Fineman PR names Penn State’s poor crisis communications the No. 1 PR blunder of 2011

For the 17th year, the San Francisco-based agency has compiled a year-end list of public relations gaffes. Check out the entire list.

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Penn State topped Fineman PR‘s 17th annual list of the year’s top PR blunders.

“Poor crisis planning was an obvious issue, with Advertising Age reporting that ‘despite months of advance notice, Penn State’s board didn’t enact a communications plan, and waited until after the arrest … was all over the news’ before retaining crisis counsel,” Fineman PR explained in a press release.

The list, according to the firm, features “blunders by organizations that were unprepared, undecided, unconscious, unfair and uninformed, and all of them preventable.” In an email to PR Daily, the firm’s president Michael Fineman noted that most of the items on the list seemed to occur during the last few months of the year.

Here’s the full list, along with Fineman PR’s explanation:

1. Penn State, “Your Scandal Isn’t Going Away”

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