The reality facing sharks today is stark. One-third of all shark and ray species are threatened with extinction, driven by overfishing, habitat loss, and an invisible force making it worse: an image problem that has left the world with little desire to protect them.
Yet, despite the terrifying stereotypes, apex predators are vital for the ecosystem. They keep marine environments balanced and healthy, protecting other habitats like coral reefs and preying on overabundance animals. I’m not going to say they’re cuddly pets; they are powerful, wild animals that act on instinct and predatory drive. However, the persistent ‘man eater’ trope has heavily distorted reality.
Sharks came long before us, before trees grew, and before even dinosaurs roamed the earth. These majestic residents were gracefully patrolling our seas – surviving four of the five major mass extinctions over 400 million years.
As someone fascinated by these creatures, I couldn’t help looking at them through a communications lens and mapping out what a PR strategy for my favourite apex predator could actually look like.
Initiatives like Shark Month do a great job of flipping the script. Rather than relying purely on sensationalism, modern conservation programming leans into education, celebrating their biology and highlighting the need to protect them.
If a brand suffers a major PR crisis, they get a chance to rebuild. They can change their messaging, launch a rebrand, or run a campaign to win back public trust.
But what happens when your PR crisis lasts for fifty years, and the public doesn’t just dislike – they want you eradicated?
It turns out that sharks have a lot to teach us about reputation management, stakeholder engagement, and community trust. Here are five PR insights we can take from the ocean’s most misunderstood icon.
A clear-eyed PR strategy for a shark
For decades, shark conservation efforts were fragmented, with scientists and researchers reacting defensively to sensationalised media coverage without a unified plan.
When an organisation is facing deep-seated negativity, you need a simple yet comprehensive PR and communications strategy. Without finding your feet and establishing your message, it can become disjointed and leave onlookers vulnerable to outside noise. A strong strategy will ensure that every announcement moves you further away from the old narrative and toward a positive future.
Shark rebrand: Developing a new visual identity
For fifty years, the imagery associated with sharks has relied on menacing close-up shots of a great white baring its teeth. That visual instantly triggers a threat response and locks in the villain narrative. Rather than educating, films like Jaws have left a lasting scar that stills feels visible.
In recent times, the narrative is shifting. Conservationist photographers often share wide-angle shots of divers safely swimming near marine life, whilst more stories are out there educating the public, dismantling old biases, and replacing panic with empathy. It’s the equivalent of a complete rebrand; it’s time to retire the old logomark of open jaws and aggressive, jagged typography, and welcome in a fresh, meaningful identity.
Developing this stronger identity would have required hearing from everyone. If you’re a school, for instance, it means working with pupils, staff, parents, neighbouring school leaders and community representatives to shape a new brand identity, and champion the good things happening.
Reclaim the narrative with language shifts and storytelling
The media always seems to rely on a very specific lexicon when describing sharks. Words like ‘killer’, ‘attack’, ‘prowling’, and ‘vicious’ are staples of the genre. In communications, words are our primary currency. By using owned channels (your website, your social media) to share high-quality stories, and proactively engaging the media with compelling angles, you can send a shockwave of positive through your community. If your messaging uses overly defensive language, or if you leave a vacuum, sensationalised voices will happily fill it for you.
That said, reclaiming the narrative isn’t about sugarcoating the truth or pretending apex predators are cute pets. Transparency is vital. Just as conservationists acknowledge that sharks are wild animals that demand respect, brands must be honest and upfront about their realities with empathy and facts, rather than sweeping challenges under the rug.
Engage the community and rebuild trust
True reputation repair isn’t a quick fix or a single press release and changing public perception around sharks isn’t happening overnight.
So far, it has taken many years of education and consistent advocacy to move public sentiment to a growing global movement.
When dealing with a damaged reputation, the same applies. Rebuilding trust requires active listening and monitoring media sentiment to understand what your stakeholders are saying. It’s about responding to them with the facts and being empathetic while you do it.
It doesn’t end there, though. One of the keys to maintaining momentum is letting your greatest assets do the talking, because advocacy builds trust. Use voices who can champion your organisation from the inside out, whether it’s a new teacher proudly sharing their career journey or a heartfelt testimonial from a family who love their new home and neighbourhood. As for a shark, it might be a marine biologist countering the myths during a documentary.
By putting real people front and centre, you shift the conversation from defensive damage control to genuine, credible advocacy.
Monitor, learn, and evolve
Reputation management is an ongoing commitment. Protecting sharks and shifting public sentiment asks conservationists to constantly monitor how the media and public respond to their messaging.
Tracking how this message is landing, adapting to shifting attitudes, and measuring your impact is as important as at the start.
This means looking beyond surface-level and focusing on metrics that count, whether that’s a schools application numbers, media coverage, or meaningful social media engagement.
Monitoring your progress ensures you aren’t just shouting into the void but genuinely measuring how hearts and minds are changing over time.
Tasha’s top five shark-inspired PR tips:
- Develop a comprehensive five-year strategy: You can’t outrun a toxic reputation with ad-hoc updates. You need a structured, deliberate roadmap to turn the tide.
- Create a new visual identity: Visual assets carry emotional weight long before any text is processed. Flood the media and your channels with positive, balanced imagery to crowd out fear-inducing tropes.
- Reclaim the narrative: The vocabulary you choose shapes empathy. Swap out sensationalised language for honest, and educational terms.
- Engage the community and rebuild trust: True reputation repair requires engaging everyone, from internal teams to external stakeholders. Listen closely to feedback and lean on your trusted advocates.
- Monitor, learn, and evolve: Reputation management is an ongoing commitment. Continuously track how your message is landing, adapt to shifting attitudes, and measure your impact.
Changing the tides for sharks
Reputation management, in this case, can be a matter of survival. Sharks have spent decades battling a media-fuelled villain arc that has left populations devastated by overfishing and apathy. But as communications professionals, we know that narratives don’t have to be permanent. By changing how the world talks about, visualises, and understands sharks, good PR can help rewrite their future, turning fear into fascination and driving the urgent action needed to protect them.