The four rules of Crisis PR (and how to spectacularly ignore them)

Photo: Michael Kurtz

Remember the time Elon Musk sued the bereaved families of Tesla owners who died at the wheel? You know, for damaging the Tesla brand? Okay, it never happened because that would be nuts. Even Musk isn’t that crazy.

The website www.tesladeaths.com reports that the total number of reported fatalities involving Tesla cars since 2013 stands at more than 770. Of these, 65 occurred while Tesla Autopilot was on, leaving over 700 possible cases where the drivers themselves may have been at fault. And yet, Tesla has never sued for damages.

But what if?

Now imagine Giovanni Costantino, CEO and majority shareholder of The Italian Sea Group, parachuted into the top job at Tesla. Faced with the PR fallout of these fatal crashes, Tesla might choose not to defend itself against allegations of defect or negligence but instead sue the estates and families of the dead.

The argument would be that “the cars performed exactly as designed and that the deceased drivers failed to meet the implicit standard required to operate them.”

It may also sue news outlets and publishers for examining potential weaknesses in the cars’ design. “Had these deaths not been discussed, examined, litigated, or mourned in public, consumer confidence would not have wavered,” the claim might read.

A new contender for worst crisis response

It is exactly what The Italian Sea Group has done, by pursuing a claim for €470 million in alleged reputational damage and lost orders following a fatal maritime accident involving a yacht built by the company.

The self-proclaimed "visionary genius" that is Sr Costantino, according to the company’s website, hasn’t sued the yacht’s designers, naval architects, equipment suppliers, insurers, regulators, or the classification society. He has pursued the survivors of the accident and the yacht’s nominal holding company, which belongs to individuals already suffering the worst possible loss.

The accident isn’t the first example of disastrous PR, of course. Famous examples include BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward, saying, “I’d like my life back” in a throwaway comment to journalists after the largest marine oil spill in history.

Oscar Munoz, the CEO of United Airlines, labelled a passenger as "disruptive and belligerent" for resisting removal from an overbooked flight.

Following two fatal crashes involving the 737 MAX, Boeing initially suggested pilot error was a major factor while internally mocking regulators and lying about its errant software.

There was VW’s ‘Dieselgate’, the Equifax data breach, Union Carbide’s Bhopal gas leak, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Toyota’s unintended acceleration problem, and Uber’s fatal self-driving car crash in Arizona. 

The list of high-profile crisis PR failures is long, but what most of them have in common is a slow or inadequate response, a lack of transparency, attempts to minimise responsibility, and perceived indifference toward those affected.

While the Bayesian tragedy may be dwarfed in scale by most of the examples above, in the pantheon of famous corporate PR howlers, The Italian Sea Group possibly tops the list.

The Tylenol standard

The Tylenol cyanide crisis of 1982 serves as the benchmark for measuring modern crisis PR failures. Johnson & Johnson's response was to prioritise consumer safety over profit, launching a recall of 31 million bottles, issuing public safety alerts, opening hotlines, and introducing tamper-resistant packaging.

Another example of outstanding crisis PR came only last year, when a Delta Airlines plane suffered a fractured landing gear during a winter storm, causing it to flip over and catch fire. Delta’s CEO became the primary spokesperson and offered $30,000 in immediate compensation to every passenger, without requiring them to waive their right to sue.

Airbnb launched a ‘24/7 Open Doors’ team that found alternative accommodation for any guest who experienced racial discrimination by hosts. It also weeded out thousands of problematic users to protect their values.

Starbucks closed 8,000 stores for an entire afternoon to conduct racial bias training for 175,000 employees after two Black men were wrongfully arrested at a Philadelphia branch. The CEO issued a public apology and personally met the two men to reconcile.

What good crisis PR looks like

Companies that successfully emerge from a crisis with their reputation intact generally share the same characteristics:

Get out front, fast

Early, honest communication matters. So does putting senior leaders visibly in the frame rather than hiding behind press releases.

Put victims first, profits second

Effective decisions are ones that clearly prioritise public safety or customer impact over the bottom line, at least in the short term.

Fix the actual problem

Vague promises won't do. The companies that rebuild trust announce concrete changes: new processes, updated products, and formal customer protections to genuinely reduce the odds of it happening again.

Stay the course

Good crisis PR isn't a one-off performance. Maintaining the reforms you promised and integrating safety and ethics into your corporate story is crucial for long-term success.

"Unsinkable"

Bizarrely, Sr Costantino was on Italian media within days of the yacht’s sinking -- long before the cause would be established -- stating that Perini Navi yachts were “unsinkable”. In a filing against the New York Times, TISG complains that since the sinking, “not a single day has passed without global media publishing stories about the disaster, including claims against the truth ... that there was a design defect.”

The company said the accident had caused its share price to fall 59 per cent. Perini Navi sales fell from €394m in 2023 to €76m in 2024 and to zero in 2025.

Seeking professional crisis PR advice may not necessarily have averted such a precipitous fall in sales, but should Perini close, TISG’s leadership might do well to reflect on whether their legal actions contributed to its sinking.