College of Communication > About > College News > 2017 News Archive > PRAD's Culp, Ragas Discuss Recent PR Flaps with Press

PRAD's Culp, Ragas Discuss Recent PR Flaps with Press

Ron Culp

Following the recent weeklong parade of shocking public relations nightmares that Pepsi, United Airlines, and then the Trump administration’s Sean Spicer found themselves embroiled in, the PR industry was abuzz with post-crisis assessment. Our own PRAD Professional Director Ron Culp was featured in a lengthy Q&A with Vice about the state of the trade in “PR People Are Failing Right Now”.

Prof. Matt Ragas was also quoted on United’s PR crisis in Crain’s Chicago Business.

Matt Ragas

“While an unimaginable publicity nightmare for United, worldwide fascination with the Chicago-based airline's mistreatment of a paying customer is a boon of sorts to other companies that might otherwise be getting a lot more unwanted attention. ’From a PR perspective, it was a blessing’ for other bearers of bad news, says Matt Ragas, a professor of public relations and advertising at DePaul University. He points out that PepsiCo's spectacularly ill-judged Kendall Jenner commercial all but disappeared from news pages last week.”