Behind the Curtain of Crisis PR: Preventing Scandals Before They Break

Crisis PR is often seen as a reactive field—a team of professionals swooping in after a scandal has already broken to clean up the mess. However, the true art of crisis management lies in prevention. The most successful crisis PR is the kind you never hear about, because the scandal never occurs in the first place. Behind every well-managed public figure or organisation, there is a team working tirelessly to ensure that potential threats are neutralised before they ever become public knowledge.

Prevention requires a different set of skills than reactive crisis management. It involves foresight, strategy, and the ability to anticipate how a situation might unfold. When a client comes to me with a potential issue, my first task is to assess the likelihood of that issue escalating. I then work to put measures in place to prevent it from becoming a full-blown crisis.

This often involves working behind the scenes, engaging with stakeholders, managing delicate relationships, and ensuring that any potential leaks are contained. It is a highly strategic process that requires not only PR expertise but also a deep understanding of human behaviour and media dynamics.

The most satisfying moments in my career have not been the ones where I’ve managed to turn a scandal around after it hit the headlines, but the ones where I’ve successfully prevented a crisis from ever seeing the light of day. These are the victories that go unnoticed by the public—but they are, in many ways, the most important.