By Amanda Barber MSc
Have you ever heard of the data-operations platform, Astronomer? How about furniture retailer Wayfair? Or budding new movie producer Justin Baldoni? Chances are you probably hadn’t…until they went viral in the stuff of PR worst nightmares.
Virality is a reputational adjudicator like no other, capable of moving with the speed of a rocketship and executing an organisational crisis with the force of an atom bomb.
Real-Life Examples
Take the video uploaded to social media in September 2025, by Dr. Elise Turner following having been asked to leave Virgin Australia’s Melbourne Airport lounge for the heinous infraction of…expressing breast milk. A legally protected activity under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 in Australia. The frustrated reaction casually recorded from Dr. Turner’s mobile phone within minutes of the interaction, spread just as instantaneously across social media. The story was picked up within hours by major news platforms such as ABC, SBS, People, News.com.au, and other outlets. Condemnation of Virgin’s conduct was ferocious and unilateral. Multiple advocacy groups responded. Influencers spoke up. Customer and community backlash poured in relentlessly from all angles.
A singular instance of poor customer service amplified into a national legal and reputational crisis reaching millions, and unfortunately for Virgin Australia, the delay and ambiguity in response failed to match the fervor of the outrage, resulting in thousands vowing to boycott the airline.
Yet, such prominent examples of the folly of sluggish, inadequate or defensive responses, without understanding why responses typically go so very awry, often triggers the converse and equally damaging reactivity in organisations.
For instance when Blake Lively launched a sexual harassment lawsuit against actor/producer Justin Baldoni (a high profile advocate for womens rights) following the filming of It Ends With Us, it led to severe initial public disappointment. Advocacy organisation, Vital Voices, acted instantly, prior to Baldoni’s response, and revoked his Voices of Solidarity Award.
However, within days, Baldoni’s legal team issued a counterclaim, providing a public torrent of damning tangible evidence which harshly shifted the narrative, painting Lively as both the villain and the perpetrator. Similarly, other organisations such as Kansas City’s firing of Andrea Watts (2024) due to social media fallout, have rendered reactive organisations legally liable for decision making based on less than credible social media claims.
Dangerous Dilemmas
Responding to social media and viral information threats presents organisations with a series of conflicting decision-making realities:
- Delay vs. Speed: Wait too long and outrage multiplies, making any eventual response seem insincere. Move too fast and you risk acting on incomplete or misleading information.
- Accountability vs. Credibility: The public demands instant accountability, yet social media accusations are often one-sided and require rigorous credibility checks.
- Ethical Duty vs. Reputational Panic: Genuine ethical breaches must be addressed decisively, yet organisations often conflate ethical duty with reputational self-protection, leading to hasty, defensive action.
- Human Tone vs. Corporate Caution: The public wants empathy and humanity, while legal and compliance instincts drive sterile, defensive language.
- Swift Consequences vs. Fair Process: Acting visibly shows resolve, but sanctions before facts are verified can destroy reputations and backfire if claims collapse.
- Listening to the Crowd vs. Leading with Standards: The mob’s appetite is immediate and absolute, but leaders are accountable to pre-agreed standards, proportionate responses, and due process.
- Apology vs. Admission of Liability: Apologies must be stellar to defuse anger, but can also be construed as legal admission, raising the stakes in court.
With so much decision-making conflict, it might seem like successful damage control is contingent on the whim of luck and public sentiment. No wonder responses are so often mediocre. Strategic decision making, based on sound credibility assessment, and wise forethought, can transform reputational threats into an opportunity for equal reputational elevation.
From Saving Face to Saving Grace
In August 2025, staff at Sutter Health posted what appeared to be an insensitive TikTok seeming to mock bodily fluids left on patient chairs within the health clinics. Outrage ensured the clip quickly went viral, but in this case leadership were empowered to move just as quickly, because they weren’t improvising and little credibility assessment was required. Staff themselves had posted the offending content, recorded inside the clinic, while uniformed and making the organisation identifiable, representing the organisation in a manner which failed to reflect the values of the healthcare organisation, and was behaviour against their employment terms.
This provided the organisation with clear perimeters to place staff on leave within a day for investigation and terminate them the next, with the organisation citing clear conduct and social media policies and a duty to protect patient dignity and trust. These processes, attitudes and organisational values reflected in decision making pre-planning allowed for rapid face-saving response that maintained and reinforced stakeholder trust.
Other organisations however, have taken a viral scandal and done more than simply save-face, flipping discourse from destructive to opportunistic genius.
When Astronomer’s CEO and HR head were caught at a Coldplay concert embracing on a kiss-cam, the illicit affair between the two married executives was instantly exposed with lead singer Chris Martin accurately commenting “Either they’re having an affair or they’re very shy”. Both staff involved immediately resigned but initial silence from the Astronomer itself led to faked public statements as the controversy and viral fascination grew. The organization used that time of silence ingeniously, commissioning none other than actress Gweneth Paltrow (Chris Martin’s ex wife) for a hilarious public statement which capitalized on the interest, flipped attention to the business offerings themselves, and launched the organisation from obscurity into the public view.
The payoff was tangible with millions of views, a step-change in brand awareness, and a conversation redirected to product value rather than scandal. This example shows how governance agility and capacity to reframe without minimising, allows organisations to move fast without losing integrity.
Perfecting the Pivot
Making decisions in a sudden crisis such as when something undesirable goes viral, means understanding how reactions trigger biases and poorly thought through knee-jerk reactions across organisations, and how to quickly shift into strategic decision making.
The Organisational Risk Culture Standard (ORCS) which is a free open standard for risk-management based in culture, clearly sets out how to assess and achieve your organisations ability to astutely shift and adapt to all forms of disruption.
If you want your organisation to act fast without being reactive, protect against risk while addressing ethical breaches, and keep control of your reputational risk when the internet is loudest, this is your comprehensive playbook for developing risk-management ingenuity.
Download the Organisational Risk Culture Standard (ORCS) for free below
