Beyond the Noise - the PRWeek podcast23 Jul 2025

‘They swerved a cultural minefield’ – Coldplay, Coke, Co-op crises

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest issues affecting communications and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.

Our guest is Jack Storry, head of corporate at Boldspace and author of the first Reputation Hits and Misses of the Week column – PRWeek’s new series examining who has handled their reputation adeptly or poorly in the past seven days.

Speaking to PRWeek UK editor John Harrington and deputy news editor Evie Barrett, Storry looks at how the Co-op has handled the aftermath of the recent damaging cyber-attack. In particular, he commends the comms of Co-op chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq, who appeared on the BBC Breakfast sofa last week.

Separately, the trio discuss how the Coca-Cola Company deftly swerved a potential clash with President Trump.

Less positively, they also look at the comms handling of last week’s widely reported story about a girl being excluded from her school’s ‘Culture Day’ for wearing a Union Jack dress and wanting to speak about her pride at being British.

Meanwhile, we ask whether data company Astronomer got its comms right after its CEO and chief people officer were caught together on ‘kiss cam’ at a Coldplay concert – a major talking point in recent days.

We also ask: are brands ever right to ‘newsjack’ such incidents?

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