Yoshie Yager @yoshie_s_y
The saying goes: There is no such thing as bad publicity. But when your reputation spreads through the internet and other media, you might think twice about the expression.
If you are managing troubled stars like Lindsay Lohan or Mel Gibson, you have a mountain of work to tackle. Just like the phone conversation between Mel Gibson and his ex-girlfriend, bad news travels fast, and it travels even faster online.
While it is important to be connected with your community and consumers, social media can turn on your company or clients if you don’t use it correctly or respond to it quickly.
Take William Morris Endeavor Entertainment for example - the talent agency that managed Mel Gibson up until recently. Since 2006 Gibson has experienced serial bad publicity due to his racist, sexist, and homophobic comments. Then comes the recent exposure of barbaric phone calls Gibson made to his ex-girlfriend that was filled with unspeakable words. That’s when William Morris Endeavor Entertainment dropped Gibson from its organization.
William Morris Endeavor Entertainment is a privately owned company, so materials are not available to precisely find out how much profit Gibson brought to the organization. However, given the “movie star” status he has maintained throughout the years, I suspect it is rather significant.
When you think about risk vs. profit, there comes a time that risk wins. Nevertheless, I wonder if Gibson’s former agency had dirty enough hands to try to turn the bad reputation around, or at least try to minimize the damage, especially when thinking about potential profit Gibson might bring in in the future as he did in his golden age.
Bad news travels fast. In this digital age, it goes viral fast. With those great minds in the search world, I’m sure even Mr. Gibson’s reputation can be turned around to positive publicity. I like to note that though, I’m just strictly talking about his reputation, as digital reputation management will not change his views on race, sex, and sexual orientation or eliminate obnoxious behaviors induced by possible head trauma due to any drug or alcohol habits he might have had. But that’s what it means, right? Reputation. Reputation doesn’t have to penetrate deeply to reveal one’s own and true views on the universe that I personally find downright disgusting in the case of Mel Gibson. If Gibson had a good social media firm managing his reputation, he might still function as a citizen and make future grossing movies.
Perhaps it’s time Hollywood agencies hire real search firms.
Last 5 posts by YoshieYager
- Rhea Drysdale's Efforts to Terminate SEO Trademark Registration - March 23rd, 2010
- How to Block Sitelinks in Google Search Results - September 22nd, 2009
- Country Specific Search and Domain/URL Structure - September 4th, 2009
Tags: brand, Engagement, marketing, reputation management, Social Media
