2017's Major PR Scandals

By Claire Logsdon
2017 has seen many PR missteps and while it is only October, there are plenty of stories regarding the past 10 months. The story garnering most attention was Pepsi’s controversial ad starring Kendall Jenner, where they were accused of trivializing the Black Lives Matter movement. Though Pepsi eventually stopped using the ad, they initially refused to and then issued a public apology statement to Jenner instead of angry protesters.

The next scandal on the list occurred during the aftermath of a video release of a passenger being aggressively forced off a United Airlines plane. First, the company refused to apologize for their actions, but after protests and boycott threats, they released an apology. However, the damage was done and United Airlines is facing a ten year all time low in sales.
​
Cosmopolitan’s insensitive article put a positive title on weight loss that was the result of cancer, incensing people over the magazine’s poor word choice. Worst of all, the magazine has not issued an apology and refuses to acknowledge this issue. These are only several of the top stories regarding public relations mishaps this year; hopefully the country will see better PR in the year following.



Torossian, Ronn. “The Biggest PR Crises Of 2017.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 30 Aug. 2017