Passing along a list from Business Insider of the biggest public relations disasters of the last year, and the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal trumps all.
The allegations of child sexual abuse against Sandusky first came to light in 2011, and Business Insider says “part of the PR disaster was due to Penn State’s initial difficulty addressing the problem.” That’s certainly valid, as the scandal swept up life on campus like a tsunami in Nov. 2011 despite a report in March earlier that year that Sandusky was being investigated by a grand jury.
But the brunt of the scandal unfolded in 2012, when a university-commissioned investigative report headed by former FBI director Louis Freeh found former football coach Joe Paterno and three Penn State officials concealed knowledge of allegations against Sandusky, convicted of serial pedophilia in June.
McDonald’s #McDStories Twitter campaign finished No. 2 behind Penn State. Other PR nightmares on the list include Chick fil-A’s gay marriage stance and Apple Maps.
