Rethinking communication: The visual PR disaster of the year
Which images left a disastrous impression in 2025? Where did visual communication go completely wrong? Fink & Fuchs has selected several disasters of the year.
We will encounter numerous images of the year again in the coming weeks in various year-end reviews. Emotions and moving moments will be the focus. From the numerous image moments, the communication experts at Fink & Fuchs have selected the ‘Visual PR disaster of the year’ for the first time. Even images cannot do without context, and images created using artificial intelligence unintentionally distort messages. Agenda topics, zeitgeist, craftsmanship, sender and intention were the guiding principles behind the selection.
Winner: Trump as Putin’s cheerleader
The ‘winner’ is clear: US President Donald Trump rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin. The meeting in Anchorage was intended to portray the US president as a dealmaker who, in direct talks with Russia’s president, would bring about peace in Ukraine. Instead, images of the US President welcoming his guest Vladimir Putin with applause and bringing him back onto the world stage once again went around the world in August. The image shaped the discourse on the meeting: Putin got what he wanted.
„With the images of the grand summit staging, US President Trump discredited himself. And this was not a snapshot, but a precisely orchestrated event in front of the world’s eyes. It was not only Trump’s critics who were horrified by these impressions, which have had a lasting impact on the public’s view of his dealings with Russia“, says Alexandra Groß, CEO of Fink & Fuchs.
Trump and Putin on the red carpet. Image: White House
The Union leadership with ‘more sandwiches than women’
Trump thus clearly relegated another politician to second place: Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder, who shared a photo from the meeting of CDU and CSU leaders at the Konrad Adenauer House that was intended to herald a new beginning and change, but immediately drew criticism. This is because only men can be seen in the photo – or, as critics pointedly put it, ‘more sandwiches than women’.
The CDU leadership in a spirit of optimism, but without women. Image: Instagram / Markus Söder
„Politicians in particular should be aware of the impact of images. Mr Söder, who is very active on Instagram, immediately raises the question in the minds of viewers as to whether this is carelessness or deliberate rage baiting. Neither fits with the importance of the matter“, says Stefan Weigl, Key Account Director at Fink & Fuchs.
AI-generated images that are simply not ‘good enough’
In the discussion about the PR images of the year, one topic kept coming up that does not actually fall into the PR motif category. The repeated cases of botched AI visuals from a wide variety of companies are worthy of an honourable mention by the communications agency.
It goes to Coca-Cola Company, Migros and Valentino: they represent brands that have generated visuals with AI where quality assurance has clearly failed.
Coca-Cola’s completely AI-generated Christmas commercial, for example, caused worldwide malicious delight. Too obviously artificial, too obvious technical blunders (such as a myriad of different truck types). The Migros company put a box with a five-legged reindeer on sale. And Valentino’s AI-generated advertising on Instagram was met with criticism from its target audience for being cheap, lazy and disappointing. Definitely not the way a luxury fashion brand wants to be perceived.
Worldwide malicious delight für Coca Cola’s AI-generated christmas banner
„These cases all tend to give the impression that someone did not take their job or the target audience seriously enough“, says Ralph Pfister, Executive Director Creative Content at Fink & Fuchs. „The problem here is not the use of AI, but insufficient quality assurance. AI should not be a carte blanche to produce quick results that do not meet the usual quality standards. AI is a tool, but the responsibility lies with people.“
