From Broadcasting House to Buckingham Palace, it’s been a year to forget for three of the UK’s oldest and grandest institutions.
The Royals, the BBC, and M&S have been in crisis mode for very different reasons, but they all share one thing in common: sustained, long-term damage to their reputations.
For the Best of British, crisis comms has never been tougher, and there are important lessons to be learnt from how all three handled it.
2025 was a year of crisis for British institutions: let’s start with the biggest one of all. The Prince Andrew scandal over his alleged Epstein links. The long, drawn-out saga had dominated the news for weeks – and showed no signs of abating.
It distracted from the work of the Crown. Wherever the Royals went, they were hounded with the same questions. Damage limitation was the name of the game, and the Palace’s PR team needed to act fast.
Yet when the initial response came, it fell well short of what was needed. It was a lukewarm, rather too short press statement that allowed Andrew to say he had agreed to give up his titles, while still remaining a Prince. It also lacked empathy by seemingly sidelining Virginia Giuffre and Epstein’s victims, who were left unmentioned.
The ill-advised statement epically failed to read the public mood, which was one of growing anger towards the Royals and their handling of the crisis. Because it didn’t go far enough, it backfired, leading to a fresh wave of bad headlines.
It was immediately apparent to many that this wouldn’t cut it and that another statement would be needed.
Fast forward thirteen days, and the Palace set a very different tone when it issued its bombshell second statement. This time, in the King and Queen’s name, they went much further than expected, turning a Prince into a commoner while expressing their clear sympathy for the victims of abuse who had been missing in that first statement. In a moment of great historical and constitutional significance, a King had banished a Prince within the first sentence. It hit the mark.
The second, much bolder statement helped the monarchy out of the immediate crisis, but the scandal has taken its toll. The Royals will be forced to spend most of 2026 repairing their public image.
BBC Chiefs Learn Sorry Isn’t the Hardest Word
It wasn’t long before another British bastion found itself leading the news for all the wrong reasons. The BBC’s misleading edit of a President Trump speech on Panorama presented the public service broadcaster with its gravest crisis in decades.
Trust and impartiality are core BBC values, and this botched edit struck at the heart of its remit. The crisis led to the shock resignations of its Director General and Head of News while exposing the Corporation to the threat of a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit from the sitting president.
The BBC broke one of the golden rules of crisis comms: it was far too late to issue an apology. It hesitated, internal wranglings ensued, and a public apology was delayed until its Board of Governors was finally ready to sign off on a carefully worded statement. Even their under-fire Chairman, Samir Shah, was forced to later admit the broadcaster ‘had been too slow to respond’.
The Beeb has paid a very high price for its indecision. It’s learned the hard way that sorry isn’t the hardest word when you’re in very hot water. If they had apologised sooner, the scale of the crisis might have been contained. The quicker the apology, the better.
Again, like the Royals, time will tell how tarnished the BBC brand is in the face of the crisis, but it has sustained lasting reputational damage and risks a potentially big payout to President Trump.
This is Not Just a Crisis. It’s a Marks & Spencer Crisis.
Earlier in the year, M&S faced a very different sort of crisis.
It was one that could be clearly foreseen. Unfortunately, cyber hacks are a fact of life, and businesses like the UK’s biggest high street retailer, with their vast customer databases, have big targets on their backs.
Their immediate response to the customer data breach and subsequent website outage, which affected millions of customers, was expertly handled. The M&S comms team was well-drilled and had obviously planned for this type of incident. Their crisis comms plan worked upon first contact with the real world.
It was a masterclass. The legacy brand got on the front foot quickly, the CEO gave a clear and full apology, and they communicated openly with customers about what happened. They expertly kept the show on the road as stores remained open, and retail staff had been trained to handle the fallout on the ground.
However, beyond the initial response, there have been growing questions from investors and shoppers alike about their crisis comms since then. The breach took M&S orders offline for *seven* weeks, leading to £300m in losses and a tumble in their share price.
Customer frustration grew when it became clear, only a few weeks after the cyberhack, that personal customer data had been stolen. This, combined with the resumption of online orders taking much longer than expected, tested the customer loyalty M&S has built over many years.
Financially and operationally, the retailer has suffered significant losses, and attention will now shift to the recovery phase as it enters the all-important Christmas season. It will be desperate for some festive cheer and a return to profit.
Last year, M&S was Marketing Week’s Brand of the Year. That level of brand trust and customer loyalty doesn’t just vanish overnight. It’s been a tough year, but customers have not deserted them.
In PR terms, M&S has thus far proved remarkably resilient and largely weathered the storm thanks to strong customer loyalty, an enduring brand identity, and well-executed crisis comms, particularly in those critical early days when risk to reputation is at its peak.
While it escaped the worst reputational damage, the scale of the cyberhack and the seven-week wait to resume online orders mean the company faces questions in some quarters over its longer-term handling of the crisis, which has seriously impacted its finances.
Off-Target
Another crisis-hit retailer is the American chain, Target. But, unlike M&S, their reputation is in big trouble. Tangled up in damaging culture wars, it first hit the panic button in 2023. Amid growing pressure from right-wing critics, it decided to pull some Pride Month merchandise from its shelves after store staff faced threats to their safety over the sale of certain items. That didn’t go down well with many customers.
This year’s controversial decision to roll back its diversity programmes has made matters much worse. Target is now facing a ‘brand backlash’ and nationwide consumer boycotts. Diversity and inclusion are central to the company’s brand identity, and the move brought into question its commitment to EDI as a core value.
LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and black community leaders have widely criticised Target’s crisis handling, and unsurprisingly, the sorry tale rumbles on, with rolling boycotts, a tanking share price, and its CEO having to step down. In many ways, it’s a classic example of how not to manage a crisis situation.
A Year of Crisis for British Institutions: Applying the Big 5 Rules of Crisis Comms
The Monarchy, The BBC, M&S: Three big British institutions, three very different crises, and, to varying degrees, all three have sustained a hit to their public reputations.
So what lessons can we learn from the mistakes made?
Stick to these five golden rules in a crisis:
- Respond fast and decisively
- Be human, open and transparent
- Stay true to your brand’s identity and core values
- Make sure your words mirror the public mood
- And finally, whatever happens, don’t be tardy in your apology
For a more detailed guide on crisis communications, read our recent post here.
If your organisation needs a comprehensive crisis comms plan, our team of trusted experts are here to help.
Contact us at hello@gofetchpress.com to get the ball rolling.
