McDonald’s CEO Burger-Bite Uproar Faux Pas vs Crisis — Know the Difference

When did our profession start calling every little flare‑up a crisis? A TikTok trend, a snarky comment thread, a logo people don’t like — suddenly everyone’s acting like the business is melting down. But most of these moments aren’t crises at all. They’re upstream matters that are manageable, or a faux pas with a short life span and a valuable learning opportunity.

In this episode, we get into why PR keeps over‑labeling everything a crisis -- and how that habit distracts us from identifying the issues that could be tomorrow’s emergencies at best.

Today we’ll walk through the spectrum of incident categories — the harmless creative misstep that gets a couple of days of flareup, the issue that starts quietly and grows over the decades until the industry is in decay, the emergencies that hit daily operations hard and fast, and the rare, true crises that actually reshapes a business for years.

Buckle up and take a roller coaster ride today through real stories and case studies about the spectrum of incidents that can either make us or break us – and learn how to tell the difference.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Struggle no more to tell your leadership what your value is to the organization. Join the movement to help change the conversation inside our organizations about public relations (a.k.a - communications, corporate comm, marcom, public-information office, etc.). We've heard you, seen your frustration on LinkedIn -- being disregarded, left out, treated like an afterthought. But we sometimes are creating our own headaches by how we talk about our profession. So we've designed some items we think you'll like -- and these "tools" will start the conversation for you. Check them out here!

NEW RESOURCE PAGE (a.k.a FREE STUFF) Visit our new resource landing page to check out free downloads and tools to help you lead, manage and implement top-notch PR in your organization. Click here

GOT TOPIC IDEAS? WE WANT TO HEAR THEM!

Send topic ideas and mailbag questions for a future episode to podcast@prthing.com We would love to hear from you!

HOST BIO (a.k.a. Who is this crazy woman who can't stop talking about PR?) https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E

NEWS UPDATE: FeedSpot named IT'S A PR THING to its list of top PR podcasts in the world again - two years in a row, with IT'S A PR THING moving up four spots in 2026. Read more.

What Consumers Said. Why the FCC Is Acting on It.

Today's episode is a case study in the progress that demonstrates why it's important for companies to regulate themselves -- or else they'll invite regulation to be imposed on them.

Consumers have been signaling their frustration with offshore call centers for years — and companies didn’t simply miss those warnings; they dismissed and disregarded them. Now they're facing the real possibility of federal intervention later this month.

This development represents more than mere compliance. The FCC may very well be forcing companies to rebuild a stronger, more reliable U.S. customer service industry.

Listen in and learn what can happen when companies repeatedly ignore consumer feedback.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Struggle no more to tell your leadership what your value is to the organization. Join the movement to help change the conversation inside our organizations about public relations (a.k.a - communications, corporate comm, marcom, public-information office, etc.). We've heard you, seen your frustration on LinkedIn -- being disregarded, left out, treated like an afterthought. But we sometimes are creating our own headaches by how we talk about our profession. So we've designed some items we think you'll like -- and these "tools" will start the conversation for you. Check them out here!

NEW RESOURCE PAGE (a.k.a FREE STUFF) Visit our new resource landing page to check out free downloads and tools to help you lead, manage and implement top-notch PR in your organization. Click here

GOT TOPIC IDEAS? WE WANT TO HEAR THEM!

Send topic ideas and mailbag questions for a future episode to podcast@prthing.com We would love to hear from you!

HOST BIO (a.k.a. Who is this crazy woman who can't stop talking about PR?) https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E

Brand Backlash: The Cost of Content Overload

Consumers are officially hitting the wall.

Five recent studies all point to the same thing: people are drowning in brand content, tuning out messages, and walking away from companies that won’t give them a break. In this episode, we break down what that overload is doing to the brain—fatigue, anxiety, decision paralysis—and why it’s eroding brand connection instead of strengthening it.

Then we get to the proven and practical solution as we walk through the four stages of relationship development, what actually influences people in each one, and how to shift from pushing content to creating real connections that builds relationships that build business.

And we've posted the links to the five studies we mention in today's episode on our Resource Page. (So check that out.)

Lots to cover today, so . . . let's go!

NEW RESOURCE PAGE (a.k.a FREE STUFF) Visit our new resource landing page to check out free downloads and tools to help you lead, manage and implement top-notch PR in your organization. Click here

GOT TOPIC IDEAS? WE WANT TO HEAR THEM!

Send topic ideas and mailbag questions for a future episode to podcast@prthing.com We would love to hear from you!

HOST BIO (a.k.a. Who is this crazy woman who can't stop talking about PR?) https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E