In short: the five most studied reputation crises of 2025 — M&S, OpenAI, American Eagle, Jet2, Cracker Barrel — reveal three common patterns: delayed reaction beyond 24 hours, attempts to shift blame onto third parties, and silence on the social channels where the crisis originates. The Edelman Trust Barometer 2026 confirms that response speed and public ownership measurably reduce reputational impact.
- 61% of people globally hold a moderate-to-high level of distrust toward institutions and companies (Edelman Trust Barometer 2025)
- Management crises and smearing campaigns remain among the most frequent causes of corporate crises in the Annual Reports of the Institute for Crisis Management
- A severe reputation crisis can erode up to 22% of market value (Oxford Metrica, Reputation Review)
Crisis communication is not a theoretical exercise: it is the discipline that separates brands that survive a scandal from those swept away by it. 2025 delivered five real cases — different in sector, size and dynamics — that hand 2026 a complete catalog of mistakes, reactions and operational lessons. In this article we analyze public facts, verified journalistic sources and frameworks, without inventing proprietary numbers.
Deep Marketing operates daily on this terrain, managing crisis communication for Italian and international companies. The difference between a contained incident and a reputational disaster almost always lies in preparation, not improvisation. This piece is the distillation of what 2025 taught us.
1. Marks & Spencer: the ransomware attack and 300 million in damages
What happened. In April 2025 Marks & Spencer was hit by a ransomware attack attributed to the Scattered Spider group, which paralyzed contactless payments, click-and-collect and online orders for more than six weeks. According to the BBC, the e-commerce shutdown and physical sales loss produced an estimated financial impact of around 300 million pounds on the year's operating profit. Customer personal data (not payment data) was exfiltrated.
How the brand reacted. CEO Stuart Machin immediately took on the role of sole spokesperson, publishing signed updates and personally claiming responsibility for the recovery. However, Reuters coverage highlighted how technical details and data breach scope were disclosed in stages over several weeks, fueling uncertainty among customers and a stock decline in the days following each announcement.
Key Lesson
Transparency is not an event, it is a process. A quick first statement is not enough: you need a public update calendar (every 12-24 hours) even when there is no substantial news. The information vacuum gets filled with speculation, and speculation is always worse than reality.
2. OpenAI: the Raine lawsuit and the product as risk
What happened. In August 2025 the family of Adam Raine, a Californian sixteen-year-old, filed against OpenAI the first wrongful death lawsuit ever brought against a generative AI maker, claiming ChatGPT provided the boy with information that contributed to his suicide. The news was picked up by the New York Times and opened a global debate on safety and minors, prompting US and European regulators to open preliminary investigations.
How the brand reacted. OpenAI contested the allegations legally but acted quickly on the product, announcing parental controls, limits for underage users, routing to safer models for sensitive conversations and partnerships with hotlines. As documented in the official OpenAI post, the company avoided admitting legal responsibility but made visible concrete changes to product behavior.
Key Lesson
Concrete actions communicate more than words. When the product is under accusation, no statement substitutes for a visible change in corporate behavior. The framework is Acknowledge → Act → Advance: acknowledge public concern, implement measurable actions, reposition as part of the solution.
3. American Eagle: the Sydney Sweeney «Jeans/Genes» campaign
What happened. In late July 2025 American Eagle launched its fall campaign with Sydney Sweeney, based on the pun «Sydney Sweeney has great jeans» («great jeans/genes»). As reported by CNN Business and BBC News, a significant portion of the audience read the genetic reference as eugenicist and racially insensitive, triggering a viral wave of criticism with millions of mentions in the following 72 hours.
How the brand reacted. American Eagle chose not to withdraw the campaign but to publicly defend the creative concept as intentional and ironic. AEO stock recorded notable swings during the controversy week; political polarization turned the case into a cultural alignment test, with medium-term consequences on brand perception among progressive Gen Z segments.
Key Lesson
Humor in advertising amplifies success and amplifies failure. Doubling down on creative perceived as insensitive rarely pays off: the market does not reward creative consistency, it rewards the capacity to listen and adapt.
4. Jet2: «Nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday», virality out of control
What happened. In summer 2025 a historic Jet2 radio spot — with Jess Glynne's «Hold My Hand» in the background and the «Nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday» voiceover — became a global TikTok meme, used to comment on botched holidays, embarrassments and travel gaffes. As documented by the Guardian and BBC, videos with the jingle accumulated billions of views within weeks.
How the brand reacted. Jet2 did not face a classic negative crisis but an ambivalent case: unprecedented organic exposure, with the risk that the jingle would become synonymous with vacation disaster. The response was slow and initially formal, before pivoting (from mid-August) to a more playful tone, with actress Zoe Lister (voice of the spot) starting to comment on viral videos on TikTok. The initial hesitation caused part of the earned media potential to be lost.
Key Lesson
On TikTok the brand does not control the narrative. When viral content involves your asset, silence or a formal register accelerate loss of control: you must respond in the platform's tone, consider creator co-optation and turn virality into marketing content.
5. Cracker Barrel: the rebranding turned culture war
What happened. In August 2025 Cracker Barrel Old Country Store unveiled a rebranding with a simplified logo (removal of the «Uncle Herschel» character leaning on a barrel) and modernized restaurant interiors. The reaction on social was immediate and furious from the traditional customer base; as Reuters reports, the US President publicly intervened criticizing the change, transforming a marketing issue into an identity clash.
How the brand reacted. After a stock drop estimated around 7% in a few days (CNBC), Cracker Barrel reversed course restoring the historic logo, with a public note thanking customers for the feedback. The reputational damage on the internal leadership front (CEO Julie Masino at the center of criticism) however remained.
Key Lesson
The brand also belongs to its customers. The more a brand is tied to a specific identity, the more change is perceived as betrayal. Radical rebrandings must be gradual, pre-announced and connected to the symbolic heritage: a clean break produces rejection.
Crisis response framework: 2025 benchmark
The five cases, read together, deliver a comparative framework on the key variables of the response.
The comparison shows how speed, ownership and chosen channel correlate with the actual duration of the crisis. Those with a CEO willing to put their face on it (M&S) contain the narrative even when technical timelines stretch; those hiding behind impersonal statements (Jet2 in the first weeks) accumulate perceived delay even when there is no negative crisis in the strict sense.
Operational phases of a crisis response in 2026
Synthesizing the five cases and the indications from Edelman and the Reuters Institute, an effective crisis response is articulated in five non-negotiable phases.
- Detection (0-2 hours): 24/7 monitoring on press and social, clear alert threshold, crisis team activation.
- Containment (2-6 hours): first signed public statement, appointment of sole spokesperson, freeze on ongoing marketing activities.
- Response (6-48 hours): structured communication by audience (customers, media, investors, employees), concrete actions visible on product or processes.
- Adaptation (48 hours – 2 weeks): continuous sentiment analysis, tone and channel adjustments, possible escalation or de-escalation.
- Recovery (2 weeks – 3 months): narrative reconstruction, internal lessons learned, crisis plan update.
According to the Deloitte Global Risk Management Survey, companies that regularly document and test this process recover trust and stock price faster than those who improvise. To explore the strategic framework we recommend the piece on crisis management and brand.
FAQ: crisis communication, Frequently Asked Questions
How to handle a reputation crisis in 2026?
In 2026 handling a reputation crisis means responding within 4-6 hours of the first public signal, assigning a sole spokesperson (preferably the CEO), communicating concrete actions beyond words, and updating stakeholders and media at a fixed cadence (12-24 hours) until the crisis subsides. The plan must be built beforehand, tested with tabletop exercises at least every six months, and supported by continuous monitoring of press, social and AI-generated content. The key is consistency across channels, empathy toward the affected audience and public ownership of the problem.
What is a communication crisis?
A communication crisis is a publicly visible, high media-intensity event that threatens the reputation, operations or continuity of an organization and requires a coordinated response toward multiple audiences (customers, media, investors, regulators, employees). It does not coincide with a simple operational incident: it becomes a crisis when the external narrative escapes brand control and risks producing structural damage in terms of trust, revenue or market value.
What are the phases of a crisis response?
The canonical phases are five: detection (identify the crisis and assess its severity), containment (first statement, active crisis team), response (structured communication and concrete actions), adaptation (monitoring and in-flight adjustments) and recovery (narrative reconstruction and learning). Each phase has reference timelines ranging from a few hours to several months.
How long does a reputation crisis last on average?
Aggregated data from Oxford Metrica show that companies with a tested crisis plan recover pre-crisis stock value on average in 60 days, while those without a plan take over 300 days. The media peak of a social crisis generally lasts 7-14 days, but the reputational tail (Google searches, negative mentions, sentiment) can extend for 6-18 months, especially if the crisis has entered traditional media and open encyclopedias like Wikipedia.
Social media: when and how to communicate during a crisis?
The rule is to respond on the same platform where the crisis manifests, with a tone consistent with that platform. Within 2-4 hours of the first conversation peak you need at least a holding statement («we are assessing the situation, we will update as soon as possible»). Never delete critical comments: it is the fastest way to turn criticism into a scandal. On TikTok, avoid the corporate register and consider collaboration with creators already talking about the brand.
Do you need to prepare your communication crisis?
Deep Marketing builds documented crisis plans, trains spokespeople with realistic simulations and manages active response in the event of an ongoing crisis, from the first hour to reputational recovery. Request a reputation audit or discover our press office and event management service. For complementary reading on AI-related communication risks, see how to communicate an AI product when sales collapse.
Sources and References
- Edelman — Trust Barometer 2025 and Brand Trust reports
- Institute for Crisis Management — Annual Crisis Reports
- Harvard Business Review — Crisis Communication archive
- Reuters Institute — Digital News Report 2025
- Deloitte — Strategic & Reputation Risk Insights
- Oxford Metrica — Reputation Review
- Reuters — M&S cyber attack, 300M£ impact (May 2025)
- New York Times — OpenAI, Raine lawsuit (August 2025)
- CNN Business — American Eagle / Sydney Sweeney controversy (July 2025)
- The Guardian — Nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday, meme of summer 2025
- Reuters — Cracker Barrel, logo reversal (August 2025)
