All Episodes

70. How to Go Viral and Not Screw Up Your Kid's Life, with the Original "Hysterical Bubbles" Laughing Baby (All Grown Up)

69. How the Snapple Brand Won Our Hearts in the 90s, Then Lost Them

68. Seth Rogen Film, The Interview, Sparks a North Korean Hack Attack and a Hollywood PR Debacle for Sony Pictures' CEO

67. Coca-Cola's Master's Tournament Sponsorship Triggers 2002 Boycott Threat, with Ben Deutsch and Dr. Martha Burk

66. Cracks in the ICE: Legal Observers in Minneapolis Use the First Amendment to Swing Public Opinion About Immigration Crackdown

65. Delicious Redemption: Getting Fired for an Infamous PBR Tweet Made Corey Smale the CCO at Garage Beer

64. The Wikipedia Prank: Why the Internet Mistakenly Thought the Movie Good Luck Chuck was Based on Ben Kollenbroich

63. A.I. Podcast Host Invasion: Inception Point's Business Model & the Podcast Industry's Reaction

62. Modernizing the Way We Communicate About Road Closures (Especially During Emergencies), with Scott Oppman from ArcGIS

61. Will Wikipedia survive Artificial Intelligence? (And Can A.I. Survive Without Wikipedia?)

60. Recession Lessons from Content Marketing Institute Founder Joe Pulizzi: Double Down, Dig In

59. Bot Farms Have Made Social Media Engagement Metrics Meaningless, with Eric Schwartzman

58. The Mystery of the I-94 Sales & Marketing Tip of the Week Billboard, with Ken Hoffman & Kyle Brown

57. Why Have Streaming Services Put So Many Ads In Our Shows? with Film Critic Matt Zoller Seitz

56. What Happens at American Airlines After a Plane Crash: Behind the Scenes with Former Spokeswoman Jennifer R. Hudson

55. Liquid Death Spoofs the Pepsi Harrier Jet Giveaway, with Andy Pearson & Jeff Beer

54. The Election of the Podcast? 2024 Presidential Campaign PR Focuses on Podcasts & Social Media

53. Alex Jones’s Infowars Being Purchased by the Onion and Sandy Hook Families, with Onion CMO Leila Brillson

52. FEMA Public Affairs Team Still Carries Scars from Hurricane Ike Assignment, with Molly McPherson & Mike Moore

51. The Legend of Dukakis in a Tank: White House Comms Pros Talk Presidential Optics, with Josh King and Kevin Sullivan

BONUS: Literally, the Grammar-Nerdiest Conversation You'll Ever Hear, with Dr. Valerie Fridland

50. Grumpy Cat, the Sound of Freedom, Watergate and More: A Look Back and a Look at What's Next

49. How I Almost Got Fired in My 1st Week in PR, and the Important Life Lessons I Learned

48. A UAP PR Campaign: Mainstreaming the Conversation About Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena, with Lt. Ryan Graves

47. Sliding into DMs on the Dating App Hinge, with NextGen America's Kristi Johnston

46. Why Are Wireless Emergency Alerts on Your Phone So Terrible? A Strategic Communication Conundrum

45. Replaced by Chat GPT: Are Creative and Copywriting Jobs Threatened by Artificial Intelligence?

44. How a Real Life Ad Agency Inspired the Robin Williams CBS Sitcom, "The Crazy Ones"

43. Brands Don't Have the Rizz: Appropriating Gen Z Slang Is Falling Flat in Social Media Marketing

BONUS: Covid is—Air Quotes—Over. What That Means for Strategic Communicators, with former HHS Spokesman Bill Pierce

42. OkCupid Stays On Target During the Covid Pandemic: PR Messaging and Online Dating Apps

41. Deepfakes: How Communicators Must Prepare Now for this Imminent Reputation Threat

40. In Event of Moon Disaster: The Greatest Speech Never Given

39. Pernicious Copyright Robots Are Targeting Your Website: PicRights and the Practice of "Copyright Trolling"

38. The Bud Light CoRntroversy, Revisited: Miller Lite Strikes Back

BONUS: Celebrating 20 Years Behind a Mic With Dusty's First Audio Boss, Scott Thompson

37. Blue Angels Ride Along: Lead Balloon Becomes the First Podcast to Fly with the US Navy Blue Angels

36. The US Navy Blue Angels: Public Affairs and Marketing at 500 Miles Per Hour

35. Post-Cold War PR Trip to Uzbekistan Boosts Fundraising for United Jewish Appeal's Operation Exodus, with Dick Grove

Trailer—The Lead Balloon Podcast—PR, Marketing and Strategic Communications Stories

34. Murder in Boston Blamed on Sega's Virtua Cop Video Game, with Lee Caraher

33. National Airlines' Saucy "Fly Me" Ad Campaign, and the Great Stewardess Rebellion of the 1970s

32. Tesla’s Elon Musk Fires the Entire Public Relations Team—What Could Go Wrong?

31. Snapple: Pitching the Best Catchphrase On Earth, with Jane Cavalier and Richard Kirshenbaum

30. Inside the PBR "Eating Ass" Tweetstorm, with Adweek Editor David Griner and Kyle Brown

29. Ukrainian Creatives Waging an Information War Against Russian Invasion

28. Wendy's Twitter Account Manager Recounts Battle with Social Media Burnout, with Amy Brown and Sallie Poggi

27. Sherwin-Williams Paints Itself Into a Corner on TikTok, with Tony Piloseno

BONUS: Milwaukee Bucks Senior VP Alex Lasry on the City's "Quiet Swagger," His U.S. Senate Campaign, and the Team's Prospects for 2022

26. Bigger Than Basketball: The Milwaukee Bucks and the NBA Social Justice Walkout of 2020

24. The Dreaded Grand Jury Subpoena, with Duct Tape Marketing Founder John Jantsch

23. Bridgegate: Behind the Scenes at the Port Authority During the 2013 Scandal, with Anthony Hayes

BONUS: Bulletins From an NBA Title-Winning Terrible City

22. Scandal at Foresters Financial, with former VP of PR Henry DeVries

21. Hip-Hop Mogul Russell Simmons Hijacks the Mainstage at LinkedIn's Sales Summit, with Justin Shriber

20. Plane Crash in Colombia: American Airlines Flight 965, with Jennifer R. Hudson

19. Coca-Cola and the Masters Tournament, with retired Coke Comms VP Ben Deutsch and Dr. Martha Burk

18. Coca-Cola's Retired Comms VP Ben Deutsch on the 1998 World Cup, Coke's Belgium Health Scare and More

17. The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson: Insurrection, Business Comms & Politics

16. Vaccine Messaging: How Comms Professionals Can Help Save the World from Covid

15. Going Rogue, Battling Bears, Government Shutdowns and National Parks, with Julie Wright

BONUS: Adweek's "Marketing Podcast of the Year" Is... Lead Balloon!

13. The Squatty Potty Saga and the Science of Going Viral, with Harmon Brothers CEO Benton Crane

12. A Creative in the Corporate World, with David Allen Moss

11. The Emotional Unsubscribe, and other Marketing Automation Pitfalls to Avoid, with Misty Dykema and Abby Bell from Simantel

10. Getting Uncomfortable About Race in America, with Randy Crump, Dr. Monique Liston and Kennita Hickman

9. The Ritz-Carlton Hail Mary, with Trusted Media Brands CCO Beth Tomkiw

8. The COVID Pivot? Content Marketing Institute Founder Joe Pulizzi on Promoting Your Brand During a Recession

7. COVID-19: Critiquing the Federal Response with former HHS Spokesman Bill Pierce, and Busting Coronavirus Myths with Epidemiologist Dr. Maria Sundaram

6. HBO's McMillion$: The PR Crises Behind the Hit DocuSeries, with Directors James Lee Hernandez & Brian Lazarte

5. The Seinfeld Press Conference, with Tim O'Brien

4. We Don't Do Ribbon Cuttings, with Patrick McSweeney, Katrine Strickland and Jason Maddux

3. Bud Light's Corn Syrup-Fueled Ad War, with Neil Caskey from the National Corn Growers Association, Paul Gatza from the Brewers Association, and Kyle Brown

2. City Hall Self Destruct, with Jim Bohl, Bill Arnold, Jim Owczarski and Ken Leiviska

1. Grumpy Cat's Grumpy Manager Vs. the Wax Museum, with Jesse Russell