Neutrogena broke its silence and leaves more to answer for

Neutrogena issued a statement that admits a feeling and blames the wait on a grieving family. Plus Goldman counted who's talking about AI on earnings calls

Where are you, Neutrogena?

Neutrogena declines comment through a second Panettiere news cycle, so I wrote a statement for them. Plus NIPSCO's words are fine amid its weeklong outage but the substance isn't backing it up.

A tale of two apologies: Flock and Equinox

Flock's fine print, Equinox's two statements, and the betting line on your next earnings call that IR should be investigating.

Saber's comms team wrote a good statement and the CEO destroyed it

The Tata chairman's honest resignation letter cost $4.6 billion and a Saber statement that survived less than a day once the CEO started talking.

The oil industry's record quarter in the flattest possible voice

Starbucks Korea now under criminal investigation for their Tank Day promotion, and the oil industry just posted its best quarter ever without a word of celebration.

Chipotle had answers ready. OpenAI's influencers did not

How Chipotle earned a health official's vouch mid-outbreak, and the brand trip that came without an answer key.

In-N-Out communicates through the unimaginable

The statement In-N-Out's owner wrote herself, and the startup apology that turned one bad day into many.

Sony got the decision right but it's running out of time on the delivery

The math backs Sony's call but the August 23 boycott is a different test than an earnings call. Plus: the settlement that closed X's lawsuit against its own advertisers.

Starbucks built a strategic narrative the market trusts

Niccol's two-year message finally cashes out — and now comes the hard part. Plus: OpenAI's models broke into Hugging Face on their own; how each company talked about it depends entirely on where they were standing

The memos behind this week's layoffs and lawsuits

Porsche, Visa, Paramount and BuzzFeed all delivered hard news this week. Each memo tells you exactly who the writer was working for.

Cracker Barrel fixed the business but it couldn't fix the CEO

Cracker Barrel's fine print, GMMTV's queue problem, and the slide mistake probably already waiting in your next deck.

Taylor Farms' founder tries to change the subject

Four companies preparing for earnings this week needing to explain what their AI money bought, and a lettuce baron would rather discuss how little salad America is eating.

The tariff clock resets just in time for earnings season

A new tariff clock resets with next August's deadline already circled on the calendar, and BYD prices the same mistake twice before its customers do the math for them

Senators are talking about Olive Garden but Olive Garden is talking about pasta

Olive Garden ignores senators but answers customers, new data says your next crisis spokesperson may not be the CEO, and one retail chief gives his most honest sentence about pay to a reporter instead of his own people.

Taylor Farms claimed victory but the FDA said otherwise

Taylor Farms turned an FDA lab error into a victory lap, right up until the FDA took the win back in public. Plus the company whose new HQ lasted about as long as its grand opening ribbon cutting

The week Taco Bell turned a parasite into a love letter

A lettuce scare that turned one brand into a customer favorite and left its supplier leading with the FDA's apology instead of the people who got sick — plus the chairman of the company that makes most of the world's AI memory, publicly arguing his own record prices down.

Taco Bell's statement blames everyone, politely

Taco Bell's very careful sentence, Taylor Farms' very loud silence, and the new Edelman number that says 70% of your readers assume you're lying anyway.

Meta's threat about leakers leaks

The leak Meta can't stop causing, and the letter IBM should've sent in February.

Games Done Quick's 3-hour apology

You can't restructure your way out of a broken promise

Volkswagen's broken promise to employees, Meta's retreat worth copying, and the German record headed for your next board deck.

What happens when you skip the hard part of change management

State Farm scrapped 19k agent contracts with zero warning. Cody Plofker beat everyone to the ugly truth about his own exit and Kristin Cabot is a year into learning that some stories need silence, not another interview.

Sometimes even the best corporate apologies aren't enough

HubSpot's fine print, GameStop's math problem, and the deals being made in Idaho that'll land on your desk by fall.

Microsoft's credibility debt

Microsoft's silence after a public denial, and a Korean beauty brand's apology that missed the point twice. What both get wrong about the words you choose under pressure.

Comcast Can't Sell for Two Years but the Market's Betting on a Deal Anyway

Ford's AI flopped so it rehired 350 humans — and hit #1