Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni: Crisis communications gone wrong 🔥 by Laura Lacy

A piece about how this mess IS NOT crisis communications

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:37:41 UTC

A deep dive into the saga from January (won't have most recent developements)

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:39:19 UTC

Other ways to think about crisis response

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:40:03 UTC

Let's talk about what crisis comm IS by examining what it IS NOT...through Blake and Justin.

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:43:45 UTC

In small groups, you'll read through some resources, analyze where public relations fits into this story, and come up with ideas of how it could be done "better."

Cision Crisis Communications Checklist

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:44:20 UTC

Vanity Fair timeline of events

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:45:05 UTC

Deadline timelines of events

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:45:27 UTC

PR expert on NPR talking about the feud

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:46:19 UTC

Examination of crisis public relations in the dispute

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:47:42 UTC

Discussion about more recent developments

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:49:23 UTC

Cision complete guide to crisis comm

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:49:57 UTC

PR peekaboo—where are they?

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:54:00 UTC

In this column, with your group, make some posts about what you discovered:

Where do you think the PR/crisis comm folks "live" in this story?
What have they done well?
What have they done poorly?
What specific documents/writings do you think have been involved?

What would you do?

llacy2_2 — 2025-03-26 19:56:48 UTC

Here, with your partner, pretend that you are an individual or organization that is going to be affected somehow by this feud. Then:

Tell us who you are and describe your relationship to the drama.
Draft a short (3-5 sentence) email to your PR team about the messaging you'd like to focus on in light of the story.

What they did poorly was having the celebs go silent and not do interviews after the instance it made it confusing and helped perparatuate rumors. Justin prbly had a crisis plan when things started to heat up.

2025-03-28 18:31:38 UTC

Where the PR/crisis comms people live in this story

2025-03-28 18:32:35 UTC

The PR/crisis comms folks are the puppeteers of this entire situation. They are strategically confusing the public to have the crisis fizzle out naturally.

Specific Writings

2025-03-28 18:33:31 UTC

Pitches, press releases, calculated social media content, blog posts, opinion articles

What has been done WELL?

2025-03-28 18:33:53 UTC

Causing confusion, keeping the public on their toes, timely reactions.

we are justin baladoni's wife and she is an actress with a new film coming out and is scared about the bad press effecting the films success. The film is an important topic and needs to be addressed in media. The position we want taken is that she is innocent and that the film and her husband need to be seperate.

2025-03-28 18:34:27 UTC

What has been done POORLY?

2025-03-28 18:35:23 UTC

They have not been transparent with the public and they've been unethical (ex: smear campaigns).

What would you do?

2025-03-28 18:41:52 UTC

We are Colleen Hoover, the book's author.

The legal situation between Blake and Justin is rapidly gaining attention. I'd like to make a statement telling the public I am incredibly grateful for all of the hard work everyone put into the film. I want to maintain a neutral stance, and center the messaging around the importance of the film itself.

2025-03-28 18:42:08 UTC

The PR teams were taking information and pushing it out to confuse the consumers. While Blake has been on her tour for Another Simple Favor movie, her team has allowed for this information to be moved on, so it has moved on between her and Justin going back and forth. Currently, Blake seems to have a career while Justin's career seems to be put on hold. The documents that were likely used would be a social media calendar for what they put on for It Ends with Us. Justin and Blake had two different approaches for the movie. Blake was very light and airy about it while Justin was very serious in talking about domestic violence. Neither wanted to talk about each other. A lot of PR statements were put out to protect their images and silence critics.

Discovery

2025-03-28 18:44:03 UTC

The PR/ crisis comm folks live in this story through the sides of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. These celebs hired their own PR/crisis teams to help mitigate the situation.

They have done well with leaving the public confused because no one really knows what truly is going on and the secrecy that still remains. Essentially, PR/Crisis team kept the public in the dark.

Justin Baldoni's team in particular did poorly because even with all the backlash on Blake he still ended up getting punished as well. The Voices of Solidarity Award was rescinded and he was also kicked out of his production company.

The specific writings and documents that are involved so far was their publicist statements regarding the situation, social media post, interviews, their public statements, Colleen Hoover's statement, and the pending law suit.

We are a supporting actor in It Ends With Us-

2025-03-28 18:45:57 UTC

I would like to appear grateful for my role in the movie and the significance of the themes mentioned. It is important to me to not "side" with either Justin or Blake. I would like to stay out of the legal drama entirely. Maybe link at end of statement for a domestic violence charity to circle back to the issue I want to highlight.

Taylor Swift, Blake Lively's Best Friend

2025-03-28 18:46:24 UTC

I stand with Blake wholeheartedly Those who know her know this is not her. We need to take this chance and start listening to women over men. I've seen this many times in my own life but is very important that what the public sees isn't always what is going on behind the scenes.

Opinion

2025-03-28 18:54:31 UTC

The person we are picking is Colleen Hoover. She is the writer of the book "It Ends With Us". She was also an had an integral role in the movie process and she got to know both Blake and Justin closely.

Hi I'm Colleen Hoover the writer of "It Ends With Us". I would like to focus the narrative more about the main messaging of my movie and less on the ongoing drama between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. I feel my movie being made for the big screen is expressing the importance of speaking out and getting help in violent situations. This message will truly impact my audience of young girls and women watching the movie. The creation of "It Ends With Us" is to help promote Domestic Violence Awareness.