not one of them.
It was listed as one of theirbest ads of 2025.
(04:41):
I'm not quite sure of the metricthat they are using, but my
metric of reputation makes it amassive, massive fail when you
send millions, probably, sixfigures minimum, maybe up to a
million.
I think I read a million to RyanReynolds to fix a reputation
(05:04):
problem when he's in the middleof a reputation problem.
So go ahead for your list.
We can put down Ryan, we can putdown Blake.
So many people already did that.
So quickly for this week, let'sjust do our PR hits and misses
for this week.
I have a couple.
Right before I hopped on, I wastexting back and forth with a
client.
When people are pissed offonline and what they complain
(05:25):
about, and then when they startto complain, they start to poke
and dig.
And then that's how these criseshappen because they usually
start with something.
That's going to be my leadofffor my list for the week.
The watch list that I sent isthe first story.
So every Monday, if you're inthe membership, you'll get this
list because I also want to knowwhat you're watching too.
100% Pete Heggseth.
(05:46):
The screws are tightening sohard on this guy.
But what I noticed was the presson Sunday with Donald Trump when
he was explaining Pete Hegsethand doing the second shot.
He was agreeing doubling down insupport of Pete Hegseth.
But to me, how he said it almostwhen he came out and doubled
(06:09):
down, it's he set a tripwire.
Pete Hagseth is on his way out.
He's setting up Pete Hagseth tofail.
And then Pete Hegseth is settingup Admiral Frank, but actually I
think he goes by Mitch, Bradleyto fail.
So it is a cluster clock, if youknow what I mean.
So I actually think PeteHagseth, and it even though the
(06:31):
Pete Hagsh is a Secretary ofDefense, I won't call him
anything else.
In my work, in my client work,it's the same thing.
And like I was saying, when Iwas going back and forth with
this manager, there are justtells that are out there.
And the tells on Trump andwatching him, I was watching the
cabinet meeting live this weekbecause Greg, he was doing the,
they needed them to fill in onthe new news.
And then I kept it running, andthey happened to his station
(06:52):
happened to run the cabinetlive, and I'm watching Trump
fall asleep.
It's not only all the othersundowning in the middle of the
day, the things that arehappening, but I don't think he
cares.
He just doesn't care about anyof these people.
All right.
So Hegseth, definitely one ofthem.
Another one, I threw this intoday.
Is it just me?
Let me know.
(07:12):
Did anyone get their Spotifywrapped?
All right.
So, and let me know this week ifyou guys have anything else this
week.
Also, Signal Gate is crushing.
That's what I want to say.
The screws are tightening onPete Hegseth.
Remember the whole signal gate?
I did a podcast about that awhile back of Pete Heggseth
using Signal app.
Oxford University names RageBait as word of the year.
(07:34):
I think, oh, what did someonejust tell me this?
I think it was on TikTok.
They were comparing.
I know what it was.
Well, thank you, Gregory.
So we all know American Eagle.
Now, I'm gonna tell you thisright now.
You guys let me know.
Is American Eaglereputation-wise a win or a loss?
We kind of talked about ityesterday.
But American Eagle, what do youthink?
(07:54):
And it and it ties hand in handwith Sidney Sweeney, right?
But Oxford University, theirnames Rage Bait is Oxford
University names Rage Bait asword of the year, and Greg says
it's two words.
And he's right, it is two words.
Nothing gets by Greg.
But there's rage bait choices.
American Eagle to me is a ragebait ad campaign.
(08:16):
The other ad campaign from thisweek, Spotify thinks you're 80
because you stream jazz andclassical.
Okay.
My 23-year-old was 73.
My 21-year-old was 74.
Or no, 77.
I was 70.
Yeah, that's why the whole thingis great.
The stock market says AmericanEagles will win herb.
(08:38):
Yeah.
I'm going to put them in the wincolumn.
I think they'll probably be inour win column.
I think they're going to be inour win column.
But the other brand, did anybodysee?
And this is what someone wastexting me on the back end
there, a journalist, the pantomecolor of the year.
I posted it on Substack todayand also on Threads.
Anybody see the Pantone Color ofthe Year?
(08:58):
And I wrote back to thisjournalist.
They're at a network, they writefor a network.
I said, it seems very AmericanEagle-esque.
Did anybody see the Pantonecolor of the year?
I had posted when I heard thename of it.
It reminded me of PrivateDancer.
It's cloud.
It's cloud.
Yeah, it's not a color.
It's like a creamy, it's like anoatmeal that's been sitting out
(09:19):
for a couple days.
Pantone's president talked aboutit, really?
And she's a black woman.
Oh, I have to see then theresponse from Pantone.
It's not getting good vibeshere.
Now you could say they chosethis cloud white because where
we are right now is in nothing aworld of nothingness, like
nothing.
But yeah, so it's cloud dancer.
(09:40):
So yeah, in my head, all I canhear the brain worm is I'm your
private dancer.
But to make it in this day andage of animals, do I want to say
xenophobic?
I guess I could.
I wonder how it landed.
Cloud Dancer is a NativeAmerican name.
Oh, that's in there as well.
Caleb, you love private dancer.
So there's that.
So there's Pantone.
(10:01):
I said this is going to be a badcrisis and they will not
recover.
They will not recover from this.
It wasn't a cancellation.
They're still in it.
So yesterday, I'm at my salonand I'm sitting there on
Substack, and there someone hasjust opened a Substack and doing
(10:23):
something that is straight outof the Molly McPherson playbook.
I am not talking about Blake.
I'm it is not Blake, which bythe way, December 17th, 7 p.m.
Eastern time, Dr.
Abby is coming in the vault.
We are going to do a one-yearroundup on Blake Lively, Ryan
Reynolds, and Justin Baldone.
(10:45):
Will Blake and Ryan be on the2025 list?
What do you guys think?
What do you think?
Okay, Herb saying Ashton, Joeand Sophie.
No, Caleb, I like your timing,but not Joe and Sophie.
No, same time of year.
I'll do more hints.
I'll do, I'll do more hintsbecause I have to.
Oh, Ashton could you, by theway, his wife, Amila, right?
(11:05):
Where did she pop up recently?
I think she did an article aboutbeing in the mom's group or
something like that.
And I thought, ooh, that wassmart.
So she's trying to distanceherself brand-wise from her
husband, Ashton.
Yeah, something in town.
She was doing something in town.
Do you think by the at the endof 2024 that we'll still be
talking about Blake Lively atthe end of 2025?
(11:26):
No.
Well, yes, Louise, I did becausea year ago, the Friday before
the Christmas holiday is whenBlake Lively filed that
complaint against JustinBeldoney.
So we are going to do a one-yearrevisit.
So December 17th, 7 p.m., if youwant to join me in the vault.
It's for members only in thevault.
We are doing a deep dive withDr.
(11:47):
Abby.
I'm going to talk about thereputation of it, and Dr.
Abby's going to talk about thepsychology.
Mila Kunas, thank you, Herb.
I can always rely on you.
Reveals she's head of the HOA.
That's what it was.
Oldheimers Association.
For her, and I love this, herBeverly Hills neighborhood.
It's like she tried, but shedid.
Oh, Prince Harry Skit on StephenKilbert Colbert.
(12:11):
Even as a Brit, Carla, you're aBrit.
Who the Washington Post, anopinion essay in the Washington
Post, it was so biting aboutMegan's new program comparing
her to Wallace Simpson.
It was really, really good.
That when you're a royal in loveand you've been excommunicated
or by choice, which really kindof in a way, Harry's not a king,
(12:32):
but they kind of excommunicatedthemselves.
What do you do?
You sit and you make jam and yougo on Stephen Colbert.
You go on Stephen Colbert,right?
Okay.
So we bounced around a lot.
But no, this artist, and thenI'll wrap here and then we'll go
to our list, our tops.
Sephora's Christmas ad.
Someone tell me, what was theSephora Christmas ad?
Did they do something?
(12:52):
Yeah, it's not Wallace Simpson.
Yeah.
Like Wallace Simpson, theyquoted that Wallace Simpson said
something.
Love, love is a difficult thing.
When you sacrifice for love,which let's face it, so this
artist is on Substack now.
And this artist posted there'stwo essays on there Mariah and
Sephora.
So I'll look at the Sephora adwith Mariah Carey.
(13:14):
Interesting.
But this artist was canceled twoyears ago and is still canceled
and went on Substack and wrotean essay about being canceled.
And I'll give you the title,I'll give you the title of it
and see if you can guess it fromthe title.
Cancel Me Again, a canceledwoman's take on why everyone
(13:35):
should get canceled at leastonce.
Who wrote that article?
I saw that right away, and I hadto read it.
And I read it and I alreadystarted writing it.
I went, girl, but I can't writethat because then I'll be lashed
at that.
But but when I say girl, I callmy daughters girl, I call
everybody girls.
I want to write, girl, you werenot canceled because of these
(13:56):
reasons.
And do you think who do we got?
Sherry, Chris, you got it.
Straight out of the MollyMcPherson playbook of when
you're canceled on one platform,you go to a you go to the
opposite platform and you writethere.
So Lizzo showing up on Substack,it's like showing up on
LinkedIn.
(14:17):
I mean, you would never expectit.
But she's in the replies.
I mean, I believe that that'sher in the reply.
I was reading her essay aboutbeing canceled, and she's naming
all these things that she did.
And my podcast next week isgoing to be about it.
But I read it and she said, Thisis what the reasons why she was
canceled.
(14:37):
Doing a smoothie detox, wearinga mask, not wearing a mask,
playing a crystal flute, crying,complaining, saying I make music
for black women, unknowinglyusing, do you remember that when
she used the slur in a song?
Which I think was before thecancellation, and she changed
the song, whatever.
She talked about, I don't knowif she went to a Lakers game
where she went on, she was inthe court and she kind of had an
(14:59):
outfit on that showed her buttcheeks.
But anyway, but when this wholearticle she's saying about being
canceled, hey, if you haven'tbeen canceled, yet what did she
not do in this article?
What did she not do?
She did not name the reason whyshe was canceled.
She was not canceled for thosereasons.
And she does mentionconservatives came after her or
whatever.
When conservatives come afteryou, especially if you're a
(15:20):
singer, if you're Lizzo, you'rea black singer, you're a black
singer, loud, proud, you are allout.
You are you and you make noexcuses who you are.
Her brand was fantastic.
It was close to it was notcanceled for those reasons.
Yeah, conservatives may not haveliked what Lizzo did, but that's
not why she was canceled.
(15:40):
If conservatives don't like youand you're Lizzo, that's not
cancel.
That's engagement.
That's what makes you big.
It's a pain.
You're not being canceled.
You're being boosted becauseit's negativity online, and
that's what makes peopleimportant online.
You were canceled because of howyou treated your dancers.
And more than that, and itactually that wasn't the reason
(16:01):
why you were canceled, really.
I'm actually writing thisarticle, my rebuttal to Lizzo
right now.
And it's actually more of aLizzo let me help you.
She was canceled because shehired Marty Singer, who is a
lawyer, Bill Cosby, CharlieSheen.
Come on.
And the response was to go afterthe dancers.
(16:22):
That's why Lizzo was canceled.
She wraps up my PR miss for theweek.
That is my biggest PR miss forthe week.
And she does not deserve to comeback.
Now, I will say I don't blameLizzo because this is her
representation.
She needs new representationbadly.
And reading her article, maybeit's just me if you guys want to
(16:44):
read it.
I feel parts of it were her, andthen other parts weren't her.
And if I had to guess, her teamis made up, she has the lawyer,
Marty Singer.
Who else Marty Singer in ourgroup?
Remember, we talked about MartySinger?
Jeremy Renner hired MartySinger.
That's how I look at it as areputation manager.
How do you know someone's guiltyin Hollywood or in the whole
(17:05):
entertainment world?
Is when they hire Marty Singer.
Because he's the lawyer who getsoff people who are guilty.
And Lizzo, but they think, oh,he's a bulldog, but he does not
understand online sentiment andhow it works.
He does not understand.
There is zero accountability toit.
So that's our podcast next week.
What do you guys think about thewhole Lizzo thing?
(17:27):
Is it just me?
Am I screaming in the woods?
Okay, so that's my week.
That's my week for oh, I joinedlate.
I'm in Lizzo's private channel.
You are?
Who else is in Lizzo's privatechannel?
What is what is Lizzo's privatechannel?
Lizzo's Substack rebrand is sowild, isn't it?
(17:49):
It is so contrarian to herbrand.
It is so contrarian to herbrand.
I completely agree.
I think oh, this is what I wassaying.
Her team does not have a truereputation manager on there,
someone who understandsreputation management.
She has publicists, and here'sthe thing: this is nothing
against publicists, but too manypeople in the entertainment
(18:12):
industry or in the space, andeven if it's not entertainment,
even if it's, I deal with a lotof content creators and
influencers.
One person actually, I'll saythis on TikTok.
I posted, what are the oh,juictey?
What kind of juicy T is shedropping in that private
channel?
Exactly.
But speaking of Juic T, and I'mjust gonna give you the heads up
right now, I cannot tell you thejuicy tea but someone in my
(18:35):
comments asked the asked askedme, how come you didn't comment
on this?
And I let it go.
And the reason why I didn't isbecause I was hired to help
someone because of that saidcrisis that was unsaid to me,
but it but it was huge.
And this person, but it's thesame thing.
They get publicists who come inand they hire publicists who act
(18:59):
like crisis managers.
Publicists are there to getpress for people, to get
engagement.
Crisis managers and reputationalmanagers like me, we're out
there looking for risk and wetell you what not to do.
We want to pull you back in.
And publicists want to put youback out there.
When when a crisis happens, whatthese publicists do is they go
(19:20):
out, they put the stuff outthere to try and claim it, and
you can't.
That's when you lose it.
I think it was just a ploy tochange your image.
Yeah, it was.
Lizzo is trying sometimes whenyou feel that someone watches
you and takes advice from youseriously.
I think someone on Lizzo's teamlooked at my stuff because I've
(19:41):
done a lot of Lizzo content.
I think I did six posts twoyears ago, but I did a
documentary with ABC News.
I did the nightline NPR, andI've said the same thing over
and over in my playbook.
And actually, this big kind ofcrisis that happened in the news
that I really can't comment on.
The person at the center of ittold me.
(20:03):
They said, I follow you.
And this was a statement that Ithought would follow your
framework.
And I was, oh my gosh, youforget.
You forget the power of socialmedia.
I was wow.
And I did say on the thing, Iwent, nicely done, but there was
a butt in there because therewas this outlier thing that they
had to deal with.
I'm really happy you mentionedthat.
(20:23):
I didn't do that research yet.
I'm gonna thank you for that inthe podcast.
Speaking of Divine, Erica Kirk,I forgot to add her on our list,
you guys.
I think I'm gonna give EricaKirk.
I'm not a fan, but people in myvault know in my community here,
we know I'm obsessed with EricaKirk.
I'm obsessed with Erica Kirk.
And the reason why I'm obsessedwith her is she is reputation in
(20:45):
real time.
We are watching the chameleon,the chameleon.
Miss Demure, yes.
I posted that, I think yesterdayor two days ago, when she showed
up at the New York Times BookSummit when she showed up on
stage in a capelet and the LouisBaton standing there with the
cape and the sweater dress andall the bling is gone.
(21:07):
Erica Kirk is one of our people.
So, what's your list, you guys?
So coming out next week, OliviaNutzi.
So with the JFK or at The RFK,she's gonna get for the week,
she's gonna get thumbs down forthe week.
Thoughts on the Pantone Color ofthe Year.
We talked about that.
That is apparently growing to bea PR miss, like a big time miss.
(21:31):
But I learned in the chat that,oh, Dr.
Oz, funny, a client that I hadthis week, someone really,
really big in a space, I'll justsay.
I was I was going through alltheir stuff and I said, Let's
clean up our media section,okay?
You have Jay Shetty, Dr.
(21:53):
Oz, and Mel Robbins.
That doesn't carry the flex thatyou think it does.
I didn't say it with that snark,but they went, what?
Really?
I went, Really?
Take it off.
There's a Vice News doc.
Oh, oh, Ryan.
There's a Vice News document, uhdocumentary about Jordan Hudson
(22:14):
and Belichick coming out nextweek that will be amazing.
Guess who is supposed to be onextra on Tuesday?
Me, because I'm in thedocumentary.
Core Extra.
They have reached out to me, theproducers of Vice, twice to do a
back and forth with.
Is it Derek Howe?
Derek Huff.
Is he Huff or Howe on Dancingwith the Stars?
I keep going round and round andI keep forgetting it.
(22:37):
And they said it yesterday, orthey sent me another email
yesterday, like, can you do aninterview with him, Derek Howe?
We'll do the intro, blah, blah.
I'm like, I can't.
I'm traveling, I'm speaking, I'mon stage.
But yeah, I'm appearing, Iappear in the Vice News
documentary about Jordan, JordanHudson and Bill Belichick.
I filmed it when it was warm inNewton, Massachusetts.
Yeah, so I hope I hope you watchit.
(22:57):
It's it, oh, and can I tell you,it will be amazing.
It will be amazing, 100%.
It's gonna be great.
Yeah, Jordan.
Oh, oh, well, is that gonna beBill Belichick in our list?
And Jordan Hudson, JordanHudson, Jordan Hudson.
What would she be?
A win or fail?
Honestly, you guys, what do youthink?
Because no one likes her, right?
(23:20):
But she's someone kind of like aGwyneth.
I'm not that I putting out thelevel of a Gwyneth, but people
hate watcher.
And so she's getting so muchpublicity, even like she was
supposed to be on Dancing withthe Stars.
And she can't, and actually,that was breaking as I was doing
the interview with Vice News.
(23:41):
And I told the producer, theydidn't even know that.
I told them that about JordanHudson being asked, and they and
she got pulled four hours beforefilming or something.
It was crazy.
She got they got pulled becauseshe wouldn't cooperate.
She was being difficult, sayinga win.
I think I might give her a win.
Jordan Hudson is American Eagle.
Oh, you're right.
(24:02):
They're gonna get the win.
We may not like it, but they'regonna get the win.
Bill is totally on the list withthe upcoming Hall of Fame vote
coming up.
Oh, I see that.
Kraft and Belichick.
And I'm gonna be honest, betweenall of us, part of the reason
why I was happy I couldlegitimately say I don't want to
do the interviews for the Vicething, because even
participating in it, I kind offelt a little because when
(24:23):
you're in Patriots Nation, youjust kind of support the cause.
And I don't want to be comingout against a coach.
I think Jordan is crashing withBill's win lost red.
Yeah, I know.
It's I I saw that there's avideo of him helping her with
the coat.
They can't, it can't, right?
Mike Vrabel compared to BillBelichick.
Mike Vrabel is almost in a waykind of erasing all this stuff.
(24:45):
On another side note, does theU.S.
care for Steven Bartlett?
Oh, Carla.
That's so interesting.
Remember when I said the MelRobbins, Dr.
Oz, Jay Shetty?
I kind of feel, even though Idon't, I personally don't put
him in there, but I think in theworld, there's, I think it maybe
(25:06):
it's just me.
You guys let me know if youthink this.
That in the reasonable world,that's a word that I use a lot
in my work.
I always tell people whenthey're getting attacked by
trolls.
Just remember, just look for thereasonable people, you know?
But reasonable people now arevery anti-grift, which is why
the Jay Shetty's, the RachelHollis, the Mel Robbins of the
(25:27):
world make me insane.
Because it's grift.
The fact that a Mel Robbins ispeople go to her for therapy
makes me insane, really.
But some people put StephenBartlett in there because he he
platforms these people, right?
But you tell me, Carla.
(25:48):
I mean, that's kind of your neckof the woods, your your neck of
the island.
Mel Robbins is not a therapist.
Bartlett is a huge grifter andoh, and spreader of
misinformation.
See?
Yeah, I actually kind of saidthe same thing about this, about
appearing, because there wereclients that appeared with them.
(26:09):
And and I ended up saying, Hadyou come to me, I would have
said, no.
It makes total sense.
But I forgot what he did.
I did a post about it.
I can't remember what it was.
There was a big thing.
He's terrible, Michelle.
Yeah.
The Times took him apart, thenhid the article behind a
paywall.
I think I remember this.
Carla, tell me what he did.
I forgot.
(26:30):
The BBC went for him midwaythrough the Dragon's Den season.
He's also on the red pill listas he's done interviews claiming
when you're at the top ofeveryone, he wants to take you
down and the BBC don't protectyou, which is not true given the
volume of scandals and coversup.
Yes.
Trump canceled Kennedy CenterProductions for the Feature
Drawing to be held there.
Okay.
Of course.
Oh my gosh.
(26:51):
He kissed a player withoutconsent.
Thank you, Selma.
That's it.
That's what it was.
Thank you for telling me.
That's exactly what it was.
Yep.
So it really tracks.
Right?
It tracks.
Okay, you guys.
So give me also, give me yourlist, though, for just for our
year list, our roundup.
(27:11):
So I had a lot of people in thechat, in our thread, my
community thread in the vault.
Give me their choices.
I think I already know my numberone positive.
I think I already know it.
I think it's gotta be solid.
Tell me who Sydney Sweeney,Duffy, Karen Reed.
Where does Karen Reed fall, youguys?
Oh, Travis and Taylor.
(27:32):
Yeah, we talked about thatyesterday.
Yeah, I mean, geez.
Do you get any better than that?
Cracker barrel.
Yep.
He's apparently overinflated thenumbers, but it was bad comms on
his part.
The millions were for the agencygroup, not social chain of
loans.
The times went digging into theaccounts.
Oh, and he's also creating hisown media agency now.
Oh, that's what they all do.
That's what they all do.
(27:53):
I know, right?
Megan Markle! Megan Markle! Hasanyone even mentioned Meghan
Markle in our 2025 list?
What does Megan?
Is Megan positive or negative?
If we're looking atanalytically, okay, I actually
have to come up with myparameters too.
Press mention, public sentiment,social engagement.
(28:16):
Those are the three things.
And then maybe the outlier isare they garbage or not?
But where does Megan Marklefall?
Seriously.
She gets press crazy, though Irefuse to ever do any more press
around with Megan Markle.
I'll do it on my own, but I'mnot going to ever do press
because the press always,always, always for clicks.
They always make it negative.
Always.
(28:36):
And I'm sick of that.
She's pivoting.
Oh yeah, Carla, you're UK.
I would love your opinion, butnot there yet.
I think Markle is positiveconsidering how low she started.
You know, what are we basinghigh and low?
I honestly think her suits Tigyears.
That was the right direction.
Did you guys follow her then?
(28:56):
I followed Tig really early, andI feel she was different than so
many other actresses out there.
She got the royal, let's say thepedigree of it all, but I think
she missed out on millions ofendorsement deals and other
things.
I think she was cusping to bemuch bigger, not because of her
acting, which I think is mid atbest, but she was a terrific
(29:21):
influencer.
And going the Harry route, theUK are bored to death of the
hate articles.
I'm sad about her lack of effortand her philanthropy.
Yeah.
But they need to make money.
They need money.
They need money.
Someone else just reached out tome too.
I'd have to talk to them,someone who worked with her.
(29:41):
I'm like, oh yeah, we can chat.
We can definitely chat.
Just seems to be going incircles.
It was a huge sacrifice for her,and she missed out on a lot,
Carla.
Yeah.
Don't you think?
I think she put up with a lot ofcrap.
Meghan Markle put up with a lotof crap, no doubt racism.
Even now, all this stuff, Redditserves me so much royal stuff.
You have the loyalists, and thenyou have there's just so many
(30:04):
different groups, and they'llnever think differently ever.
And it creates all thisengagement, but the relevancy of
the royal family, it's waning.
And then you look at William,Prince William now.
Do we put William in there atall?
Catherine, wait, was Catherine'scancer?
That wasn't 25, was it?
Someone helped me.
That wasn't March 20.
No, that was 24.
(30:25):
Publicists here.
TPUSA PR blunders are historic,despite media suppression,
Candace destroying them.
Oh, interesting.
Someone else mentioned turningpoint.
PR-wise.
Press mentions, lots.
Oh, we'll come back to theBurrell family.
Lots of press mentions.
But when you have the Candace ofthe Worlds, yeah, not that we're
(30:46):
giving Candace the platformthere, but I don't know, right?
How many more millions did theymake?
I don't know.
That's a tough one.
That's a tough call.
There's a lot of former turningpoint, former workers making
statements on TikTok.
Really?
Oh, I got to start looking atthis.
I will say, like when you watchthe video, and again, we all
know my obsession with EricaKirk.
When she brought the Medal ofFreedom back with the staff and
(31:08):
all the staff looking at it,going, oh, doesn't look like one
staff member at Turning Point.
It's Erica.
Is that is that just me?
Manny, you are going tointroduce me to the former
employees or current employeesof Turning Point TikTok
algorithm.
I'm thanking you now.
They're young kids in their 20s.
How can you not be obsessed withit?
(31:29):
I know.
I just am.
Because Erica Kirk, and someonewas just calling me out on this,
saying, okay, so you're notChristian.
That whole prosperity, gospel,evangelical, conservative
Christian, conservativeCatholic, JD Vance of it all.
And then Usha not wearing aring, not once, twice.
(31:51):
And then Erica Kirk appearing atthat summit, which was smart, by
the way, on her part, brilliant.
But she is struggling so hard.
Oh, here's the PR angle of EricaKirk.
What do you do when your brandwas being submissive,
subservient to your husband,being the mom?
And now you're the CEO, justtrotting around everywhere.
(32:13):
I'm too scared to let thealgorithm get taken over by.
How about Kate and Will notwearing Queen's Royal of Order
pin at the banquet?
Not that I know what that means,but on Reddit, I know what that
means because a lot of peopleare talking about it.
My only level of knowledge isKate's crown, Tiara, was
crooked.
Is that just me?
It looked really crooked.
It looked really heavy.
(32:34):
And Kate Middleton or Catherine,Princess Catherine, looks really
thin, too thin.
And all the pregnancy rumors.
Oh, who are the pregnancyrumors?
Oh, with Erica Kirk?
Are there pregnancy rumors withit?
Could you imagine?
She said that she wished thatshe was pregnant with Charlie
thing.
Prince Will's PR team has hadtheir work cut out from.
(32:54):
Prince William looks so sour oflate.
Reddit came for me for sayingsupportive things about Megan.
I'm also scared of that place.
Oh, Reddit came for you.
Oh, Carla.
Wow.
Oh, yeah.
Reddit will come.
I truly think Erica Kirk isshacking up with JD Mance.
I will say there is a friendshipthere.
(33:15):
Let's just say there's energythere.
I think there's energy there.
Reddit is such a schizophrenicplatform, but I would be lost
without Reddit.
I love Reddit.
And I'm not afraid to admit it.
All right, you guys, we'recoming up to the top of the
hour.
Help me out.
If you have anything for 2025,if she had a cheating scandal,
it would completely destroy hercareer and JD's reputation.
(33:37):
I might, I, I, a solid, solidopinion, right?
Your opinion is solid.
There's this ability in thismovement.
And in my annoyance is lessabout the bigger world of it
all, the TPUSA, the Erica Kirksof the world.
And just personally, because Iknow so many people personally,
as someone who grew up and wentto Catholic schools my entire
(33:59):
life, K through college, it'sthe hypocrisy.
Because you just have thosecertain people who are now
conservative Catholics.
The hypocrisy of it all.
But they all find ways tojustify it, right?
There's some divine reason whyhaving all this money in the
world is okay.
(34:20):
There's divine reason why we cansay all these horrible things
and treat people horribly.
The bar is pretty low.
Yep.
I mean, yet to work out whatsugar means, but I'm guessing
it's not as sweet as it sounds.
Oh, Carla, what is it in sugar?
I disagree.
Megat doesn't like JD's wife.
Oh, I know.
They do not like his wife.
And they're rooting for Erica.
I think they no, oh no.
The conversation they mentionedhere was cheating.
(34:43):
If cheating pregnancy, if it gotthat.
But if JD divorced Usha and thenhooked up with Erica, oh, I
think they'd have a parade.
I really do.
Oh, sugar's what Reddit callsme.
Oh, gotcha.
If she hadn't affair with JD, itwould be conservative wedge.
Yeah.
So I don't think they'd havelet's talk about above the fold.
It wouldn't be an affair.
(35:06):
JD's marriage would already beover.
Okay.
Oh, and okay.
And the bus coming out of theTrump administration that runs
over people after it runs overPete Hagseth and the Admiral and
JD Vance, it's gonna run overUsha.
That bus is gonna run overfirst, it will run over Usha.
(35:27):
It will.
It will, it will.
Erica Kirk has the same story asSerena from the Handmaid Sale.
I don't know.
It would be a cult love story.
Oh, oh, Cash Patel, thank you.
Cash Patel.
I think the knives are out forCash Patel too.
Oh my god.
I read I think The Atlantic hadan article about Cash Patel.
(35:48):
Oh, he is, as I said in mything, the worst.
That was my in my post I didthat because my daughter Quinn
and I love Ben Schwartz.
We love him.
So to speak of Cash Patel shouldnot even be in the FBI, much
less leading it.
Usha is being talked about bythe South Asian community as a
positive conservative rolemodel.
(36:11):
Well, she is, but also she's gota pretty strong background, but
she is conservative.
Look who she clerk for.
Yeah, Cash should be nervousright now.
Cash is a liability.
Chris, Cash is walking around.
Don't be suspicious.
Don't be suspicious.
That's very funny.
Who isn't a liability in theWhite House?
(36:31):
I know, Michelle, it's such apeculiar question, but if you
think about it, there's so manyreasonable people out there that
would say every walking personin the White House is a
liability, frankly.
But in Mega World, their poweris weighted differently.
Even if you're not a strategiccomms person, you might find it
interesting or be able to use iton your work.
So that's gonna be at noon.
(36:53):
And then at 7 p.m.
Eastern time, noon Easter time,and then 7 p.m.
Eastern time, we're gonna do alive deep dive with Dr.
Abby, Blake Lively, RyanReynolds, the Justin Baldone.
And really, it's less aboutJustin.
Because we're doing the one yearroundup.
All right, first openly gay man,who are we talking about?
(37:15):
Who talking about Jonathan?
Her?
Who are we talking about?
All right, you guys.
This was great.
Oh, wait, yes, first gay mannamed Sexiest Man of the Year.
Is that true?
Is that true?
Interesting.
Okay, you guys, this was fun.
You guys, this was fun.
(37:35):
This was great.
All right, everyone.
Thank you so much for joining.
Maybe we gotta put JonathanBailey on the pop list for that.
Any other UK people here?
Louise, are you serious?
CIPR uses my lives for crut.
Olivia Nutzi on the BulwarkPodcast.
Oh my god.
Yeah, we're gonna get into it.
(37:55):
Olivia Nutzi's this this book,this this rollout for Olivia did
not go as planned.
All right, everyone.
Thank you so much for joining.
We try to be here every Fridaywhen we can.
We'll be here next Friday atnoon.
We'll set up the stream and thenhopefully I can just stream to
all places at once.
All right, everyone.
Thanks for joining me and have agreat weekend, everyone.
(38:18):
All right, that was our rundownfor the week.
A little community chaos, alittle Molly chaos, a little
cultural analysis, and plenty ofreputational face plans.
If you like this sneak peek ofthe live session, remember, come
join me every Friday.
Right now it's on Substack, butsoon the live streams will hit
TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, andFacebook.
(38:39):
The room always gets lively, andthe more, the merrier.
Next week we level up with theofficial list of the year's best
and worst PR crises.
Some choices you'll agree with,some you might not, and some may
force you to rethink, hmm, whata real PR crisis looks like.
Until then, pay attention towhat people actually react to,
(39:01):
not what the talking points tellyou, because that's where the
truth lives.
That's all for this week on thepodcast.
Thanks for listening.
Bye for now.
All right, that was our rundownfor the week.
A little community chaos, alittle Molly chaos, a little
cultural analysis, and plenty ofreputational face plans.
(39:22):
If you like this sneak peek ofthe live session, remember, come
join me every Friday.
Right now it's on Substack, butsoon the live streams will hit
TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, andFacebook.
The room always gets lively, andthe more, the merrier.
Next week we level up with theofficial list of the year's best
and worst PR crises.
(39:43):
Some choices you'll likely agreewith, some you may not, some
choices you'll likely agreewith, some you may wonder.
I don't know if that classifiesas a crisis.
Maybe that's just Molly'scrisis.
Maybe that's just Molly'sversion.
Some choices you'll agree with,some you might not, and some may
force you to rethink, hmm, whata real PR crisis looks like.
(40:06):
Until then, pay attention towhat people actually react to,
not what the talking points tellyou.
Because that's where the truthlives.
That's all for this week on thepodcast.
Thanks for listening.
Bye for now.
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The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.