How to handle crisis communications in 2026

Barely into 2026 and crisis communications is once again proving to be an in-demand skill among the rich and famous. The bad news from the Big Apple? Former New York City mayor Eric Adams launched a crypto token last week (weirdly, for a mission to “fight antisemitism and anti-Americanism”). 

Within hours, media commentators, financial analysts and a whole lot of crypto buyers were calling shenanigans:

From the Intelligencer: “Less than an hour after $NYC token’s trading launch, Adams was fighting allegations that he had engaged in a rug pull. A time-tested (and difficult to prosecute) scam in cryptocurrency, a rug pull happens when someone with a public platform creates a coin and promotes it to increase its perceived value. Then, when it seems to be at its highest in value, the coin creator pulls their own liquidity, tanking the price and leaving everyone else in the lurch.”

Yikes. Fortunately, Adams can afford good PR… right? Adams’ spokesperson jumped into crisis communications mode, basically saying it’s definitely, most certainly not exactly what it looks like. Okay then. 

The problem with crypto transactions – and their message – is that there’s no real way to know. Crypto is… well, hidden away. Anonymous. That’s the point. So, even if they wanted to put out all the facts, take accountability and show how Adams is, if anything, leading the fight for transparency and fairness in finance… well, this is going to take some time to get right.

Adams’ PR spokesperson is really earning their keep these days, as their client really didn’t need the extra heat. The Intelligencer article notes: Adams is also in the news for another incident. After a flight to Dallas soon after launching $NYC, the former mayor was accosted on a jet bridge by a woman in a mask. “Go fuck yourself,” he told her, in the incident caught on video.

This surely won’t be the last PR crisis of 2026. This week it’s the former NYC mayor, a while back it was Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster in the crisis communications hotseat. Hopefully, it won’t be your turn next. Check out our crisis communications playbook and be prepared.

Crisis Comms Strategy 1: Turn your crisis into a PR opportunity 

A whiskey brand called our PR agency in a panic. “We just shipped our first batch of our new whiskey, and it was stolen. We’ve got it back, but our shipment is going to be seriously late.” 

This was the first product they had ever released. If this launch failed, their customers would never order again. Bad publicity could also mean that orders from retailers like Main Street Liquor and DramFellows would be cancelled, losing them millions of dollars in sales! 

But after we talked to their CEO and partnered with their marketing team, we advised them that this could actually be a great PR opportunity. But we needed to move fast. 75% of customers say they will switch brands if they experience poor communication during a disruption. 

We decided that once the bottles were recovered, each one would get a snazzy ‘hijacked’ sticker on the front. It would be a special edition bottle, only for the first 3,000 customers. We got pictures of the founders on the front lines, meeting with police and shipping companies to get back their batch. 

We launched a PR campaign about the new ‘hijacked’ edition whiskey. This wasn’t a late shipment anymore. The whiskey was ‘hijacked’ and the company worked hard to bring the special edition bottles to customers. They even included a QR code on the bottles so customers could read the full story. 

Brands that communicate authentically during a crisis see 50% higher growth than other brands that stay silent. They got so much positive feedback that their second batch sold out instantly. That’s the power of turning a crisis into a PR opportunity. 

Crisis Comms Strategy 2: Kill the story with kindness 

“This story is a lie. A damned lie.” That’s what our real estate app client said when he was first contacted by a mainstream journalist accusing him of helping slum lords. The reporter had spoken to a few of tenants who had found rentals on his app, gathered some quotes about how badly they were treated, and intended to publish a hit piece in just a few days. 

“This is going to ruin my business. After that article goes live, nobody will ever use our rental platform again,” our client told us. He was right. 76% of renters look at reviews of landlords or property managers before even applying for a rental. A hit piece would be a kill shot. Would you rent from someone featured in a headline like “‘Truly. Deeply. Evil’: This woman may be SF’s most hated landlord?” 

But instead of denying the accusations, we went another direction. 

We asked our client for every positive review, thank you note, and comment from his current customers. Turns out, there were hundreds of pages of these great interactions! We compiled them all and sent them to the journalist, and explained that this information should give them much more context for the story. 

Was the story buried? Nope. But when it was published, was it a hit piece that hurt his reputation? Nope. It was a balanced story about landlord-tenant disputes, not a hit piece painting our client’s app as unsafe and unusable. He avoided the fate of other property managers stuck with hit pieces like “Tenants on Jersey City’s west side declare rent strike: Our landlord is a slumlord,” and “City of Detroit files suits, declaring Michael Kelly's properties a 'public nuisance'” 

His business is still thriving thanks to a PR strategy that provided the journalist with more context to create a fair story. 

Crisis Comms Strategy 3: Take accountability for the crisis, and become a leader

McDonalds is the biggest fast food chain in the world, so when they mess up, it’s instantly in the headlines. When an E. Coli outbreak in onions used in their Quarter Pounder hamburgers impacted about 900 stores, McDonalds instantly stopped selling the product. But people had already become violently sick after consuming their food, and one person tragically lost their life. They needed a PR strategy to re-establish themselves as leaders in food safety. 

Between the start of the outbreak and the end of the FDA investigation, the company provided six updates on the impacted stores. 

First, they showed that the product had been removed from all stores. 

Then, they showed continued updates as the Colorado Department of Agriculture, the CDC, and the FDA all said that McDonalds had fixed the problem. They shared this on their website and on social media. 

The company also invested $100 million to get customers back to stores. $65 million went to the stores where traffic dried up because of the outbreak. The other $35 million went to marketing efforts to win back customers. 

McDonalds is still the largest player in fast food, and it managed to keep its reputation for safe food, proving that taking decisive action, and taking steps to fix the problem are a fantastic PR strategy. 

Crisis Comms Strategy 4. Have confidence in your messaging. Don’t bend to the mob 

When actress Sydney Sweeney appeared in an American Eagle Jeans ad with the tagline "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” people on social media instantly accused her of white supremacy. Some publications even accused her of flirting with Naziism. 

But instead of apologizing like… well, everyone, she took a different approach. 

“Is there something that you want to say about the ad itself? The criticism of the content was basically that, maybe specifically in this political climate, white people shouldn’t joke about genetic superiority,” asked a GQ journalist. 

“I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear,” said the Euphoria star, who was forced to become an unofficial spokesperson for the company. 

She didn’t get pulled into the social media game of wild accusations and apologies. It was a great ad campaign, and she stood behind it, even when publications from Forbes to Vanity Fair were urging her to reconsider her involvement. 

The strategy paid off, and American Eagle’s stock price soared by 136% over the past six months. They’ve even hired her for a new 2026 campaign! 

When you have confidence in your marketing and PR strategy, a few loud voices on social media aren’t enough to drown out an amazing campaign. 

Need an expert to show you which approach to take to your PR crisis? Want to work with an experienced crisis communications team? Contact Mind Meld PR today.