To say that the National Football League has a public relations and image problem is like saying Robert DeNiro is a great actor – an obvious conclusion to draw if you’ve watched the news lately or have ever seen Goodfellas.

The 2013 NFL season kicked off with the shocking Aaron Hernandez murder inquiry and arrest, easily the biggest sports story of the year. Mid-season has been disrupted by the Jonathan Martin/Richie Incognito bullying saga, a story whose highlights include allegations of racial insults, death threats to families, and possibly even accusations of coercion involving coaches who should be responsible for maintaining locker room culture. Not to mention the serious, widespread, and on-going health concern of the NFL — the concussion pandemic. Retired players from yesteryear are suffering from multiple mental diseases and afflictions resulting in premature memory loss, decline of motor skills, depression and even death, sometimes by suicide.

When you are building a brand or making a name for yourself, eventually you will have a rough couple of weeks according to Ronn Torossian 5WPR CEO. Worst case scenario, something from the past catches up with you or an honest mistake gets misrepresented. Suddenly sponsors are dropping off left and right even as others call to renew their contracts. Sometimes the logistics make no sense. Quick decisions are made in marketing departments and boardrooms across the country as a myriad of companies tied to your brand choose their fate.

If only you had a Magic 8 Ball of PR. See, public perception and buying habits can look a bit like a ball of yarn. At first it seems rather uniform, one loop over another over another, but a single pull in the wrong place at the wrong time and you end up with chaos.

It’s been a difficult few years for Carnival Cruise Line. Earlier this year, one of its ships, Triumph, got stranded at sea and eventually towed back to port by four tug boats.  Passengers were quick to share horror stories about their “poop cruise” – five days on a boat without electricity, running water, or working toilets –  a Crisis Public Relations nightmare!  Last year, Carnival’s Costa Concordia ran aground off of Italy, killing 32 passengers. Its Captain “tripped and fell into a lifeboat” that seemingly rowed itself safely to shore while 4,228 passengers were left to fend for themselves.  And just a month later, the Carnival-owned Costa Allegra’s engine caught fire, lost power and “was set adrift in pirate-infested waters in the Indian Ocean.” (CNN)

Actions to placate passengers and assume control of the company’s reputation have been ineffective. Of the Triumph, efforts were everything but triumphant.  The CEO apologized, both at a company organized press conference as well over the ship’s PA system as filthy, weary passengers deboarded.  Surely at the time, this was not music to their ears – not the best travel pr either.  Many of these same passengers then experienced a second stranding by Carnival when the cruise line-hired buses in which they were riding broke down somewhere between Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans. If it didn’t actually happen, we’d think this was a scene out of the latest Zach Galifianakis movie. Ultimately,  traumatized passengers were offered only a refund and $500 compensation, less than cost of the cruise itself.   As for the tragedy of the Costa Concordia, last week, it was announced that the Captain will  be tried for Manslaughter and faces up to 20 years in prison.  No refund or gift certificate can ever heal those wounds, especially for the families of those who died.

Everyone from Facebook to Reddit, to the Washington Post and NY Daily News is talking about a Scottsdale, Arizona, restaurant, Amy’s Baking Company says Ronn Torossian 5WPR CEO.  However, this is a perfect case of how “bad PR” really can be BAD. There is a cliché in public relations agencies and that all publicity is good publicity. That’s not true.

After a particularly horrendous appearance on the television show, Kitchen Nightmares, the owners of Amy’s Baking Company were enticed into a social media war. The fight quickly got heated and spread across the social media spectrum. So epic was the subsequent PR train wreck that the story was picked up by media outlets from New York to Los Angeles.

The British Royal Family has long fascinated Americans and our obsession for them runs deep. As a result, members of the British Royal Family are treated and viewed as A-list celebrities. Paparazzi and tabloids love to follow their every move according to 5WPR CEO Ronn Torossian. There’s no shortage of rumors on the gossip pages nor commentators on scandals regarding members of the Royal Family. Managing the publicity for the Royal Family is a full-time PR campaign – with or without a

28-year-old Prince Henry of Wales, commonly known as Prince Harry is visiting the United States. As someone who already has a reputation for being wild and rebellious, he will undoubtedly be careful to avoid any PR crisis which could potentially embarrass the Royal Family. Ronn Torossian – CEO of top NY PR firm – suggests 3 things that Prince Harry must do to avoid bad publicity.

Today on the 5WPR blog we are going to breakdown some tools to help clients work through crisis PR issues.  Throughout our experience with a crisis communications situation PR professional’s have found that a simple, forthright approach to crisis public relations offers the best short- and long-term results. Five steps that are important for any successful crisis PR strategy…

When the police want to talk to you, your first call should be to your lawyer. This is not an admission of anything. It is simply the best way to protect your interests, whatever they may be. The same holds true if the press calls. In a crisis situation under no circumstances should you speak to the press without your PR representative present. In fact, you should not speak to anyone until after you have spoken with your PR firm and completed step 2.

From the PR industry perspective, a public apology can improve a PR Crisis or it can make a small PR crisis into a much bigger public relations controversy. Perhaps ESPN made things worse than they needed to be when they issued a public apology over comments made by announcer Brent Musburger while he was covering the Alabama v Notre Dame football game.

Musburger was obviously enamored by Katherine Webb, the girlfriend of Alabama Quarterback A.J. McCarren. Musburger repeatedly commented on the appearance of Webb, a former Miss Alabama, calling her “beautiful,” “good-looking” and suggesting that scoring a girlfriend as beautiful as Webb, is ample motivation for young boys to start practicing their football skills.