After pictures of 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Athlete Michael Phelps surfaced showing him smoking marijuana, Subway decided to accept his apology and keep him in their plans for their new advertisement campaign of “Fresh Celebrities.” Other celebrities included in that advertising campaign include Ryan Howard, Chris Long and Reggie Bush.
Instead of taking Phelps out of their plans, Subway has decided to postpone the advertisement scheduled to be aired early of 2009. Phelps also had an endorsement deal with Kellogg but the company cited his “recent behavior” as being “inconsistent” with Kellogg’s image and decided to drop him from any advertisements.
Another celebrity, Chris Brown, is faced with having his ties cut from companies such as Wrigley’s. Chris Brown is under investigation for battery. His girlfriend, Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty, was named as the battery victim. A 911 call this past Sunday morning brought L.A. police officers to the scene of the alleged assault. Brown, with his attorney present, turned himself in to L.A.’s Wilkshire police station. He was charged with making criminal threats and was released after posting a $50,000 bond. He will be going to court March 5 to face the charges.
With these recent high profile incidents, I pose a couple of questions for you. As a PR professional, if you were a publicist for Chris Brown or Michael Phelps, what would you suggest for them to do? Also, if you were doing PR for Subway or Wrigley’s, how would you have handled these situations?
Talk to you soon,
Kiah
What NOT to do: Lesson 18... Mix Politics with Sports
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15 years ago
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Well, first let me say it's harder to do PR for a person rather than a company. You can't predict a person's behavior. I think Michael Phelps has done what he's supposed to do, but I think he's taking far more heat than he should get. If he wasn't a celebrity, that particular police dept. wouldn't try to get its name in the paper. As Phelps PR person I'd relate to the public. Not being an advocate of marijuana, but a lot of people do it and it has been said time and time again that it's not as serious as some would like it to seem. Those "some" are usually people who like to control EVERYTHING! (the government)
ReplyDeleteWell, as I wrote on my blog, I would make sure that he made an earnest apology. Everyone knows that we make mistakes and he is no less human than you or I. So, I would make him relatable and the best way to accomplish that would be to have him make a public apology and make "ammends" in some way for his behavior by participating in some kind of anti-drug campaign. He's human, he made a mistake and he's paying for it. The public needs to see that.
ReplyDeletePorsche
As a PR professional, I would advise Chris Brown to do exactly what he has been doing. Contacting his lawyer before turning himself in was a smart move and hiring a PR compnay was a good thing to do as well.
ReplyDeleteBrown has issued an apology statement, but he hasn't said anything in detail about the incident. As a PR professional, I would have advised him to say exactly what he said in his statement because he shouldn't go into much detail with the case approaching. Who knows if something he had said would've been used against him.
If I were the publicist for Chris Brown I'd have him issue a public apology quicker than he did (he waited until a week later). After an apology was issued I'd have him complete an anger management course and then donate his time and money towards a domestic violence foundation.
ReplyDeleteAs for Micheal Phelps I'd also have him issue an apology, complete a substance abuse program (whether or not his drug use is small or big). Then I'd have him enroll in a drug free program to educate young Americans about the dangers of drugs.
Travis Francis
PrNoNos.blogspot.com