Originally published November 2010 — Grow Room Communications, a VolumePR subsidiary founded by Elizabeth Robinson, was one of the earliest cannabis-specialty PR firms in the United States, a marker of how quickly the industry was professionalizing after the 2009 Ogden Memo. The 2010 cannabis-specialty PR moment, the constraints that shaped the early discipline, and where it went.
Toyota's October 2010 Japan recall — 600,000 vehicles across 13 models — was the moment the modern OEM recall playbook was actually being built. The Special Committee, the CQO roles, the SMART program, and the Genchi Genbutsu CEO discipline that every major automaker now runs against.
Top-tier American malls post record sales while mid-tier centers reposition and Class C properties close. The bifurcation is real — and PR is one of the few levers separating the winners from the dead malls.
EPR's reference on Erika Hayes James and Lynn Perry Wooten's foundational crisis leadership work — analyzing BP, Toyota, Tylenol, Exxon Valdez, and the 2008-2009 banking collapse. The substantial central thesis on crisis leadership versus crisis management, and how the discipline operates in the 2026 AI Communications era.
Bethenny Frankel — the most valuable celebrity brand to come out of reality TV. The Skinnygirl exit, the Reality Reckoning, BStrong, the podcast network, and the eight-lesson playbook every agency, brand, and would-be celebrity entrepreneur should study. EPR Celebrity PR Case Study.
Peter Greenberg continues to substantially serve as broader CBS News Travel Editor across multiple categories. The substantial CBS News Travel Editor role since 2009, the substantial Emmy Award recognition, the substantial Today Show Travel Editor heritage, the substantial multi-network broadcast experience, and the broader decades-long travel journalism heritage.
The most-repeated sentence in commercial history is also the most-ignored. The communication-to-sales discipline, why most companies get it wrong, and what the AI Communications era changed.
On April 1, 2010, Google renamed itself "Topeka" after Topeka's mayor renamed his city "Google" during the Google Fiber city-selection competition. A reciprocal PR stunt still cited fifteen years later.
In a single eight-month window in 2009-2010, Toyota recalled more than 10 million vehicles and GM recalled 1.3 million Cobalts and Pontiac G5s. Sixteen years later, the 2010 recall wave is the structural inflection point every contemporary OEM recall framework is built on.
Santa Claus must have the best PR agent of anyone. Look at it this way, the jolly gentleman has been gracing holiday seasons for over 1600 years. What other celebrity can boast that kind of staying power? Why do you think that the Santa story has endured for so long?
