Best & Worst PR Crises of 2025: Your Picks

Hello, everyone. I did a pivot. I did a pivot here. Typically, on Fridays, I do my top. What do we talk about? Our top PR stories for the week that I'm watching. You know, reputation wise, I do have my list, but it is the end of the year, and yesterday I did a very quick substack, because now substack is so great that it does live from the desktop. Substack is making so many great changes. I love this about substack. So you can. And then what we started talking about were. Oh, gosh. Was we started talking about the top PR crisis. You know, that. That kind of happened in 2025. You know, good and bad. Of course, the. The bad ones are the exciting ones to talk about, but there's some good ones as well. And because everyone gave such wonderful answers yesterday, I thought, why not, like, add to the list today? Okay, so here we are. You love the impromptu voltage moment. Thanks, Manny. I love how you're calling it that. That's exactly what it was. But technically, it wasn't the fault because it is public. Just so everyone knows, you know, we're live on substack. Pretty soon, because they have this technology, we can start streaming to other platforms. So I probably might throw this over. Well, I don't know if I want to say this to substack, but it will go to Instagram and TikTok if we can do it. I missed it because you were having dinner, but here we are. You're still working on the list. Okay, so here we are. So let me just quickly give you some of the PR hits and misses for the week. I want to get your thoughts on it as well and then give me your choices. I should do this because the light is coming in here. Give me your choices. I saw this morning that you're rising in culture. Oh, did other. Could other people see that? I didn't realize that. Yeah, 75. My top was 31. I think that's the highest I've got. Or no, maybe I was 14 months. I don't know. But thank you so much, Caleb. I appreciate that very much. All right, so let's do the quick hits of the week. Does anyone have any thoughts for, you know, the PR wins and losses, you know, and hits and misses for the week? I'm sure I'm doing so many. I have best and worst hits. You know, we gotta. We gotta settle on what we're gonna do. I'm just gonna give you a couple of them, and then we're going to end here with our list. Because when people start thinking about 2025, and as Manny pointed out, yesterday was the impromptu kind of was Voltish. I like how you said that. It was Vaultish list and the names were fabulous. I mean, they were really, really good, the brands and the names. Now I went on, I posted TikTok Instagram, and I think I went on YouTube. You know, I just, I just asked people to give me some of their answers. So I'm already getting more answers. But I had someone come into my DMs and start giving me scuttle, which is one of the great things that I love is when people give me scuttle about certain things. And then yesterday, someone also mentioned to me that Ad Age named Astronomer the Ryan Reynolds produced ad with Gwyneth Paltrow for Astronomer. And I know so many people think this, I am not one of them. It was listed as one of their biggest, best ads of 2025. I'm not quite sure of the metric that they are using, but my metric of reputation makes it a massive, massive fail. When you send millions, probably maybe six figures minimum, maybe up to a million. I think I read a million to Ryan Reynolds to fix a reputation problem when he's in the middle of a reputation problem. So go ahead. For your list, we can put down Ryan, we can put down Blake. So many people already did that. So quickly for this week, let's just do our PR hits and misses for this week. I have a couple. I, you know, every Monday, I send a list, a Monday watch list, to my substack members of the Vault. You know, those are the people who are kind of in the inner sanctum of this, of this community. And it's, it's such a great community because. And community is great because people feel that they can share. And I love learning from people as well. I don't, I don't like it just to be me, you know, just talking about my thoughts. I love everyone else's thoughts because so much of my work in crisis management involves public sentiment. And right before I hopped on, you know, I was texting back and forth with a client whose leadership. And we were talking about something that was happening in a Facebook group. And I said, I'm using. I have this Facebook group open right now because I'm writing a strategic plan for another client. And I'm seeing when people are pissed off online and what they complain about. And then when they start to complain, they start to poke and dig. And then that's how these crises happen because they usually start with something so that's going to be my lead off for my list for the week. So the, the watch list that I sent is the first story. So every Monday, like I said, if you're in the membership, you'll get this list. Because I also want to know what you're watching too. 100% Pete Hegseth. The screws are tightening so hard on this guy. But what I noticed was the press gaggle on Sunday with Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Maybe I, and I'll, you know, I go back in time with Donald Trump. I mean, I wasn't in New York, but I read the New York Post all the time. I was, you know, 90s. I was all over. I was just all over the 90s. Let's just say that I was. I was a culture person in the 90s. And so I've been in that guy's brain for a while, like, or see, not in his brain, but just kind of see how he operates and see how he works. But it was just very telling. When he was explaining Pete Hegseth and doing the second shot, he was agreeing, you know, like doubling down in support of Pete Hegseth. But to me, how he said it almost when he came out and doubled down, it's like he set a tripwire. Like, Pete Hegseth is on his way out. Like he's setting up Pete Hegseth to fail. And Pete Hegseth keg's breath. Why have I never heard keg's breath before? That's hysterical. I love that. Very good. I love that. That. And then Pete Hegseth is setting up Admiral Frank. But actually I think he goes by Mitch Bradley to fail. So it is a cluster clock, if you know. If you know what I mean. So I actually think Pete Hegseth. And even though the Pete Hegseth is a Secretary of Defense, I won't call him anything else. In my work, in my client work, it's the same thing. And like I said, when I was going back and forth with this manager, there are just tells that are out there and, and the, and the tells on Trump and watching him. I was watching the Cabinet meeting live this week because Greg, he was doing the. He was doing the. They needed him to fill in on the new news. And then I kept it running. And they happened at his station, happened to run the Cabinet live. And I'm watching Trump fall asleep. He doesn't. It's not only all the other sundowning in the middle of the day, the things that are happening, but I don't think he Cares. He just doesn't care about any of these people. All right, so Hegseth, definitely one of them. Another one. I threw this in today. Is it just me? Let me know. Oh, the astrology girlies keep saying that February is his bye bye month. Really? February? February, Black History Month. Would that be something? Is. Did anyone get their Spotify wrapped? You know, my kids and I were moving it around Spotify and we were all noticing that things were wonky on it and I was noticing it online as well that other people are saying that was wonky. My number, my number one song. My number one song was Oceanized. Is that what it is by Billie Eilish? I've never listened to it. Maybe it's been on a mix. I've never listened to it, said it was my number one song. And then Billie Eilish, you know, said thank you for making her the number one thing. I'm like, Billy, I wish I could say something back. I have Apple music wrap, Caleb. So do I because I have Apple plus or whatever. Not quite the same. Not quite the same. All right, so. And let me know this week if you guys have anything else this week. Also, Signal gate is. Is. Is crushing. That's why when I say that the screws are tightening on Pete Hegseth. Remember the whole signal gate. I did a podcast about that a while back, you know, with Pete Hegseth, using Signal app. Oxford University names Rage Bait as word of the Year. I think. Oh, what? Did someone just tell me this? Oh, God. I think it was on TikTok. We were. They were comparing. Oh, oh, I know what it was. I know what. I know what it was. Oh, thank you, Gregory. So we all know American Eagle. Now I'm going to tell you this right now. You guys let me know. Is American Eagle, reputation wise, a win or a loss? We kind of talked about it yesterday. But American Eagle, what do you think? And it. And it ties hand in hand with Sydney Sweeney. Right. But Oxford University, their names, you know, Rage bait is. Oh, okay, Greg. Oh, God. Mike, Marion here. Oxford University names Rage Bait as word 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 rage bait. Is a rage bait ad campaign. The other ad campaign from this week, Spotify thinks you're 80 because you stream jazz and classical. Okay, my 23 year old was 73. My 21 year old was 74 or no, 77. And I was, I was 70. Yeah. That's why the whole thing is great. The stock market says American Eagles will win her. Yeah, I, I, I, I'm going to put them in the win column. I think they'll probably be in our win column. I think they're going to be in our win column. But the other brand. Did anybody see, and this is what someone was texting me on the back end, They're a journalist. The Pantone Color of the Year, I posted it on Substack today and also on Threads. Anybody see the Pantone Color of the Year? And I wrote back to this, to this journalist throughout a network. They write for a network. I said, it seems very American Eagle esque. Did anybody see the Pantone Color of the Year? I had posted? When I heard the name of it, it reminded me of Private Dancers. Speaking of the 90s, the timing is nuts. Yeah, Cloud. It's cloud. Yeah. It's not a color. It's like a creamy. It's not even. It's like an oatmeal that's been sitting out for a couple days. Pantone's president talked about it. Really? And she's a black woman. Ooh, I have to see then the response from Pantone. Pantone, Pantone, Pantone. It's not getting, it's, it's not getting good vibes here. Now, you could say they chose like this Cloud White because where we are right now is in a world of nothingness, you know, like nothing. But yeah, so it's Cloud Dancer. So, yeah, in my head, all I can hear, the brain worm is, I'm your Private Dancer. But to make it in this, in this day and age of, of. I don't want, do I want to say xenophobic? I guess I could. I wonder how it landed. Cloud Dancer's a Native American name. Oh, that's in there as well. Caleb, you love Private Dancer, so there's that. So there's Pantone. And then I'll also add, what else did I have on my list? Oh, I thought of the Tina Turner Private Dancer. I wasn't over to TikTok for a second. Yes. Remember when they did the light blue and the light pink back in 2016 because the world needed calming? Is that why they did pink and blue? I remember pink and blue, the Pantone color. I totally remember that year. Oh, God, my brain. I have to be honest, my brain has been mushed this week. As I told everybody, I hit my head this week and honestly, I think I did something. Oh, God dang it. Where was I going? Spot Oh, I know where I was going. Did anybody see? And this is for people who follow me first and Gray Kate's quizzes. But I love quizzes. I'm gonna quiz you guys. Two years ago, August, this was probably the crisis that raised, you know, I gotta credit this person. Their crisis raised my visibility like 10x my visibility when they were in crisis. And when this happened, it was August. Two years, I think two years ago, I said this is going to be a bad crisis and they will not recover. They will not recover from this. Was it a cancellation? I know. I don't think I have a serious concession. I just, you know, I'm just mushy. But they're still in it. So yesterday I'm at my salon and I'm sitting there on substack and there someone has just opened a substack and doing something that is straight out of the Molly McPherson playbook. I am not talking about Blake. I'm. It is not Blake. Which, by the way, December 17th, 7:00pm Eastern Time, Dr. Abby is coming in the vault. We are going to do a one year roundup on Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Baldon. Will Blake and Ryan be on the 2025 list? What do you guys think? What do you think, Ash? Okay, Herb saying Ashton, Joe and Sophie. No, Caleb, I like your timing, but not Joe and Sophie. No, same time of year. I'll do more hits. I'll do, I'll do more hints because I have to. Oh, Ashton Kutcher, by the way, his wife. I was gonna say Mika Kelly. It's not Mika Kelly, Mila. Right. She, she, where did she pop up recently? I think she did an article about being in the mom's group or something like that. And I thought, ooh, that was smart. So she's trying to distance herself brand wise from her husband, Ashton. Yeah, it was something in town. She was doing something in town. Do you think by the. At the end of 2024 that we'll still be talking about Blake Lively at the end of 2025? No. Well, yes, Louise, I did. Because a year ago, the Friday before the. Before the Christmas holiday is when Blake Lively filed that complaint against Justin Baldoni. So we are going to do a one year revisit. So December 17, 7pm if you want to join me in the VAU. It's for members only. In the Vault, we are doing a deep dive with Dr. Abby. I'm going to talk about the reputation of it and Dr. Abby's going to talk about the psychology. Mila Kunis. Thank you Herb, I can always rely on you. Reveals she's head of the hoa. That's what it was homeowners association for her. And I love this. Her Beverly Hills neighborhood. You know, it's like she tried, but she did. Oh, Prince Harry. Skit on Stephen Kobert. Even as a Brit, Carla, you're a Brit. Oh, who? Oh, God. The Washington Post. An opinion essay in the Washington Post. It was so biting about Megan's new program, like comparing her to Wallis Simpson. It was really, really good that when you're a royal in love and you've been excommunicated or, you know, by choice, which really kind of in a way, I mean, Harry's not a king, but they kind of excommunicated themselves. What do you do? You know, you sit and you make jam, and you go on Stephen Colbert. You go on Stephen Colbert, Right? Okay, so we. We bounce around a lot. But no, this artist. And then I'll wrap here, and then we'll go. We'll go to our list. Our tops. Sephora's Christmas ad. Someone tell me, what was the Sephora Christmas ad? Did they do something? I have to. Oh, gosh. I have to. Okay, now I got to keep my. You know what? I got to keep my typing here. Oh, gotta move this so I can do my notes. So. So I can check Sephora. Yikes. Not Wallace Simpson. Yeah, like Wallace Simpson. They quoted. They quoted that wall. Simpson said something like, you know, love. Like, love is. Love is a difficult thing. Like when you sacrifice for love, which, let's face it, Harry, I'm going slow because I just put this in the microwave. Excuse me. That was noisy. I'm sorry. No. So this artist is on substack now, and this artist posted. There's two essays on there. Oh, Mariah and Sephora. Oh, good. Someone just texted me. Someone who? No, I can't say anything, but. All right, so I'll look at the Sephora ad with Mariah Carey. Interesting. But this artist was canceled two years ago and is still canceled. And went on substack and wrote an 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 from the title. Cancel Me Again. A canceled woman's take on why everyone should get canceled at least once. Who wrote that article? I saw that right away, and I had to read it. And I read it, and I already started writing it. I went, girl. But I can't write that because then I'll be lashed at that. But when I say girl. Like, I call my daughters girl. I call everybody girls. I want to write girl. You were not canceled because of these reasons. And do you think, who do we have? Sherry? Chris? You got it straight out of the Molly McPherson. Straight out of the Molly McPherson playbook of. When you're canceled on one platform, you go to a. You go to the opposite platform, and you're right there. So Lizzo showing up on Substack, it's like showing up on LinkedIn. I mean, you would never expect it. But she's in the replies. I mean, I believe that that's her in the reply. I was reading her essay about being canceled, and she's naming all these things that she did. And I. And my podcast next week is going to be about it. But I read it, you know, she said, this is the reasons why she was canceled. Doing a smoothie Detox, wearing a mask, not wearing a mask, playing a crystal flute, crying, complaining, saying, I make music for black women. Unknowingly using. Do you remember that? When she used the Slurpee in a song, which I think was before the cancellation, and she changed the song. Whatever she talked about. I don't know if she went to a Lakers game where she went on. She was like, in the court, and she kind of had an outfit on that showed her butt cheeks. But anyway. But so in this whole article, she's saying, you know, about being canceled. Like, hey, if you haven't been canceled yet, what did she not do in this article? What does she not do? She did not name the reason why she was canceled. She was not canceled for those reasons. And she does mention, like, conservatives came after her or whatever. When conservatives come after you, especially if you're a singer. If you're Lizzo, you're a black singer. You're a black singer. Loud, proud, you're. You are all out. Just you are you and you make no excuses who you are. Her brand was fantastic. It was close to being. Oh, my God, Manny, your humor is so dead on Molly today. How Kevin Spacey ever. I love that. It's a great response. She was not canceled for those reasons. Yeah, conservatives may not have liked what Lizzo did, but that's not why she was canceled. If conservatives don't like you and you're Lizzo, that's not cancel. That's engagement. That's what makes you big. I mean, it's a pain, Craig. It's a pain. But you're not being canceled. You're being boosted because it's negativity online. And that's what makes people important online. You were canceled because of how you treated your dancers. And more than that. And it actually, that wasn't the reason why you were canceled. Really. I'm actually writing this article, my rebuttal to Lizzo right now, and it's actually more of a Lizzo, let me help you. She was canceled because she hired Marty Singer, who is a lawyer. Bill Cosby, Charlie Sheen, I mean, come on. And the response was to go after the dancers. That's why Lizzo was canceled. So she wraps up my PR Miss for the week. That is my biggest PR Miss for the week, and she does not deserve to come back. Now, I will say I. I don't blame Lizzo because this is her representation. She needs new representation badly. And reading her article, maybe it's just me. If you guys want to read it, I feel like parts of it were her and then other parts weren't her. And if I had to guess, her team is made up. So she has the lawyer, Marty Singer, who, If you're. You know, who else. Marty Singer in our group. Remember we talked about Marty Singer? Remember we talked about Marty Singer? Jeremy Renner hired Marty Singer. That's how I look at it as reputation manager. How do you know someone's guilty in Hollywood or in the whole entertainment world is when they hire Marty Sanger because he's the lawyer who gets off people who are guilty and Lizzo, but they think, oh, he's a bulldog. But he does not understand online sentiment and how it works. He does not understand there is zero accountability to it. So that's our podcast next week. What do you guys think about the whole Lizzo thing? Is it just me? Am I screaming in the woods? All right. Okay. So that's my week. That's my week for. Oh, I joined late. I'm in Lizzo's private channel. You are. Who else is in Lizzo's private channel? What is. What is Lizzo's private channel? Lizzo's substack rebrand is so wild. Isn't. Is so contrarian to her brand. It is so contrarian to her brand. I completely agree. I think. Oh, this is what I was saying. Her team does not have a true reputation manager on there. Someone who understands what reputation management. She has publicists. And. And here's the thing. This is nothing against publicists, but too many people in. In the entertainment industry or in the space. And even if it's not entertainment, even if it's like, I deal with a lot of content creators and influencers, like One person, actually, I'll say this like on TikTok, you know, I posted, you know, what are the, oh, juicy tea. What kind of juicy tea is she dropping in that private channel? Exactly. But speaking of gct, and I'm just going to give you the heads up right now, I cannot tell you the gct, but someone in my comments asked, asked, asked me how come you didn't comment on this? And, and I let it go. And the reason why I didn't is because I was hired to help someone because of that said crisis. That was unsaid to me. But it, you know, but it was huge. And this person, But it's the same thing. They get publicists who come in and they hire publicists who act like crisis managers. Publicists are there to give, get press for people to get engagement. Crisis managers and reputation managers like me. We're out there looking for risk and we tell you what not to do. We want to pull you back in and publicists want to put you back out there. So when a crisis happens, what these publicists do is they go out, they put the stuff out there to try and claim it and you can't. That's when you lose it. I think it was just a ploy to change your image. Yeah, it was. Lizzo is trying. You know, sometimes when you feel that someone watches you and takes advice from you seriously, I think someone on Lizzo's team looked at my stuff because I've done a lot of Lizzo content. I think I did six posts like two years ago, but I did a documentary with ABC News. I did the Nightline, npr and I've said the same thing over and over. And my playbook and actually this big kind of crisis that happened in the news that I really can't comment on, the person at the center of it told me, they said, I follow, you know, I follow you. And this was a statement that I thought would follow your framework. And I was like, oh my gosh, you forget, you forget the power of social media. I was like, wow. And I did say on the thing, I went, nicely done. But there was a, there was a but in there because there was this outlier thing that they had to deal with. I wish I could tell you guys, Lizzo secret TikTok. Someone has to tell me, I work on crisis PR. But, but you always make me realize the PR strategy is playing all around us. Yes. How long before PR is replaced by AI? I'll tell you what, Publicity PR is going to be replaced by AI before my PR even Though, speaking of, if you want crisis management help, have you seen Mollify? M O L L Y F I A I. That's my AI agent. And that's what I do. That's what I have with my clients. Like my clients now. My hourly clients get access to my AI agent. Like just, just use my AI agent to write your statements. According to AI, Lizzo's trial is the start this month. Is that true? Okay, someone fact check Herb's AI search. I'm really happy you mentioned that. I didn't do that research yet. I'm going to thank you for that. In the podcast. Crisis Comms better not be. I literally changed career path already because AI was wrecking my previous industry. Louise. Right, Like AI is coming in. It's called Lizzo irl, but it's private. Oh, Manny. If I tried to go in there, would they let me go in there? I don't think so. I can't go in there because I've commented too much on her. In the uk, they hire lawyers and I end up highlighting why that's a bad move in interviews. Ahaha. Yep. That's what I deal with too. Lawyers. Oh my gosh. I just. I just dealt with a lawyer situation and the client went with the lawyer the first time. Like we had the plan and then the lawyer got involved and I went, okay, if you want to do it, that's fine. But let me tell you. Da da da. What do you think happened? Uh huh. We know strategy. Do you have an AI available in chat? GPT. Oh, emergency preparedness. I. I have my own, but not mine yet, but it will be. Oh, there's a light coming in the very divine like, right? Oh, speaking of divine, Erica Kirk. I forgot to add her on our list, you guys. I'm still even appearing at the new Book Summit with New York with the New York Times. I think I'm going to give Erica Kirk. I'm not a fan, but I'm. But people in my vault know, in my community here, we know I'm obsessed with Erica Kirk. I'm obsessed with Erica Kirk. And the reason why I'm obsessed with her is I gotta. I think I gotta do this. Hold on. The reason why I'm obsessed with Erica Kirk is because she is reputation in real time. We are watching the chameleon. The chameleon. Ms. Demure. Yes, I posted that. I think yesterday or two days ago when she showed up at the New York Times Book Summit when she showed up on stage, like in a capelet. And the Louis Vuitton's and sitting there with the cape and the sweater dress and all the bling is gone. It's gone. So we don't have Tammy Faye anymore. I am not a fan. No, I am definitely not a fan of Erica Kirk. I'm not a fan of prosperity gospel. I'm not. I'm a fan of Tammy Faye Baker and we know that for my group. Oh, Caleb. Yep, we. Right. We could talk all about. Just saw her previous appearance on Summer House. What? What you're not talking about. You're not talking about Erica Kirk. Lizzo, who's on Caleb, explain you agree with me on Tammy Faye? Erica Kirk. No, that can't be. Or is it? Speaking of conservative women who are just showing themselves in our face, how about the University of Oklahoma student trying to hack her way out of Fox News to a Fox News desk? I said, Chris, I gotta be honest, I didn't see that yet. So many people have told me about it. I have not seen it. I have not seen it at all. I've not. But Erica Kirk is one of our people. So what's your list? You guys so top. So coming out next week, I am going to look into it. So you don't like Christians. Got it. Don't you love hate? Don't you just love hate? I love Christians. Well, first of all, I am a Christian. The Catholics, we don't call ourselves Christians. We call ourselves Catholics. I don't like the hypocrisy at all. Where we're. Where Jesus tells us to love everyone, yet we end up hating everyone. Why are we bling ourselves out? Yes. Season three. Oh my gosh. I think I have to binge. Okay, not that this is part of our conversation, but does anybody want to tell me what they're. What they're binging on in my girls chat? This is what we're talking about right now. So. So let me give you another PR win. All her fault Netflix, which I love. How many women, moms, wives, former wives cannot or not or relate to that oh Diddy documentary. I need to watch the Diddy documentary as well. Oh, it's on Peacock. Thank you, Caleb. It's on Peacock. That show is so good. It is the. I don't know who wrote it, but it is a woman who's been there. Let's just say that Sarah Snook post pregnancy body, in all her faults, is a PR friggin win. It is a win. I love it so much. I know. Oh, I can't give it away. I can't give it away. I was going to give a thought on Jake Lacey, but I can't. I can't. That would be a spoiler. So I'm going to shut up the Diplomat. I like it, but I keep getting. It's. It's like I want to like it. I want to like it, but I just. I don't love it. I actually went back to Homeland real quick. And then I also am reading the Livia Nutzy book too. Ooh, Olivia Nutze. So with the JFK or the rfk, she's gonna get for the week. She's gonna get thumbs down for the week. Oh, Pluribus. I need to see that. I need to watch that. I heard that is great. Thoughts on the Pantone color of the year. We talked about that. That is apparently growing to be a PR miss, like, a big time miss. But I learned in the chat that. Oh, Dr. Oz, funny. A client that I had this week, like someone really, really big in a space. I'll just say I was going through all their stuff and I said, let's clean up our media section. Okay. You have Jay Shetty, Dr. Oz and Mel Robbins. That doesn't carry the flex that you 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 documentary about Jordan Hudson and Belichick coming out next week. That will be amaz. Guess who was supposed to be on Extra on Tuesday. Me, because I'm in the documentary Core Extra. They have reached out to me, the producer's advice twice to do a back and forth with. Is it Derek Howe? Derek Huff. Is he Huff or Howe on Dancing with the Stars? I keep going round and round and I keep forgetting it. And they said it yesterday or they sent me another email yesterday. Like, can you do an interview with him? Derek Howell will do the intro. Blah, blah. I'm like, I can't. I'm traveling. I'm speaking, I'm on stage. But yeah, I'm appearing. I appear in the Vice news documentary about Jordan, Jordan Hudson and Bill Belichick. I filmed it, Jordan. I filmed it. I filmed it when it was warm, but I was wearing a warmer. Max Mara blazer because I put it on because I knew it would air in December. But it was a little warm when I was filming it in Boston, actually, technically Newton, Massachusetts. So, yeah. So I hope. I hope you watch it. It's. Oh. And can I tell you, it will be amazing. It will be amazing. 100%. It's going to be great. Yeah. Jordan. Oh. Oh. Well, is that going to be Bill Belichick? Bill Belichick in our list. And Jordan Hudson. Jordan Hudson. Jordan Hudson. What would she be, a win or a fail? Honestly, you guys, what do you think? Because no one likes her, right? But she's someone kind of like a Gwyneth. And not that I'm putting her at the level of a Gwyneth, but people hate Watcher, and so she's getting so much publicity, even like she was supposed to be on Dancing with the Stars, and she can't. And actually, that was breaking as I was doing the interview with Vice News, and I told the producer, they didn't even know that I told them that about Jordan Hudson being asked. And she got pulled like four hours before filming or something. Like, it was crazy. They got pulled because she wouldn't cooperate. She was being difficult. Yeah. Louise, you're saying a win. I think I might give her a win. She's kind of like, Jordan Hudson is like a. Like a American eagle. You're right. They're going to get the win. We may not like it, but they're going to get the win. Bill is totally on the list with the upcoming hall of Fame vote coming up. Oh, I see that. Kraft and Belichick. And I'm going to be honest, between all of us, part of the reason why I was. I was happy, I could legitimately say I don't want to do the interviews, you know, for the Vice thing, because even participating in it, I kind of felt a little, you know, because when you're in Patriots Nation, you just kind of support the cause. And I don't want to be coming out against a coach who helped make my son's life amazing. You know, between the Patriots and the Red Sox and the Celtics, the Bruins. I mean, my son Connor is. Has the most blessed childhood to grow up in Boston during this dynasty. So I don't like being. I don't like being a part of any of the downfall of it. So I. I don't want to add to it. I think Jordan is crashing with Bill's. When. When. Loss friend. Yeah, I know. It's. I saw that there's a video of him helping her with the co. They can't. It can't. Right. And I. I think I had. Over Thanksgiving, when I was. When I was crashing over JD Vance, lecturing the troops over lying about liking Turkey, I was also. We were talking about Bill Belichick. I mean, what a Move like the Patriots, like Mike Vrabel compared to Bill Belichick, like Mike Vrabel is. Is. Is almost in a way kind of like erasing all this stuff. On another side note, does the US Care for Stephen Bartlett? Ooh, Carla, that's so interesting. Remember when I said The Mel Robbins, Dr. Oz, Jay Shetty? I kind of feel, even though I personally don't put him in there, but I think in the world, I think maybe it's just me. You guys let me know if you think this, that in the reasonable world. That's a word that I use a lot in my work. I always tell people when they're getting attacked by trolls, just remember, just look for the reasonable people, you know? But reasonable people now are very anti grift, which is why the Jay Shetty's the Rachel Hollis, the Mel Robbins of the world, like, make me insane. Because it's grift. Like, the fact that a Mel Robbins is. People go to her for therapy. Makes me insane. Really. But some people put Stephen Bartlett in there because. Because he platforms these people. Right? But you tell me, Carla, I mean, that's kind of your neck of the woods, your neck of the island. I can't say much here, but my inbox is full of requests because I worked with his ex business partner. Oh, that's interesting. They what? She's not therapist, is she? Mel Robbins, Louise, come on. Come on. We know Mel Robbins is not a therapist. Bartlett is a huge grifter and. Oh, and spreader misinformation. See? Yeah. So I actually kind of said the same thing about this about appearing, because there were clients that appeared with them. And. And I ended up saying, had you come to me, I would have said no, Seriously, Shelley, who? Oh, I just got news alert that FIFA just awarded Trump the new. Stop it. Oh, you know what? This could be right, because I just saw an article this morning about World cup and Trump. You might be right about this. I bet you're right about this, Shelley. People leader often flatters Trump now. Oh, but you know what, though? This guy, he is a bad. What the hypocrisy. Is this the same guy? Oh, my God, this guy's awful. Gianni. Gianni Infantino. I forget what he did. Someone Herb AI bring it to me. What did he do? He did something to a woman maybe. That guy is horrible. So actually, you know what, Shelley? It makes sense that the FIFA president would do this with. With Trump. It makes total sense. But I forgot what he did. I did a post about it. I can't Remember what it was. But there was a big. There was a big. There was a big thing. He's terrible, Michelle. Yeah, the Times took him apart, then hid the article behind a paywall. I think I remember this. But. But Carla, tell me what he did. I forgot the BBC went for him midway through the Dragons Den season. He's also on the red pill list as he's done interviews claiming when you're at the top of, everyone wants to take you down and the BBC don't protect you. Which is not true given the volume of scandals and covers up. Yes, Trump canceled Kennedy Center Productions for the FIFA drawing to be held there. Okay. Of course. Oh my gosh. He kissed the player without consent. 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 your list though, for just, for our year list, our roundup. So I had a lot of people in the chat in our thread, you know, my community thread in the vault. Give me their, their choices. I think I already know my number one positive. I think I already know it. I think it's gotta be solid. But tell me who. Sydney Sweeney, Duffy, Karen Reed. Oh, where does Karen Reed fall, you guys? Oh, Travis and Taylor. Yeah, we talked about that yesterday. Yeah. I mean, geez, do you get any better than that? Crackle Cracker Barrel? Yep. I mentioned on my post, my TikTok post, I also look at press requests because I get press requests constantly. And there is a time when I was like, oh my God, like, look at, this is so great. And now you just realize, like you, If I love them, there's certain producers out there and journalists who I'll always do stuff for, always when they call, but just I don't have the time now. And you know who actually asked me to appear on their show was Bill O'Reilly. Bill. Could you, could you imagine me Speaking with Bill O'Reilly? No. He's apparently over inflated the numbers, but it was bad comms on his part. The millions were for the agency group, not social chain alone. So the Times went digging into the accounts. Oh, and he's also creating his own media agency now. Oh, I mean, that's what they all do. That's what they all do. I know, right, Michelle? Yeah. Bill O'Reilly. I wanted to write back and just write. This is what I should have written. Really. No, but you'd want to see that conversation. There, there are people. There's one Network. They keep coming at me. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You wouldn't speak. Bill would yell at you for five minutes. Oh, yeah. And you wanna know what the topic was? That's Bill O'Reilly. No. And this is how the producer said it. Bill O'Reilly wants you to come on. Which I don't think it was Bill O'Reilly. I think it was a producer. Bill O'Reilly wants you to come on to speak about Gaza. Are you kidding me? I won't speak about Gaza on TikTok, much less with Bill O'Reilly. Could you imagine me? Oh, Meghan Markle. Meghan Markle. Has anyone even mentioned Meghan markle in our 2025 list? I don't think anyone's mentioned it. Where. What is Meghan? Is Meghan positive or negative? I mean, if we were looking at analytically. Okay, I actually have to come up with my parameters, too. Press, mention, public sentiment, social engagement. Like, those are the three things. And then maybe the outlier is. Are they just. Are they garbage or not? But where does Meghan Markle fall? Seriously? She gets pressed like crazy, though. I refuse to ever do any more press around Meghan Markle. I'll do it on my own, but I'm not going to ever do press because the press always, always, always for clicks. They always make it negative. Always. And I'm sick of that. She's pivoting. Oh, yeah. Carla, you're uk. I would love your opinion, but not there yet. I think Marco is positive, considering how low she started. You know, what are we basing high and low? I mean, I honestly think her suits Tig ears. That was the right direction. Do you. Did you guys follow her then? Like, I followed Tig really early, and I feel like she was different than so many other actresses out there. Like, I really think she got the royal, let's say, the pedigree of it all. But I think she missed out on millions of endorsement deals and other things. Like, I think she was cusping to be much bigger. Not because of her acting, which I think is mid at best, but she was a terrific influencer and going the hairy route. The UK are bored to death of the hate articles. Yeah. I mean, they're just. Right. I mean, even. Yeah. Not better or worse. Not better or worse. I'm sad about her lack of effort and her philanthropy. Yeah. But they need to make money. They need money. They need money. Someone else just reached out to me, too. I have to talk to them. Someone who worked with Her. I'm like, oh, yeah, we can chat. We can definitely chat. Just seems to be going in circles. Who, us? Our conversation or Megan? I'm just kidding her. It was a huge sacrifice for her, and she missed out on a lot. Carla. Yeah, I don't. You think. I think she put up with a lot of crap. Meghan Markle put up with a lot of crap. No doubt. Racism. Like, even now, like, all this stuff, like Reddit serves me so much. Royal stuff. The lo. You know, you have the loyalists, and then you have. You know, there's just so many different groups, and they'll never think differently, ever. And it creates all this engagement. But the relevancy of the royal family, you know, it's waning. And then you look at William, Prince William. Now, do we put William in there at all? Catherine. Wait, was Catherine's cancer. That wasn't 25, was it? Someone help me. That wasn't March20. No, that was 24. Publicists here. TPUSA. PR blunders are historic despite media suppression. Canada's destroying them. Oh, interesting. Someone else. Someone else mentioned Turning Point. PR wise. Press mentions, lots. We'll come back to the royal Family. Lots of press mentions. But when you have the Candace of the worlds. Yeah. Not that we're giving Candace the platform there, but. I don't know. I don't know. Right? I mean, how many more millions did they make? I. You know, I don't know. That's a tough one. That's a tough call. There's a lot of former Turning Point former workers making statements on TikTok. Really? Oh, I got to start looking at this. I will say, like, when you watch the video. And again, we all know my obsession with Erica Kirk when she brought the Medal of Freedom back with the staff and all the staff looking at it, going, oh, there doesn't look like one staff member at Turning Point likes Erica. Is that. Is that just me? Manny, you are going to introduce me to the aunt, to the former employees or current employees of turning point TikTok algorithm. I'm thanking you. Now, they're young kids in their 20s. How can you not be obsessed with it? I know. I just am, because Erica Kirk and someone was just calling me out on this, you know, saying, okay, so you're not Christian, Erica, like that whole prosperity gospel, evangelical conservative, Christian, conservative, Catholic, jd, JD Vance of it all. And then Usha not wearing a ring, not once, twice. And then. And then Erica Kirk appearing at that summit, which was smart, by the way, on her part. Brilliant. But she is Struggling so hard. Oh, here's the PR angle of Erica Kirk. What do you do when your brand was being submissive, subservient to your husband, being the mom, and now you're this and now you're the CEO, just trotting around everywhere. I'm too scared to let the algorithm get taken over by it all. I know. How about Kate and Will not wearing Queen's Royal of Order pin at the banquet? Not that I know what that means, but on Reddit, I know what that means. You know, because a lot of people are talking about it. The. My only level of knowledge is Kate's crown tiara was crooked. Is that just me? It looked really crooked. It looked really heavy. And Kate Middleton or Catherine, Princess Catherine looks really thin, like too thin. And all the pregnancy rumors. Oh, who are the pregnancy rumors? Oh, with Erica Kirk. Are there pregnancy rumors with it? Could you imagine? Oh, she said that she wished that she was pregnant with Charlie thing. Prince Will's PR team has had their work cut out for him. Prince. Prince William looks so sour of late. Reddit came for me for saying supportive 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 is shopping. Shacking up with J.D. mance. I'm. I will say there is a friendship there. There is an. Let's just say there's energy there. I think there's energy there. Reddit is such a schizophrenic platform. But you want to know what? I would be lost without Reddit. I love Reddit and I'm not afraid to admit it. All right, you guys, so we're coming 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 her career and JD's reputation. But you know what? I might. You know, I. A solid, solid opinion, right? Your opinion is solid, but there's. There's this. There's disability in this movement, and my annoyance is less about the bigger world of it all, the tpusa, the Erica Kirk's of the world. And just personally, because I know so many people personally, as someone who grew up and went to Catholic schools my entire life, K through college. It's the hypocrisy because you just have those certain people who are now conservative Catholics. The hypocrisy of it all. But they all find ways to justify it, right? There's some divine reason why having all this money in the world Is Okay. There's divine reason why we can say all these horrible things and treat people horribly. The bar is pretty low. Yep. I'm yet to work out what sugar means, but I'm guessing it's not as sweet as it sounds. Oh, Carla, what is it? Sugar? I disagree. Mega doesn't like JD's wife. Oh, I know. They don't like her. They do not like his wife. And they're rooting for Erica. I think they. No. Oh, no. The conversation they mentioned here was cheating. You know, like, cheating pregnancy. Like, if it got that. But if JD divorced Usha and then hooked up with Erica. Oh, I think. I think they'd have a parade. Honestly, I really do. Oh, sugar is what Reddit calls me. Oh, gotcha. If she had an affair with jd, it would be conservative. Wed. Yeah, so I don't think they'd have. So let's talk about, like, above the fold. It wouldn't be an affair. JD's marriage would already be over. Okay. Oh, and, you know. Okay. And the bus coming out of the Trump administration that runs over people after it runs over Pete Hegseth and The Admiral and J.D. vance, it's going to run over Usha. That bus is going to run over first. It will run over Usha. It will. It will. It will. Erica Kirk has the same story as Serena from the Handmaid's Tale. It would be a cult love story. Oh. Oh, Kash Patel. Thank you. Kash Patel. I think the knights. I think the knives are out for Cash Patel, too. Oh, my God. I read. I think the Atlantic had an article about Kash Patel. Oh, he is, as I said in my thing, the worst. That was my. In my post. I did that because my daughter Quinn and I love Ben Schwartz. We love him, so to speak. Cash Patel should not even be. Should not even be in the FBI, much less leading it. Usually, Usha is being talked about by the South Asian community as a positive conservative role model. Well, I mean, she is, but also, I mean, she's got a pretty strong background, but she is. She is conservative. I mean, look who she clerked for. Yeah, Cash. Cash should be nervous right now. Cash is a liability. Cash is a liability, Chris. Cash is walking around. Don't be suspicious. Don't be suspicious. That's very funny. Oh, Brandy. Yeah, thank you. Because my TikTok Live is actually my secondary. I gotta. I gotta set up the stream in all this. Who isn't a liability in the White House? I know, Michelle, it's such a peculiar question, but if you think about It. I mean, there's so many reasonable people out there that would say every walking person in the White House is a liability, frankly. But in. In. In mega world, you know, their power is weighted differently. Steve Wyckoff. I'm looking. TikTok is ahead of Substack. Oh, is it? I know. I don't know. I just. I just kept TikTok on so I can get two. So I can get to. Because the substack algorithm, it's great. I love it. But TikTok is fire compared to Substack. We have our own TEMU version here. Forage and reform. Oh, in the uk. In the uk. Yep. I got you. I have to keep track of all my people and where they're from. What is Substack? Hello, from Germany. Oh, substack.com. i love substack. You know, TikTok is all algorithm and reach and Instagram is great, but I really enjoy Substack because Substack has a great community and that's where I do my lives and we do our community. Only there. Oh, super skinny. Wicked. Wicked is on there. Good. I like that too. Okay, Molly. Completely unrelenting. But Ben, as soon as I saw the word Ben named Ben, was on the Rick Glassman podcast with Lisa Gilroy. It's the most insane, chaotic clarity. You'll listen to. Chris. Thank you for sharing that. My daughter Quinn and I love Ben. All right, you guys. So we are coming up to the hour. Usha should be a double agent gathering intel. Anyone else depressed that Netflix is acquiring Warner Brothers? Well, Caleb, the thing is, how did Netflix do this when it's not run by a Republican? That's one thing, if you think about it. Can we put Jonathan Bailey on this? This was his year. Oh, you mean for positive. For positive, right. Yeah. But we do have. I don't think Netflix kissed the ring. I don't think so, Manny. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. I don't know. But I don't think they did because he's a Dem, he's not a Republican. But I could be wrong. I can't be up on everything. The deal has to get through. Yeah, exactly. It still has to get through. And it may not there. All right, you guys. Wow, that was great. That was great. Well, Today, it's Friday, December 5th. I have to write. I have to finish writing a crisis plan. I have to write a crisis plan. So I have to go to work. But I'm going to say this to everyone. Thank you for joining. We have December 17th is quite a day. We're going to do a training and, um, it's for my substack members. We're doing. We're kicking off a whole new. A whole new set of training here because I. I need. Since I'm a comms. Strategic comms person, I have to do some strategic comm stuff. I can't just talk about all these people all day, which I love to do, honestly. But we are going to. But I always bring in trending stories. So we're going to look at the rfk, Eliz, Olivia, Nuty, Ryan, Liz, A mess. But we're going to pull out the strategic comm story about how do you respond to something that's impossible to respond to? Simon Schuster sent me the book, so I'm flying. I'm speaking in. Or I'm moderating a panel and doing a training in North Carolina. And this book is coming with me. And then we're going to do a training about that. And then I bring in Muckrack to show the numbers. So we're looking at the numbers, we're looking at where we come from, and then we kind of draft our own kind of response. So we do this every month. And I keep it. You know, the reason why I do a trending story is I want to keep it interesting in elk because even if you're not a strategic comms person, you might find it interesting or you might be able to use it, you know, on your work. So that's going to be at noon and then at 7:00pm Eastern Time. So noon Eastern Time, and then 7:00pm Eastern Time. We're going to do a live deep dive with Dr. Abby, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, the Justin Baldoni. And really it's less about Justin because we're doing the one year roundup. All right, first openly gay man. Who we talking about? Who are we talking about? Jonathan? Her. Who are we talking about? All right, you guys, this was great. Oh, wait, yes. First gay man named sexiest man of the year. Is that true? Is that true? Interesting. Okay, you guys, this was fun. You guys, this was fun. This was great. All right, everyone, thank you so much for joining. Maybe we got to put Jonathan Bailey on the pop list for that. Any other UK people here? Louise, Are you serious? CIPR uses my lives for credit. Olivia Nutsy on the Bulwark podcast. Oh, my God. Yeah. Okay, we're going to get into it. Olivia Nutzy is this book, this rollout for Olivia did not go as planned. All right, everyone, thank you so much for joining. We try to be here every Friday when we can. We'll be here next Friday at noon, and then we'll set up the stream. And then hopefully I can just stream to all places at once. I added them. You got five points to attend One of my lives. You made my day. That's fantastic, Luis. Thank you so much. All right, everyone, thanks for joining me and have a great weekend, everyone. Bye for now. Sa.