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After a set of impressive annual results, you could be forgiven for thinking the Co-op would be basking in the glow of some positive media coverage. Yet, the reality is it has found itself facing some damaging headlines that have raised questions about its ethics and values.

When the covid pandemic first struck, everything moved online overnight. Meetings that would have been carried out in person were suddenly taking place on Zoom.

We have said many times in this blog that a crisis media management incident can come in different forms.

March is shaping up to be quite the month for crisis communication case studies. Already we have seen a high-profile horse racing trainer’s career disintegrate after a horrific picture emerged of him sitting on a dead horse.

Few people without an interest in horse racing would have heard of Gordon Elliott until recently. But one viral image has ensured he is now known across the world.

We recently looked at some crisis management incidents in our crisis comms training that had been handled well. But what about those responses which were not managed quite so successfully?

Two meetings, two gaffes and two resignations. The Tokyo Olympics and KPMG have found themselves firmly in the media spotlight in the past few weeks after bosses made ill-judged comments.

On our crisis communication training courses, we often look at examples of how others managed their time in the spotlight.

One of the benefits of the lockdown and working from home is I get to see and hear more media interviews. Not only does this help with inspiration for this media training blog but, with my headphones in, I can also largely ignore the home-schooling carnage erupting around me.

Apology videos can be a great way for organisations to show contrition when they are in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

When a staff member dressed up as a Christmas tree and strolled through a hospital’s emergency department, it was intended to spread a little festive cheer.

Another high-profile apology and another ‘sorry’ that falls some way short of the mark. So many organisations and people in the media spotlight continue to offer ‘sorry, not sorry’ apologies.

When data breaches are making the news, people typically think of shady cyber criminals being responsible. But damaging breaches are not always caused by someone acting maliciously.

One day you are a local business and the next you are the most famous landscaping company in the world.

On our crisis communication training courses, we often talk about how smartphones have given people the power to be reporters. They can record footage on their phones, post it on social media - or sell it to a newspaper.

On our crisis communication courses, we talk to delegates about the importance of understanding their organisation’s vulnerabilities and trying to anticipate what could place it at the centre of a storm.

Delegates on our media training courses often fear they are going to be put through a Jeremy Paxman style interrogation. Others worry about facing combative interviews from the likes of Nick Ferrari, Kay Burley and Eddie Mair.

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to take part in one of our media training courses? Well, one of our clients, Lymphoma Action, allowed us to shadow their course so that others could see how they felt, what they found most challenging and what they learnt.

Have you heard the one about the onions that were too sexy for Facebook? As weird as that introduction sounds, it is not the start of a joke.

How about this for an approach to dealing with journalists – don’t deal with them at all? If that seems odd – and perhaps something you would not expect to read in this media training blog – it is worth considering that this strategy seems to have been adopted by Tesla, the world’s most valuable car maker.

When people think about the causes of a crisis, they typically consider things like fatal accidents and catastrophic incidents.

A good apology can go along way to salvaging a reputation during a crisis. But, as regular readers of this blog will know, not all apologies are created equally.

Do you have a Garmin watch? If you don’t, you probably know someone who uses the GPS and fitness tracking equipment.

When we look in this media training blog at the mistakes that are made in media interviews, we often focus on the performance of individual spokespeople.

One bank has been giving its customers plenty of reasons to scowl in the past few days. Technology woes left them unable to access their accounts for days.

Announcing a reduction to your workforce is a daunting and unpleasant challenge for any leader and organisation. It is even harder if just a couple of months earlier you had promised those same workers that their jobs would be safe.

Explaining complex information and ideas is not easy. And it can be even harder to communicate it effectively in media interviews. Many interviews are based on complex information. Think how many stories are in the news about scientific breakthroughs, academic research, technological advancements and healthcare improvements.

Everyone seems to have had their say on Dominic Cummings and his infamous trip to Durham. It has dominated the news agenda for much of the past week.

It is not often a spokesperson feels the need to apologise after a media interview. But that is what one chief executive did after his TV performance was met with damaging headlines and a social media backlash.

If you are a regular reader of this media training blog, you’ll know we have discussed the complexity of the ‘guarantee’ question before.