Eamon Quinn: How Kingspan's PR fiasco reignited public anger over Grenfell

The company's announcement earlier this month that its logo would appear on the panels of the Formula 1 car driven by Lewis Hamilton and on the cars of other Mercedes-AMG Petronas drivers marks one of the biggest public relations fiascos to be faced by a large Irish company in recent times

The 'Kingspan' logo on the car of Britain's Lewis Hamilton during the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jiddah on December 5. It was the first and last time the Kingspan name appeared on the Mercedes cars. Picture: Andrej Isakovic, Pool Photo via AP

Every year or so, the media trade papers compile their lists of public relations disasters involving large companies that invariably lead to questions and head-scratching over how PR and marketing advisers can get it so badly wrong.

In Britain, the case of career-self-immolation by jewellery shops boss Gerald Ratner is much storied, while former BP chief Tony Hayward all but trashed the reputation of the British oil giant in the US over his crisis management of the deadly oil spill that refused to stop leaking from its underwater Deepwater Horizon facility more than 10 years ago.