The Pro, the Shmoe and the Joe: Icons Behaving Badly

We had a couple of weeks packed with celebrity meltdowns and rehabilitation attempts.

By now everyone is familiar with tennis pro Serena William's meltdown at the US Open, rapper Kanye West's MTV VMA outburst, and South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson's rant. There's already been lots of media coverage this week about these episodes and the efforts of each at redemption.  My focus as always will be on the PR side of things.

Some cynically call the tirades calculated PR ploys.  The NY Daily News wrote:

"Is rude the new normal?" No, PR is the new normal.

Kanye got so much publicity out of his stunt that it eclipsed the solemn homage [at the MTV VMA show] by Madonna and Janet Jackson to Janet's brother Michael.

There's no question that the episodes captivated us and I suppose there was a ratings bonanza for some shows as a result.  The NY Times wrote in a recent story "The Swift-West Spectacle, Stoked on Screen:"

The story played out across three days on three networks, a publicity windfall... Viacom got the first and in some ways least dramatic act, when Kanye West snatched the microphone from Ms. Swift’s hands at the Video Music Awards on MTV on Sunday. Monday night it was NBC Universal’s turn, with Mr. West’s contrite appearance on the premiere of “The Jay Leno Show.”

...It’s clear by now that all the participants in the contretemps — Mr. West, Ms. Swift, Beyoncé, MTV, NBC, ABC — are net winners.

But what did the outbursts do for the personal brands of each celebrity?

I had always thought that Serena was a class act.  I remember a major tennis match in which she handled a series of unfair calls much more gracefully.  Her press conference and statement were jokes (see Zen and the Art of the Sports Cliche').  There is no question that her image has been sullied.

Joe Wilson has been variously called a racist and folk hero in the days following his interruption of Obama's address to Congress about health care.  Both parties have benefited from improved contributions (someone please explain to me the thought process driving people to support parties and politicians following situations like this one, and why there's a linkage).

And Kanye "It's not my party but I'll cry if I want to" West?  I just don't see how his display of rudeness has helped his image.  The normally unflappable Obama was overheard calling Kanye a jackass.

"There's no such thing as bad PR" is a sad and untrue cliche'.

Comments

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1193550030]

Although the arguments made in this post are valid, I'm not entirely sure if I agree with them. Yes, there are times when bad PR can come close to destroying someone's career. However, bad PR can also help a person's popularity. Michael Phelps' popularity raised when he had his marijuana scandal. Do you think that sometimes bad PR can be something positive, or was Phelps just a rare case?

[rgeller]

Thanks for reading and commenting.

I would say increased awareness does not necessarily translate to an improved image.

In Phelps' case, he already had a high profile (hah! unintentional but funny pun) before he ran into problems with the pot bust. Some people enjoy notoriety but I don't think it helped Phelps, to be portrayed as a stoner.