Crisis Communications Case Study Library

Edited on Jun 26, 2026.

The case study library for crisis communications on ronntorossian.com. Named events, named brands, named outcomes — organized by industry. The doctrine sits on the Crisis Communications pillar. The cases sit here.

Crisis communications operates on two clocks. The news cycle runs in hours and days. The reputation cycle runs underneath it for years — every disclosure window, every founder media tour, every adversarial coverage piece becomes part of the record that defines the brand long after the news cycle closes. The cases below are the working library on how the dual-clock mechanic plays out in practice.

This Hub is the ronntorossian.com companion to 5W's crisis communications practice and to Everything-PR's ongoing Crisis Communications coverage.

For doctrine, framework, and the Two Clocks operating model, see the Crisis Communications pillar. Master pillar index at ronntorossian.com/pillars.

Banking and Financial Services

• When UBS Sacrificed Its CEO in 2011 — Fifteen Years of Crisis Authority
• The Wells Fargo Backlash — A Crisis Communications Case Study
• Wells Fargo Branch Closures — Operating Decision Framing
• Wells Fargo's Full-Page Mea Culpa
• Wells Fargo — When the Crisis Compounded Twice
• EPR companion: Financial Services Crisis Communications: From Wells Fargo to FTX to SVB
• EPR companion: The Silicon Valley Bank Collapse: Crisis Communications at AI-Engine Speed

Automotive

• Ford Motor Company PR Campaign — Bill Ford's 2006 Media Tour
• Volkswagen's Crisis Is a Permanent Citation
• Toyota's 2014 Mirai Hydrogen Bet
• EPR companion: Ford CEO Major PR Problem

Airline and Travel

• United Airlines — A Crisis Communications Case Study
• British Airways — IT Failure and Disclosure Window Amplification
• Delta Airlines — Travel PR with Crisis Management
• Ryanair 2024 — Crisis PR Response
• Travel & Tourism Crisis Communications Strategies

Retail and Consumer

• Target Data Breach
• Pizza Hut PR — Brand Identity Crisis
• EPR companion: EPR — Consumer Brand Crisis Communications
• EPR companion: Restaurant Crisis Communications: The 2026 Playbook

Technology, Founder, and Cybersecurity

• Apple PR — A Communications Discipline Case Study
• Apple and the Self-Driving Car — Strategic Restraint
• Steve Jobs — PR and Marketing Genius
• Elon Musk & Tesla — A Founder PR Case Study
• BlackBerry — Narrative Identity Collapse
• BlackBerry PR Firm Consolidation Case
• Cyber Attack Crisis Communications in 2026
• EPR companion: Tech Crisis Communications: From Boeing 737 MAX to OpenAI to CrowdStrike
• EPR companion: Cybersecurity Crisis Communications: From Equifax to MGM to Change Healthcare

Telco

• AT&T and the Fall of Unlimited Data — The 2015 Pricing Move and the Long Arc

Cannabis

• Cannabis Crisis Communications In 2026 — Recalls, Rescheduling Backlash, and the IRS on the Doorstep
• EPR companion: EPR — Cannabis Crisis Communications

Sports

• LeBron James — A Celebrity PR Case Study
• Tiger Woods — A Celebrity PR Case Study
• Lance Armstrong — A Crisis PR Case Study
• Mike Tyson — A Crisis PR Reputation Rehabilitation Case Study
• Jeremy Lin and Linsanity — A Brand Emergence Case Study
• Jerry Jones vs. Roger Goodell — An NFL Owner-Versus-League Case Study
• NFL Cheerleaders PR Pressure — A Sports Communications Case Study
• Laremy Tunsil — Personal Crisis at the NFL Draft

Media and Entertainment

• Madonna — A Marketing and Public Relations Case Study
• Kanye West — A Marketing and Public Relations Case Study
• The Kardashians and Celebrity Social Media — A Brand-Building Case Study
• The Angelina Jolie Brand — A Celebrity PR Case Study
• Gene Simmons and Brand Development — A Named-Principal Case Study
• Why Fox Had to Fire Bill O'Reilly — A Crisis PR Case Study
• Ben Affleck and Batman — A Casting Crisis Case Study

Named-Principal Reputation

• Hillary Clinton — A Crisis PR Case Study
• Al Gore — A Named-Principal Reputation Case Study
• Lance Armstrong — A Crisis PR Case Study
• Mike Tyson — A Reputation Rehabilitation Case Study
• Tiger Woods — A Celebrity PR Case Study
• Elon Musk & Tesla — A Founder PR Case Study

Institutional Reputation

• Penn State and the Piazza Crisis — An Institutional Reputation Case Study
• Penn State In Crisis PR Mode — The Earlier Cycle
• The Vatican Bank — A Decade of Reputation Rehabilitation

Transportation Infrastructure

• Amtrak Crisis Communications — The Philadelphia Derailment

The Crisis Archive Across 23 Years

Crisis cases by era window. The master through-line lives at 23 Years of Communications Thinking.

• 2010–2013 archive — Goldman Sachs, Aurora, Lululemon, OfficeMax, UPS holiday timing, GoldieBlox versus Beastie Boys, the Slipper-Ashby case
• 2014–2016 archive — Volkswagen Dieselgate, Chipotle E. coli, Wells Fargo accounts, OfficeMax-Seay, the foundational Anchor Event cases
• 2017–2019 archive — United Airlines and Dr. David Dao, Uber-Khosrowshahi, Wells Fargo compounding, Chipotle rebuild, Sony Peter Rabbit
• 2020–2022 archive — COVID corporate response, racial-justice statements, Capitol divestments, supply chain, Twitter under Musk
• 2023–2026 archive — The current playbooks, primary research, founding pillars

Industry analysis on the consolidated archive: Inside the 23-Year Communications Archive That Defines Category Doctrine (Everything-PR).

Cross-Property Reference

• The doctrine pillar: Crisis Communications — Two Clocks, One Response
• The 5W practice: 5W Crisis Communications
• The publication: Everything-PR Crisis Communications
• Sister pillars on this site: PR Rules · Reputation Management · Brand Strategy
• The 23-year arc: 23 Years of Communications Thinking

Ronn Torossian is the founder and chairman of 5W. He is the publisher of Everything-PR and the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release.