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PODCAST

Reputation Town

John Perenack and Warren Weeks

Welcome to Reputation Town! Pull up a chair, make yourself comfortable and join two long-time corporate communications pros (John Perenack and Warren Weeks) as we riff about issues/crisis management, media relations and all of the things that impact corporate reputations.

business marketing

All Episodes

45:41

Sidney Sweeney, BBC vs Trump, TTC cancels Halloween,...

Reputation Town ·

2025/11/14

In this episode, we break down some of the recent headlines in the PR world, including the BBC apologizing to President Trump for deceptive editing, Sidney Sweeney's high-profile GQ interview as a master class in media training, Katie Porter being not so nice to staff behind the scenes, Prince Andrew getting stripped of his royal title, the TTC cancelling its Halloween fest and Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer was perhaps a bit too transparent for the government's taste.

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83:24

Gary's gun grab, KFC recipe leaked, Riyadh comedy...

Reputation Town ·

2025/10/03

This week, we chat about several stories in which the politicians should have paid better attention in media training class (including Mark Carney and Gary Anandasangaree). We also check in on how Jimmy Kimmel's ratings have fared since his controversial pause and unpause last week, an AI actress who's ruffling feathers in the top levels of Hollywood, the controversy around the Riyadh comedy festival, Col. Sanders' great-great nephew allegedly leaks the coveted KFC recipe after being dissed by the

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69:01

Jimmy Kimmel Cancelled, Charlie Kirk, Ben & Jerry's,...

Reputation Town ·

2025/09/19

This week, John and Warren talk about the controversial suspension of Jimmy Kimmel from his late-night show and the implications re: free speech, the ongoing backlash against people celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk online, next steps for Cracker Barrel as an activist investor is calling for the CEO's firing, Canada's PM does a housing announcement in front of a fake partially-built house constructed for the press conference and then dismantled and Banksy's new piece in the UK.

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01:04:21

Cracker Barrel U-turn, Crown Royal to USA, the failed...

Reputation Town ·

2025/08/29

This week, John and Warren talk about Cracker Barrel's $700 million U-turn, Mitch Marner blasts fans on his way out of town, Canadian GDP shrinks, Crown Royal bottling plant moves to USA at the expense of 160 Canadian jobs, the media's skewed coverage of the story of the Lindsay, Ontario man who fought off an intruder who entered his home in the middle of the night, armed with a crossbow and the failed bench press that has hurt the NYC mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani.

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01:17:45

Elbows down! Air Canada strike, Cracker Barrel...

Reputation Town ·

2025/08/22

In this episode, John and Warren discuss the latest in the Canada/US trade war (Elbows Down!), the reputational impacts of the Air Canada strike and the way it was handled by the company, the controversy around Cracker Barrel's rebrand, Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad, a few mins about the Coldplay concert cheating scandal (sorry, we missed a few weeks of pods!), the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's show, the state of the UK and how it's being covered in the media and a man in Lindsay, Ontario

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01:08:13

Jaguar sales down 98%, RCMP calls traditional values...

Reputation Town ·

2025/07/12

In this episode, John and Warren discuss some recent stories in the PR and issues management realm, including the growing backlash against Sportsnet's 30% price hike on its hockey programming, an RCMP spokesperson who appeared to say that Canadians exhibiting traditional values might be becoming extremists, Boston Consulting Group's controversy regarding a Gaza related project, Rogers allegedly used 1,000 human customer service employees to train a new AI tool and then proceeded to fire all those

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01:00:04

Jake Tapper flogs a book, No Greatness for the Leafs,...

Reputation Town ·

2025/05/23

This week, John and Warren talk about Jake Tapper's new book and the accusations that he was part of the journalistic coverup he's highlighting, MLSE's handling of yet another disappointing year for the Toronto Maple Leafs, YouTube creator Luke Nichols (Outdoor Boys) quits the platform at the peak of his fame to focus on his family, murky water in Stoney Creek during labour disruption and is Tom Cruise the last real action movie hero?

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01:13:39

Coinbase, Frontier Airlines, NHL owner reprimanded...

Reputation Town ·

2025/05/15

We hit on a bunch of stories this week, including Coinbase flipping the script on hackers trying to extort the company, the viral customer service video from Frontier Airlines, NHL owner Doug Cifu reprimanded by the league for getting into a Twitter battle with a fan, Walmart says it will have to increase prices because of tariffs, Toronto City councillors give themselves a hefty pay raise, Tim Horton's sliding quality, Bernie Sanders justifies flying private and a Nova Scotia police news conference

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01:06:52

The new Pope's PR, Poilievre drops the ball,...

Reputation Town ·

2025/05/09

This week, we break down some of the more recent PR stories in the headlines, including the communications from the Vatican around the new Pope, the curiously low viewership numbers for Michelle Obama's new podcast, Ron MacLean appears to be on a reputation management tour, what happens if you're a celebrity who's named during the Diddy trial, Pierre Poilievre drops the ball in stunning fashion and a former Facebook/Meta insider has a best-selling book talking about some of the company's shady

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57:43

LA Mayor's media freeze-up, upside down airplanes,...

Reputation Town ·

2025/03/08

In this episode, we catch up on some of the stories of the recent past, including LA Mayor Karen Bass's on-camera freeze-up in response to the California wildfires, Delta's handling of the upside-down plane crash in Toronto, Trudeau's handling of the trade war with the US and a look at some Canadian celebrities making headlines, including Mike Meyers and Number 99.

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01:04:55

2024 Wrap-Up: Top PR crisis stories of the year with...

Reputation Town ·

2024/12/18

This week, we welcome back our friend Molly McPherson to help us wrap up 2024 and break down some of the top PR crisis stories. We didn't discuss our topics with each other ahead of time, so in this episode, you're getting our real-time reactions and breakdowns to these stories, including the strategies behind them (or lack thereof) and any lessons learned. Thanks to Molly for joining us and we hope you enjoy this year-end episode.

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49:33

Mean Toronto librarians, Biznasty defends restaurant...

Reputation Town ·

2024/12/06

This week, John and Warren talk about the ongoing Canada Post strike and the damage it's causing, both to Canadians and to the organization's brand, Paul Bissonnette steps up to defend Arizona restaurant staff and finds himself in a 6 on 1 brawl, Paul Krugman retiring from the NYT and how he'll be remembered, Toronto Public Library gets itself into hot water after a staffer refused to let a lost young girl use a phone to call her mother, journalist Taylor Lorenz makes a post apparently celebrating

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48:10

Jaguar's rebrand, Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson and...

Reputation Town ·

2024/11/22

This week, John and Warren talk about the controversial rebrand from Jaguar, the reputational implications from the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight, including for Netflix, which had technical trouble serving its live audience, Space X's COO answering questions about government contracts and the move millions are making to social media platform BlueSky.

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52:12

US Presidential Election recap, RIP Mike Bullard and...

Reputation Town ·

2024/11/08

In this 50th episode of the Reputation Town podcast, we do a breakdown of the US Presidential election, looking specifically at the elements of media relations, whether podcasts have eclipsed mainstream media, etc. We also discuss the complicated legacy of comedian and former late-night talk show host Mike Bullard, who recently died at the age of 67. And finally, we look at McDonalds' effective handling of its recent E. coli contamination crisis.

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48:52

Pre-election pod with special guest Molly McPherson

Reputation Town ·

2024/11/01

With four days to go before the US Presidential Election, we're joined by our good friend Molly McPherson to discuss the presidential campaigns, each candidate's use of the media, the role podcasts will play in this year's election, the controversy around the 'garbage' comments and, finally, each of us gives our prediction of what we think will happen on Nov. 5th. Hope you enjoy this episode!

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57:48

Grading Kamala's media work, TD's $3B fine, Dave...

Reputation Town ·

2024/10/12

In this episode, we catch up on some stories from the past few weeks, including Dave Grohl's confession about having a baby outside his marriage, Samsung's apology for missing its earnings estimate, Quantas forces an entire plane full of passengers to watch an R-rated movie, TD is fined US$3 billion for failing to live up to its anti-money laundering requirements and the bulk of this episode (the latter half) is spent analyzing the media relations performance of presidential candidate Kamala Harris

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54:27

Elon/Trump X chat, 900 CHML closes, bad PR for...

Reputation Town ·

2024/08/14

This week, John and Warren talk about the negative PR impacting Disney after the allergy death of a guest, the viral Australian breakdancer at the Olympics, the Trump/Musk conversation on X, Kamala Harris's reluctance to do media interviews, $18 million of bonuses at the CBC, a Boeing project manager tries his hand at media relations and more. Hope you enjoy this episode!

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57:55

Fallout after the attempted assassination of Trump,...

Reputation Town ·

2024/07/31

This week, John and Warren talk about the drone/spying scandal facing the Canadian Olympic women's soccer team, the wrap-up of the LCBO strike, the astronauts that 'are not stranded' on the International Space Station, the startup company that spent $1.8 million on a domain name and our main topic of the week, the fallout in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

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01:02:46

Biden's downward spiral, TTC's weak response to...

Reputation Town ·

2024/07/09

This week, John and Warren chop up a few stories, including Paul Maurice's touching speech moments after winning the Stanley Cup, the TTC's inadequate response to a recent stabbing murder at Jane Station in Toronto and veteran broadcaster Al Michaels approves an artificial intelligence version of his voice to be used at the upcoming Olympics. We end this episode with a discussion of Joe Biden's dismal performance at the recent Presidential Debate, how his cognitive decline has been (mis)handled by

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54:35

Trump verdict, KateWatch, American Airlines blames...

Reputation Town ·

2024/06/01

This week, Warren and John talk about stories including the Donald Trump guilty verdict, the continuing absence of Kate Middleton and Kensington Palace's curious handling of the situation, Shoppers Drug Mart posts a job ad looking for people to work for free, a US study tries to link crisis response to companies' stock price and Boston Pizza's curious creative choice for its TV ad during the Stanley Cup playoffs. Thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy this episode!

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