Neryl East: Some of the biggest brands sprinted to bottom of reputation heap in 2025

This year saw some of our biggest brands in an Olympic-style sprint to the bottom of the reputation heap. From the Optus triple-0 debacle to Qantas customer details on the dark web and Deloitte’s AI petticoat exposed, 2025 had it all.

The result? This race had no winners, least of all customers and service users.

We witnessed half-hearted apologies, erratic messaging — or no communication at all, even when lives depended on it.

Those blunders, some cringe-worthy and others deeply sinister, gave rise to crucial lessons about what not to do when your brand is embroiled in a crisis.

For Qantas, the year lived up to every pun you can think of involving the word turbulence. After a cyber attack involving 6 million customers’ records, our national carrier proactively contacted everyone affected to outline the extent of the breach and how it was responding. Brownie points for a solid effort.

It didn’t last, though. When stolen customer data eventually leaked onto the dark web, Qantas reverted to a Say As Little As Possible strategy, seeming to have little regard for the many loyal customers now stressed out at the prospect of their details landing in the hands of very bad people.

There mightn’t be an easy fix for the increasing threat of cyber crime, but trust is decimated when customers are kept in the dark about impacts on their personal data. Whatever the reason for a breach, leaders need to communicate early about what they know and what they expect to happen next.

There were more woes for Qantas, branded Australia’s worst company and bestowed with a media award for corporate misconduct.

The airline promptly followed that dishonour by leaving 144 passengers without working toilets for much of a five-hour flight from Newcastle in NSW to Perth. Ongoing clangers and unresolved industrial issues made the carrier a ready target for public pile-ons on social media and elsewhere.

And then there was Optus. The infamous September triple-0 failure, when Optus customers in multiple States were unable to call for emergency help but weren’t told there was a problem, has been reported from every angle and its trailing shadow is long and ugly.

In a crisis of those proportions, the essential rule is to communicate first with those most impacted.

Saving lives must takes precedence over reputation damage control. Scrambling to control the narrative is irresponsible if you’ve left key people out of the communication loop — in this case, those in life-threatening situations followed by regulators and key government agencies.

How Optus got the order of communication so badly wrong, with tragic consequences, is unfathomable and the subject of numerous inquiries.

Continuing service outages and news of a staff member’s hefty bonus further fuelled the Optus trust nosedive as the year closed out.

Is there hope for the future? The company must demonstrate relentless honesty, extreme tenacity and genuine change if it’s to regain a fragile foothold in the public’s confidence.

The year’s tough economic conditions didn’t do any favours for tone-deaf leaders. Among government gaffes, we saw a NSW minister resign over personal use of a government car and driver, while a local council hit the headlines for sending leaders on a luxury retreat — ironically, to consider its own financial position.

Among a cash-strapped community, any ethically questionable actions on the part of those in higher office risked major reputation damage. We showed we were hypersensitive to rip-offs and leaders needed to take notice. Some didn’t — and it cost them.

We also saw a further demonstration that CEOs hold their brand’s reputation in their hands. How a leader behaves creates perceptions about their entire business.

Tesla sales in Australia dropped sharply early in the year, largely due to a backlash against Elon Musk. Increased competition and vehicle delivery delays played a part, but Musk’s public profile at the time was a key factor in the slump.

The lesson for leaders: Polarising behaviour makes headlines — but it can also kill reputations.

And finally, 2025 was the year when unfettered AI use slammed another nail into trust’s coffin.

Deloitte Australia faced the embarrassment of having to hastily correct a $440,000 government report, found to contain AI-generated mistakes and hallucinations. After refunding part of their fee, the consultancy issued a lukewarm, low-key apology.

With trust in institutions continuing to crash and AI increasingly ruling our world, no organisation can afford to further erode credibility by using this technology without proper checks and guidelines.

On top of the damage to individual reputations, a lack of confidence in public information is disastrous at a time of global fear and uncertainty.

Put all those examples together and there’s plenty for leaders and brands to learn.

Will they do better? Let’s see what 2026 brings.

Dr Neryl East is a communications and reputation expert