What We’re Reading is a monthly roundup of current news, commentary, challenges and trends that impact our industry and clients. This month’s coverage looks at how organizations build and protect trust, from Bank of America’s CEO Brian Moynihan word game bank tactics and L3Harris’s board-level failure to vet a CEO’s history to the crisis Neutrogena and Target have on their hands right now. One clear theme stands out: reputation is something that needs to be protected well before the crisis arises, and even before the warning signs.
++
The Secret Word Game Bank of America’s CEO Plays With Wall Street – Gina Heeb, The Wall Street Journal
“Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan slips words like ‘gainsay’ and ‘fantods’ into scripted earnings calls, a long-running game of sorts rooted in who he is: a history major, a lifelong reader, and a lawyer with a photographic memory. The habit gives one of the most tightly-controlled formats in corporate and financial communications an unmistakably human fingerprint, and Wall Street has come to know him by it. For those of us who advise executives, it’s a useful reminder that a genuine voice beats a flawless one, and the real work is helping leaders bring more of themselves into the moments that matter.” – Kristin Monroe
Women at L3Harris Shared Concerns About CEO’s Behavior Years Before Ouster – Cara Lombardo, Marcus Weisgerber and Drew FitzGerald, The Wall Street Journal
“This is why every public company board should include a reputation expert—or at least consult with one before they offer the job to a new CEO. Such an expert would have strongly counseled against hiring a CEO who lost his last senior executive job for inappropriate conduct with a subordinate—because the situation has repeated itself. On top of that, it was common knowledge among women at the company to be careful being around him alone? This whole situation is quite mindboggling.” – Nick Kalm
Will a Neutrogena boycott by Hayden Panettiere’s fans work? – Betty Lin-Fisher, USA Today
“The boycott of Neutrogena over its decision to drop Hayden Panettiere as a partner following her comments on postpartum depression is a textbook example of how quickly an old story can resurface when new context emerges. In this case, Panettiere’s death cast the brand’s past decision in a different light. Neutrogena’s delayed response, issued only after online backlash had already gained momentum, made its actions appear reactive rather than proactive. It serves as a reminder that when brands wait for public pressure to dictate when and how they respond, they risk losing control of the narrative before they have a chance to shape it.” – Emily Schultz
The modern parenting throuple – Amanda Hoover, Business Insider
“Parents are more overwhelmed than ever, and AI companies are using it as an opportunity. The article follows a few families navigating real disagreements about how far is too far with AI—one dad wants an AI necklace that records his interactions with his daughter and coaches him in real time, but his wife isn’t convinced. What’s interesting is that parents aren’t avoiding AI. They’re using it constantly for the mundane stuff, but are drawing the line at letting it weigh in on the emotional parts of raising a kid. It’s a good reminder that the best messaging comes from actually understanding what your audience is going through, not just assuming you do.” – Jenny Cummings
Crocs’s Plan to Turn Short-Term Pain Into Long-Term Gain – Jennifer Williams, The Wall Street Journal
“What stood out to me is how Crocs was willing to take a short-term hit to protect the long-term health of the brand. That’s not always an easy decision, especially when stakeholders are focused on quarterly results. From a communications standpoint, it reinforces the importance of having a clear narrative around business decisions; if a company is confident in its strategy, communications can play a meaningful role in maintaining trust while those results play out.” – Grace DuFour
The best parenting hack is being rich – Olga Khazan, The Atlantic
“This is stark—but the optimist in me genuinely believes a paradigm shift is coming to protect all kids’ educational development. I also think it will hugely impact communications strategy. Brands who can see around the corner are planning now, not tomorrow, to provide offline experiences, human connection, and creative thinking all while balancing the realities of tech and connection (ahem, measurement). Social good does not have to be separated from what’s good for business.” – Kate O’Neil
Target says it’s sorry for selling an ‘offensive’ Halloween clown costume – Amanda Goh, Business Insider
“Target’s latest controversy is a good reminder that reputational risk often starts long before the PR team ever gets involved. The issue wasn’t just the offensive Halloween costume itself, but that it made it through the product development and approval process without anyone flagging the obvious cultural implications. Target’s response was as expected—it acted quickly, pulled the product, took clear accountability, and acknowledged the specific communities impacted rather than hiding behind a generic apology. The bigger PR lesson is that while an authentic apology is an important step, it can’t make up for the gaps in internal processes and diverse perspectives needed to prevent these issues in the first place. Now, Target will need to demonstrate what it’s actually changing to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” – Haley Hartmann
Brands Suddenly Care About Reddit. Redditors Don’t Return the Feeling – Katie Deighton, The Wall Street Journal
“This is a clear example of how generative AI is redirecting brand strategy: because Reddit is the most-cited source in AI-generated answers, marketers who once ignored the platform now treat GEO—not SEO – as the priority, racing to shape how they’re discussed there. Reddit’s moderators are drawing a hard line against marketing content as they try to protect ‘the very last place on the internet for genuine company reviews and feedback.’ For communications teams, the real shift is that authentic Reddit conversations are becoming as central to brand visibility as traditional media relations—underscoring the broader need to work with our marketing counterparts to understand and build a strong GEO strategy.” – Sami Stansberry
Jif’s new logo is a rebrand done right – Grace Snelling, Fast Company
“Jif’s update shows how a brand can modernize its look while keeping its feel. That balance matters, because it’s easy to go too far and lose the familiarity customers count on. It’s a reminder that how a brand looks is a part of how it communicates, and that the strongest updates hold on to what’s familiar while showing where the brand is headed.” – Emma Smits
Can Netflix Save a Summer Slump With a Stunt on Sunset Boulevard? – Nicole Sperling, The New York Times
“Amid a summer slump, Netflix paid an actor to live inside a house-shaped billboard on Sunset Boulevard. The marketing stunt aimed to promote its newest film ‘The Last House.’ The stunt worked; it brought in local news crews, a helicopter, and plenty of foot traffic. Coming off a summer where nothing has matched last year’s success in KPop Demon Hunters, the stunt generates real earned media attention. Marketing stunts like this remind us that there are more ways than one to get people talking about your show or brand.” – Ava Rosenberg
Callaway Removes Good Good Driver Listing After Backlash to ’Needlessly Violent’ Ad – Ali Donaldson, Inc.
“This article summarizes a lot of the deserved negative feedback this ad has created for both Good Good and Callaway. It points to a core question that all brands should ask: have we evaluated the impacts carefully enough on our key audiences, and is the potential reputational risk worth the brand benefit we’re hoping for? This may point to a gap in process as much as judgment. Was a full reputational risk assessment conducted before approving the ad? Were enough of the right people involved in those discussions to ensure diverse viewpoints and audience impacts would be considered? What do we want our brand to stand for, and does this further that? What audience(s) are driving our success, and how will they likely receive this? Stopping to take the extra time to answer those questions should have pointed to some serious risks that wouldn’t have made this ad worth it even if it felt ‘on brand’ for Good Good’s irreverent approach to golf. Credit where it is due, after the fact, both companies were quick to issue apologies that took full responsibility at the CEO level and didn’t try to couch their language.” – Andrew Moyer
In a Divided America, the Left and Right Unite to Oppose Artificial Intelligence Data Centers – Will Weissert and Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
“This piece is a case study in how fast opposition coalitions can form when a company shows up with a project and no stakeholder strategy. In Nebraska, conservative farmers and the Sierra Club found common cause against a proposed data center, not because they share an ideology, but because they share a set of unanswered questions about water, land, and electricity bills. That is the pattern we see again and again with infrastructure and energy clients: the coalition is rarely partisan. It is grievance-driven, and it forms fastest in the vacuum left by companies that engage regulators and reporters before engaging the community. The lesson for communicators is to identify and address those cross-cutting concerns early or watch someone else organize around them for you.” – Michael Grimm