Tennis drama, Swift takes and Cracker Barrel BS: PR from the trenches

This week’s newsletter started with a single topic—then a tennis player dug herself a PR poop pit, a couple got engaged and the world went bonkers, then … ok, let’s get after it …

Upset much?

🎾 Taylor Townsend (U.S.) beat 25th-seed Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) 7-5, 6-1 in the second round of the US Open—twice.

Ostapenko, fuming after the loss, accused Townsend of breaking rules (she didn’t) and called her “classless” and “uneducated” for good measure (she’s not). Then Ostapenko doubled down on social, eviscerating any remaining class that she still held..

Townsend? She was cool, poised, redirecting questions back to what mattered: her third-round match.

No rules were broken. You decide—was there a PR right or wrong?

AI for NIL publicity?

Yes, AI can spark NIL publicity ideas, but don’t let it tell your story because it might make up stuff. In a four-post series, I share how athletes can use AI, but control their publicity and NIL outreach. You can “train” AI, but it will never be you like you are you. (Sorry again, Dr. Seuss.) Read the series at NILPublicity.com.

📣 Which reminds me 📣 — thanks to PRSA for having me on a panel earlier this month about evolving NIL publicity practices. One hour wasn’t nearly enough to cover all angles, but we tried to hit the high notes.

❤️ Love SEO style

People who think traditional search engine optimization still works like it did a year ago were all over the Swift-Kelce engagement announcement. It shows how monotonous and annoyingly repetititious SEO could be. Force Taylor Swift’s and Travis Kelce’s names into a story that in no way relates to the couple and voilà—someone’s search reveals a brand … except their results are as real as Santa Claus. (Props to Bluesky buddies who called out hilarious SEO fakes before people could write them.)

P.S. I love love. Like I wrote a few weeks ago, I’m happy for the couple, but the glommers-on? Maaaannnn, lazy publicists churned out subject lines that hit like “How to pitch a journalist to ‘yes’ like a Travis-Taylor proposal.” 🔔 That’s mine and it’ll only be used here, but you get the idea. 🔔

On the other side, there were also some crazy, creative brand piggyback promos. You can also catch a fun column from the newly-married Candace Buckner of The Washington Post.

🛢️”Crisis” crumbs

The Cracker Barrel logo PR “fiasco” was so bad I wondered if it was a publicity stunt. I’m not a Barreleiver, but the new look was so bland I refused to believe it was more than a way to get attention without launching a full-on marketing and publicity campaign. All Cracker Barrel did was release a color block with some letters and people lost their minds. Then it backtracked with a sneeze.

If you know how much time and focus group work go into rebrands, you might also think it was staged. It’s almost as if Cracker Barrel knew how to make people react irrationally, which attracted more publicity than it had in its 56-year history.

🏈 One more thing 🏈 

This weekend, ESPN’s College GameDay and its fans send their beloved evangelist into retirement. Few have done more for college football’s popularity than former coach and player Lee Corso. Some media outlets, including the four-letter network, have already unleashed emotional tributes.

While we watch football this season and beyond, remember a Corso comment worth keeping close:

“It’s entertainment, sweetheart. Football is just a vehicle.” 

Enjoy the party, Coach. You earned it.

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©2025 Gail Sideman, gpublicity.com, SIDEbar