PODCAST · business
Reputation Town
by John Perenack and Warren Weeks
Two long-time communications practitioners talking about media relations, issues management and all things related to corporate reputation.
Episodes
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Callaway-Good Good, CBC/Sept 11 debacle, Dolly Parton, Doug Ford, Neutrogena, Flock
This week, John and Warren discuss the fallout from the ill-advised Callaway-Good Good ad that turned into a week-long crisis, the firestorm around the CBC's editorial guideline about the use of the word 'terrorism' with respect to the upcoming 25th anniversary of 911, a look at Dolly Parton, who...
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Bryan Adams, Ron Maclean, Mike Babcock, Ottawa Police, KPMG, Marc Andreessen on Media Training
In this episode, we discuss Bryan Adams' new pro-Canada/anti-America song called 51st State, a video message from Ottawa's police chief addressing inappropriate behaviour by officers, the hiring of Mike Babcock by the Edmonton Oilers, Ron Maclean's foot-in-mouth moment and subsequent apology…
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Spencer Pratt's viral ads, Ryan Holiday's stoic stumble, Saudi's PR backslide, Mike Vrabel statement breakdown
In this episode, we discuss the viral ads of LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, the hurdles Saudi Arabia is facing in its ongoing PR campaign, Ryan Holiday's stoic stumble after comments made by Ivanka Trump about Marcus Aurelius, the woman who creates most of Donald Trump's late-night...
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Dougie's jet, NFL Sedona scandal, surveillance pricing, CityNews reporter fired
In this episode, we discuss topics including Doug Ford's new private jet, the NFL Sedona scandal involving sports reporter Dianna Russini and New England Patriots Coach Mike Vrabel, how companies are communicating mass layoffs, Gavin Newsom buys 67,000 copies of his own book, the Coldplay…
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Air Canada, Pierre Poilievre on Rogan, Participation Trophies at the LA Marathon, Rolex vs Fakes
In this episode, we discuss the controversy around Air Canada's English condolence message following the tragedy in NYC, Pierre Poilievre's appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast, the threat that super clone watches are presenting for brands like Rolex, organizers of the LA Marathon gave out medals…
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The Epstein Gang, Ring Doorbell's SuperBowl Fail, the Decline of Reese's PB Cups and more
In this episode, we break down some of the most recent reputation and issues management stories, including the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, King Charles's statement in response and the fallout from the Epstein files, including an interview given by Melinda Gates, Peter Attia's statement,...
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Year-end wrap up: Kiss-cam CEO, Sidney Sweeney, Trump, Brown University, Louvre heist and more
What a crazy year 2025 has been when it comes to PR debacles, missteps and crisis management (or mismanagement). In our year-end wrap up, John and Warren each bring their list of what they saw as some of the top stories of the year and break them down from the perspectives of media relations,...
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Sidney Sweeney, BBC vs Trump, TTC cancels Halloween, Prince Andrew on the outs
In this episode, we break down some of the recent headlines in the PR world, including the BBC apologizing to President Trump for deceptive editing, Sidney Sweeney's high-profile GQ interview as a master class in media training, Katie Porter being not so nice to staff behind the scenes, Prince...
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Gary's gun grab, KFC recipe leaked, Riyadh comedy festival, AI actress stir, UK goes 1984
This week, we chat about several stories in which the politicians should have paid better attention in media training class (including Mark Carney and Gary Anandasangaree). We also check in on how Jimmy Kimmel's ratings have fared since his controversial pause and unpause last week, an AI actress...
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Jimmy Kimmel Cancelled, Charlie Kirk, Ben & Jerry's, Cracker Barrel, Banksy and more
This week, John and Warren talk about the controversial suspension of Jimmy Kimmel from his late-night show and the implications re: free speech, the ongoing backlash against people celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk online, next steps for Cracker Barrel as an activist investor is calling for...
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Cracker Barrel U-turn, Crown Royal to USA, the failed bench press that hurt a mayoral campaign
This week, John and Warren talk about Cracker Barrel's $700 million U-turn, Mitch Marner blasts fans on his way out of town, Canadian GDP shrinks, Crown Royal bottling plant moves to USA at the expense of 160 Canadian jobs, the media's skewed coverage of the story of the Lindsay, Ontario man who...
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Elbows down! Air Canada strike, Cracker Barrel rebrand, Colbert canned, self-defence laws in Canada
In this episode, John and Warren discuss the latest in the Canada/US trade war (Elbows Down!), the reputational impacts of the Air Canada strike and the way it was handled by the company, the controversy around Cracker Barrel's rebrand, Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad, a few mins about the...
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Jaguar sales down 98%, RCMP calls traditional values 'extreme', Sportsnet price hike backlash and more
In this episode, John and Warren discuss some recent stories in the PR and issues management realm, including the growing backlash against Sportsnet's 30% price hike on its hockey programming, an RCMP spokesperson who appeared to say that Canadians exhibiting traditional values might be becoming...
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Jake Tapper flogs a book, No Greatness for the Leafs, Outdoor Boys creator quits YouTube and more
This week, John and Warren talk about Jake Tapper's new book and the accusations that he was part of the journalistic coverup he's highlighting, MLSE's handling of yet another disappointing year for the Toronto Maple Leafs, YouTube creator Luke Nichols (Outdoor Boys) quits the platform at the…
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Coinbase, Frontier Airlines, NHL owner reprimanded for tweet, Toronto councillors' 24% pay raise
We hit on a bunch of stories this week, including Coinbase flipping the script on hackers trying to extort the company, the viral customer service video from Frontier Airlines, NHL owner Doug Cifu reprimanded by the league for getting into a Twitter battle with a fan, Walmart says it will have to...
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The new Pope's PR, Poilievre drops the ball, Belichick's odd interview, the Diddy trial, Michelle Obama's podcast
This week, we break down some of the more recent PR stories in the headlines, including the communications from the Vatican around the new Pope, the curiously low viewership numbers for Michelle Obama's new podcast, Ron MacLean appears to be on a reputation management tour, what happens if you're…
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LA Mayor's media freeze-up, upside down airplanes, trade wars, Mike Meyers and Wayne Gretzky
In this episode, we catch up on some of the stories of the recent past, including LA Mayor Karen Bass's on-camera freeze-up in response to the California wildfires, Delta's handling of the upside-down plane crash in Toronto, Trudeau's handling of the trade war with the US and a look at some...
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2024 Wrap-Up: Top PR crisis stories of the year with guest Molly McPherson
This week, we welcome back our friend Molly McPherson to help us wrap up 2024 and break down some of the top PR crisis stories. We didn't discuss our topics with each other ahead of time, so in this episode, you're getting our real-time reactions and breakdowns to these stories, including the...
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Mean Toronto librarians, Biznasty defends restaurant staff, the Canada Post Strike lingers and more
This week, John and Warren talk about the ongoing Canada Post strike and the damage it's causing, both to Canadians and to the organization's brand, Paul Bissonnette steps up to defend Arizona restaurant staff and finds himself in a 6 on 1 brawl, Paul Krugman retiring from the NYT and how he'll…
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Jaguar's rebrand, Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson and BlueSky's big moment
This week, John and Warren talk about the controversial rebrand from Jaguar, the reputational implications from the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight, including for Netflix, which had technical trouble serving its live audience, Space X's COO answering questions about government contracts and the…
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US Presidential Election recap, RIP Mike Bullard and McDonalds' E. coli crisis
In this 50th episode of the Reputation Town podcast, we do a breakdown of the US Presidential election, looking specifically at the elements of media relations, whether podcasts have eclipsed mainstream media, etc. We also discuss the complicated legacy of comedian and former late-night talk show...
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Pre-election pod with special guest Molly McPherson
With four days to go before the US Presidential Election, we're joined by our good friend Molly McPherson to discuss the presidential campaigns, each candidate's use of the media, the role podcasts will play in this year's election, the controversy around the 'garbage' comments and, finally, each...
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Grading Kamala's media work, TD's $3B fine, Dave Grohl's side baby, Quantas subjects passengers to R-rated movie
In this episode, we catch up on some stories from the past few weeks, including Dave Grohl's confession about having a baby outside his marriage, Samsung's apology for missing its earnings estimate, Quantas forces an entire plane full of passengers to watch an R-rated movie, TD is fined US$3...
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Elon/Trump X chat, 900 CHML closes, bad PR for Disney, $18 mill of bonuses at the CBC
This week, John and Warren talk about the negative PR impacting Disney after the allergy death of a guest, the viral Australian breakdancer at the Olympics, the Trump/Musk conversation on X, Kamala Harris's reluctance to do media interviews, $18 million of bonuses at the CBC, a Boeing project...
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Fallout after the attempted assassination of Trump, Crowdstrike outage, Cdn soccer drone scandal and more
This week, John and Warren talk about the drone/spying scandal facing the Canadian Olympic women's soccer team, the wrap-up of the LCBO strike, the astronauts that 'are not stranded' on the International Space Station, the startup company that spent $1.8 million on a domain name and our main…
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Biden's downward spiral, TTC's weak response to murder, Paul Maurice's great speech, Al Michaels' goes A.I.
This week, John and Warren chop up a few stories, including Paul Maurice's touching speech moments after winning the Stanley Cup, the TTC's inadequate response to a recent stabbing murder at Jane Station in Toronto and veteran broadcaster Al Michaels approves an artificial intelligence version of...
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Trump verdict, KateWatch, American Airlines blames 9-yr-old victim, study links crisis comms to stock price
This week, Warren and John talk about stories including the Donald Trump guilty verdict, the continuing absence of Kate Middleton and Kensington Palace's curious handling of the situation, Shoppers Drug Mart posts a job ad looking for people to work for free, a US study tries to link crisis...
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Leafs fire Keefe, Cdn army's minecraft logo, university protests and Galen blames the customers
This week, we break down some of the more recent PR stories in the news, including the Toronto Maple Leafs parting ways with their coach (and his video farewell), one of the Leafs players compares his teammates to 'gods', the Canadian army declares war on good design, the handling of the…
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Maryland bridge disaster, the Huberman hit piece, cops vs LEGO, MLB, Marineland and Princess Kate
This week, John and Warren discuss numerous PR-related stories in the news, including the comms around the Maryland bridge disaster, the reputational implications of the New York Magazine hit piece on YouTube neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, a California police department that got under the skin…
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Dr. Terry Flynn joins us to break down the comms around KateGate and other PR stories of the week
This week, we're joined by PR legend Dr. Terry Flynn, Graduate Director and Associate Professor for the Master of Communications Management Program at McMaster University. The anchor story of this week is the ongoing KateGate situation, which is the last story of the pod. Other stories we talk...
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Brad Ross joins us to discuss Google's woke AI, Shane Gillis on SNL, Arizona Coyotes and more
This week, we're pumped to have communications veteran Brad Ross join the pod. Brad was the communications face of the Toronto Transit Commission for a decade and then the Chief Communications Officer for the City of Toronto. He's recently started his own communications business and he joined us...
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Boeing, Kyte Baby, Cloudflare, Bill Ackman vs Business Insider and Trudeau's vacation
For the first episode of 2024, we are very happy to be joined by a special guest: US-based crisis and PR expert Molly McPherson. In this episode, the panel does a deep dive into some of the more compelling issues, crisis and reputation stories in the news recently, including Boeing's lingering...
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CBC layoffs, Ivy league weasels, Sports Illustrated’s AI crisis and the Chicago Blackhawks
This week, John and Warren look at some of the recent PR stories in the news, including the speculation of CBC paying bonuses to execs despite laying off 10% of its workforce, the abysmal testimony of three ivy league university presidents earlier this week, Sports Illustrated gets busted using...
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Texas A&M fires coach, Bud Light in bed with the UFC, a reneging sportscaster and Mr. Beast
In this episode, John and Warren ramble on about a few recent stories, including the massive severance package to Texas A&M's outgoing football coach, a sports radio personality who made a bold promise on-air only to back out of it, the off-duty pilot who tried to crash a plane full of people…
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Buddy Guy, plane lady update, Trump & Tucker and ’bad apples’ in journalism
In this episode, John and Warren ramble about the new contract the Maple Leafs signed with Auston Matthews, how to create a legacy in the style of Buddy Guy, the latest social media posts from Tiffany Gomas (the plane lady) and the strategy behind Donald Trump's sit-down with Tucker Carlson. The...
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Bell Media layoffs, LIV/PGA, RFK Jr., Liz Gilbert’s self-cancellation and more
In this episode, we break down some recent stories including Bell Media firing 1,300 people, the PR fallout from the LIV/PGA merger, author Elizabeth Gilbert's self-cancellation of her upcoming book, RFK Jr's end run around mainstream media on the podcast circuit, when should the crisis…
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Bud Light, Elizabeth Holmes’s rebrand, anti-capitalist coffee shop and Elon vs. the comms dept.
In this episode, John and Warren discuss Harry and Meghan's nearly catastrophic car chase, the NYT puff piece on Elizabeth Holmes as she prepares to go to prison, the anti-capitalist coffee shop that nearly went out of business in Toronto, the ongoing Bud Light controversy and what do you do as a...
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Canucks vs Bruce, Tim Horton’s class action donut and Loblaw’s awkward authenticity
This week, John and Warren ramble on about the mishandling of the Bruce Boudreau firing in the NHL, Tim Horton's responding to a class action lawsuit about privacy violations by offering customers a coffee and a donut and Loblaws, the self-confessed 'face of food inflation', making an awkward...
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Prince Harry’s book, Bell’s mental health switcheroo, VIA’s slow response and more
This week, we John and Warren touch on a number of stories with reputational implications, including Prince Harry's book, Bell's decision to change the structure of its annual mental health initiative, VIA Rail's very slow communications response to its recent operational woes during a major…
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Molly McPherson joins us to talk algorithms, Sobeys, crypto and Elon/Twitter
This week, we're fortunate to have Molly McPherson join us to chat about some notable crisis management stories of the week. Molly shared her own story about being pulled into a social media kerfuffle and how she handled it. We also talked about the silence from grocery chain Sobeys while it deal...
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Hockey Canada crisis analysis with the Friday roundtable
We're very fortunate this week to have an exceptional panel of crisis communicators with us to break down the Hockey Canada scandal. Joining John and Warren this week are Alberta-based media trainer Grant Ainsley, Alberta-based crisis expert Shawna Bruce and US-based crisis expert podcast host…
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Day 12 for Bell Media, Andrew Tate, the Partying PM, and Marnie McBean’s stand
PR and crisis response expert Molly McPherson joins us this week to discuss five stories in the media, including the latest developments in the Lisa LaFlamme termination, the rapid rise and cancellation of Andrew Tate, Finnish PM Sanna Marin's response re: the leaked partying video, Rogers'…
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Lisa LaFlamme vs Bell Media, the Crying CEO and Dan Price
In this episode, we look at three recent stories through the lens of public relations and reputation management: The CEO who posted a crying selfie after firing two employees, the serious allegations against Dan Price and, of course, the media story that has dominated Canadian headlines this past...
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Rogers’ handling of the communications side of the recent service outage
In this episode, we do a bit of a deep dive into Rogers' handling of the communications elements of its recent, massive service outage.
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LIV Golf vs the PGA, TTC’s canned messaging and the Muzzo hospital naming controversy
Is an institution such as a university or hospital ever required to remove the name of a large donor from one of their buildings? Mackenzie Health found itself facing this question earlier this week. And as the battle between LIV Golf and the PGA heats up, what are the reputation implications for...
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Ontario election, Depp vs. Heard and the implications of ignoring media requests
In this episode, John and Warren talk about the media relations aspects of the recent Ontario election, the fallout from the Johnny Depp trial and the implications of companies that ignore media requests when there's a crisis taking place. Why do so many companies do it? Is it a smart call? And…
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CNN+, the Johnny Depp trial, Dolly Parton and Freshii’s virtual cashier
In this episode, Warren and John ramble about a few of the reputation management stories in the news these past few weeks, including the controversy around Freshii's new offshore, virtual cashier, short-lived CNN+, the reputational impacts of the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard defamation trial and Dolly...
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Breaking down the reputational fallout from The Slap
In this episode, we talk about the reputational aspects of the recent incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Academy Awards.
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The PR war in Ukraine, a CEO’s sexist conference comments, the Pay Gap App and Disney versus DeSantis
In this episode, John and Warren ramble about who's winning the PR war in Ukraine, the CEO who lost his job after making sexist comments at a conference, the Pay Gap App and what tech like this means for public-facing organizations, the Disney vs. DeSantis controversy and former NHL referee Tim...
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EP21: The Spotify/Neil Young situation, truckers vs. Terry Fox and the All-In pod kerfuffle
This week, John and Warren chat about the controversy around one of the All-In podcast's hosts, the Terry Fox Foundation's response to protestors messing with the Terry Fox statue in Ottawa and, of course, the ongoing saga involving Spotify, Joe Rogan, Neil Young, etc.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Two long-time communications practitioners talking about media relations, issues management and all things related to corporate reputation.
HOSTED BY
John Perenack and Warren Weeks
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Reputation Town have?
Reputation Town currently has 70 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Reputation Town about?
Two long-time communications practitioners talking about media relations, issues management and all things related to corporate reputation.
How often does Reputation Town release new episodes?
Reputation Town has 70 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Reputation Town?
You can listen to Reputation Town on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Reputation Town?
Reputation Town is created and hosted by John Perenack and Warren Weeks.
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