Lately it seems that every time I watch the news another celebrity is making a racist comment. In my opinion, there's not much public relations can do to help anyone in that situation.
Public apologies are the most immediate and necessary form of damage control, but that can only do so much. Frankly, once someone makes such a patently offensive comment, they face a long hard road to forgiveness, if it is even possible.
Most recently, Don Imus, a radio host, referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" (news story). This one comment resulted in disaster for Imus and his career. MSNBC quickly cancelled the simulcast of his show. Officials from NBC News didn't want to compromise the station's values and therefore decided cancellation was the only option. Also, many corporations withdrew their advertising dollars from "Imus in the Morning." Although the show hasn't been cancelled, its near future looks pretty grim.
I would think that celebrities would learn to censor themselves after all of the recent racist scandals (such as Mel Gibson and Michael Richards). However, since that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon, it seems there will always be a job market for celebrity public relations. Those brave souls who enter celebrity PR definitely have their work cut out for them.
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1 comment:
Good call. It may be hard to find PR work in agencies and such, but we can always represent celebrities who do stupid things. And come on--which celeb hasn't made a stupid mistake!
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