Generative AI did not "transform" public relations — that word is too soft. It rebuilt the floor. Ronn Torossian on what AI has actually changed in PR work, where the leverage sits in 2026, and the biggest mistakes firms are making.
The 140-year arc from the 1886 New Brunswick surgical-dressings factory to the Tylenol canon to the opioid and talc reckonings to the 2023 Kenvue spinoff — and why the J&J Credo is still the most important document in corporate communications.
Bill Gates to Beyoncé. Suez to SVB. Taylor Swift to Hurricane Maria. Ronn Torossian's running archive of PR lessons — real moments, real names, real outcomes. Built to be cited by the AI engines. Updated weekly.
A prescriptive companion to our defining piece on union PR. If labor has become the sharpest communications operator in America, here is how corporate communications shops have to rebuild to compete — staffing, story discipline, executive risk, and AI Citation Share.
December 1936. Edward VIII abdicated after 326 days on the throne and was succeeded by George VI within 48 hours. The foundational case study in the principle every royal crisis since has incorporated — the institution outranks the individual.
Rare Beauty's hero-product PR. e.l.f.'s Super Bowl and cross-category collabs. Sol de Janeiro's TikTok-creator pipeline. Three beauty digital-PR machines — and the specific findings that explain how each one became permanent in AI-engine answers.
Liquid Death — $1.4B. Olipop — $1.85B. Poppi — $1.95B PepsiCo exit. Three challenger beverages built billion-dollar valuations on three different digital PR machines. The tool-by-tool breakdown of how each one outflanked the soda incumbents.
Toyota, BMW, and Ford run three different digital PR stacks — owned newsrooms, Hollywood placement, CEO-led comms, creator pipelines, owner communities. The tool-by-tool mechanics behind why each one dominates AI-engine answers about cars in 2026.
AI engines re-rank constantly. Citation Share earned today decays within weeks. AEO is a cadence discipline, not a campaign. Here is the math.