Reputation Digest – May 2025

Hello, and welcome to this month’s Reputation Digest, where Fire on the Hill delivers a run-down of the latest stories making waves in the communications sector. This month, French President Macron faces an unfortunate string of scandals, Volkswagen executives go to jail, and the public reacts to Biden’s cancer diagnosis.

Macron lands in hot water

French President Emmanuel Macron is already facing low approval ratings and major obstacles to his political agenda as he comes towards the end of his second term, and recent events have only made things harder for the embattled leader.

A report released just last week claimed that Nestle successfully lobbied the French government, including one of the closest aides of the president, for the ability to sell bottled water using carbon filtering techniques as mineral water. This, despite the fact that authorities had previously ruled that the method altered its composition.

Why so much fuss about water?

For France, the bottled water industry generates over $7 billion in revenue each year, and the distinction between tap water and pure spring water is key to justifying the difference in price. Mineral water sells for around 100-400 times more than tap water. The French government’s role in covering up this scandal has the potential to erode public trust.

This is not a good look for Macron, and neither is a new video that has surfaced showing his wife, Bridgette Macron, pushing him as they prepare to disembark a plane in Vietnam. Despite assurance that the couple were just playing around, the clip has been circulated by Russian state and far-right French media and shifted the focus away from the diplomatic purposes of the trip.

At a point where world leaders are hoping to stand strong in the face of tariffs and international turmoil, is the leader’s reputation is being battered from multiple directions? For a leader still hoping to recover from the political chaos of a snap election in June and three prime ministers since, these scandals do not inspire confidence. Let’s hope he can turn things around this summer.

Justice is served to Volkswagen executives

Volkswagen’s 2015 emissions cheating scandal is back in the news after a German regional court convicted four former Volkswagen executives of fraud. Two of the executives will end up in prison, while the others have received a suspended sentence.

‘Dieselgate’ came to light in 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency discovered that many diesel models produced by the German carmaker were equipped with illegal defeat devices, which were able to detect when a test was taking place and alter their performance in line with emissions standards. Over 11 million vehicles worldwide were affected

In the immediate wake of the scandal, a survey by Which? found that 86 per cent of VW drivers were concerned about the environmental impact of their car. Additionally, two awards for ‘Green car of the year’ were withdrawn, bruising the company’s reputation for sustainability.

Interestingly, it seems that much of this outrage was short-lived. Volkswagen saw record-breaking sales years in 2018 and 2019, and analysis shows that many consumers preferred to switch models, rather than brands, and no evidence of lost sales to competitors.

Since the cover-up came to light in 2015, the political climate has shifted markedly away from sustainability. It’s hard to imagine that this latest ruling will have much of an impact on Volkswagen’s sales or public perception. Perhaps we can hope that this makes other top executives think twice before choosing to cheat regulatory standards.

Reactions to Biden’s diagnosis

Former US President Joe Biden announced this month that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. A spokesperson announced the aggressive form of cancer had spread to his bones and was ranked a nine out of ten on the Gleason scale, a grading system for prostate cancer, assessing the aggressiveness of the cells.

Well-wishers ranged from King Charles to President Trump, with each expressing their support and hoping for a swift recovery. However, not all have been so gracious, and the announcement has sparked rampant conspiracy theories about whether medical professionals were aware of his illness while he was president. For many, this announcement has been a confirmation of their concerns that Biden hid his decline and was not fit for office when he ran for re-election in 2024.

These criticisms are flying from both ends of the political spectrum. For Democrats, Biden hurt their chances at retaining the presidency with his infamous debate performance with now President Trump. In their minds, Biden should have conceded sooner, making way for a younger and more dynamic candidate.

For Republicans, this is a sign of widespread corruption within the Democratic party, a cover-up by thousands of aides, politicians, and government officials who conspired to keep the former president in power.

It seems that most of the reputational damage will be done to the Democratic party as a whole, rather than Joe Biden himself, who has stepped back from political life. But mainstream media have also failed to emerge unscathed. American journalist Jake Tapper’s claim that the cover-up of Biden’s decline was “worse” than Watergate has led to public backlash, as social media users argue that he (along with many other journalists) was complicit in propping up Biden’s campaign and failed to properly investigate rumors of the president’s ill-health.

Beyond the reputational issues, Biden’s diagnosis is sad news for him and his family and underlines the importance of increasing awareness of PSA testing and the risks of prostate cancer among the American public.

Image: Mandylin Zulpi / Unsplash