Three plans in 22 months: Nike's problem isn't the language

Nike's comms team ran a textbook restructuring announcement on a 13-year stock low. The gap is above them: Win Now, Sport Offense, and now Pace, and comms that has to insist the newest one isn't a strategy.

Hasbro draws a line around Optimus Prime

The company publicly denies authorizing a DHS campaign. The harder questions are which fight it's prepared to have, and what happens if the character turns up again.

VW and Managing Change with a Long Middle

VW's factory closure deadline is 10 months away. When the outcome is still being negotiated, here's what's left to communicate. Plus, why do apologies keep going up with comments turned off?

Uber announces it's cutting 10% from a business that's thriving

Uber cut 3,300 people and got the media coverage it wrote. Plus, 67 percent of shoppers now walk away from a whole category after one recall. Here's what both mean for the next time the story is going to be told with or without you.

A PR agency invented 15 fake publicists to pitch reporters

On Xbox's billion-player bet and the publicists who don't exist.

ESPN's most human layoff move looked like its cruelest

ESPN blew up its own layoff choreography to keep Ryan Clark from learning his fate on X, and the internet called it diabolical anyway. Plus the tanker company whose pay offer says the thing no press release ever will.

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

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.

The Iran deal is dead, half your workforce is looking, and the CFO owns strategy now

The peace deal that lasted three weeks, the half of your workforce that's already looking, and the person deciding your 2027 budget who's never read a sentiment report.

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.

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.

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

"We Hear You" Only Works When Something Real Sits Underneath