A cheerful holiday jingle drops on TikTok. Within hours, millions of people are using it to soundtrack flight delays, lost luggage, and crying toddlers in airport terminals. The airline never planned for that. Nobody does.
That is the reality of PR in the age of the internet — and it is exactly what Karen Swim, APR, and Michelle Kane dig into in this Halloween-season episode of That Solo Life. Using six real-world case studies, they examine the moments when brands, executives, and communications teams lost control of the narrative, and what PR professionals can take from each one. From cyber attack disclosures that started strong and then stumbled, to a reply-all email that landed in an entire media list, to 48 hours of silence that turned a scandal into a crisis — every story carries a lesson that applies directly to solo practitioners and their clients.
The through-line: PR is not just storytelling. It is risk management. And every message, every platform, every moment of silence is a decision with consequences.