Many of us wish this story would just go away, but it won’t…so here are a few lessons for students of the media.
#1: ALL celebrity endorsement deals come with some risk. If you had asked executives at Nike, Gatorade, etc. whether there was risk associated with hiring Tiger Woods as a celebrity spokesperson, they likely would have replied that the risk was minimal. But if they thought it was zero, they were wrong. Will it do long-term damage to their brands and to the Tiger Woods brand? It is too soon to tell, but there will be fall out for Tiger and every other celebrity that has a “squeaky clean” image.
#2: Crisis Management PR has changed dramatically in the age of cable news, the blogosphere, and the twitterverse. PR agents have got to get ahead of the story and be much more transparent than in the past. Remember, the media (both traditional and new media) exist to uncover and distribute “dirt” and attempts to stonewall will only compound the problem.
#3: As we’ve been reminded recently by the parents of balloon boy and the White House party crashing Salahi’s, reality TV culture makes people do crazy things for their 15 minutes of fame/notoriety. Anyone remotely “connected” to the Tiger Woods drama will see opportunity to cash in by playing the tabloid media. Releasing cell phone messages and scheduling press conferences strings along the media and extends their window of opportunity.
#4: <editorial warning>There is no such thing as a private “transgression.”</editorial warning>
The life of a celebrity is not private at all. Being a celebrity puts you out in the spotlight not matter what you do. Like what was discussed in class; should celebrities be able to keep some things private? I believe that most people dream of becoming rich and famous but don’t quite know what is in store. The public should have a look inside a celebrity’s life but not want to know everything. I think as a public eye we should understand that something’s are just worse if presented in the wrong way, for example if a women has breast cancer, she needs her privacy to cope with it first before it is displayed to the public. In Tiger’s case he went against a contract, and why should he get to keep his life private if he’s going to commit adultery. I say that’s grounds for public dysplasia.
There is no such thing as a private “transgression.”, is the best way to fraze this rule and way of life. Often people have the mind frame that what they do can and will never come to light if they are a celebrity but the fact is if you are a celebrity you are more likely to run into problems. Kobe, Shaq, Berry Bonds and now Tiger woods are all examples to the statement that no one is safe and the growth of technology makes is so easy to pick them apart. One conversation on put in to print statement can change their life. I feel this also translates in to the life of regular people as well concerning Facebook and the danger with that. People are always money hungry for the next story and Tiger is the best meal for the menu, his image was so clean and so straight edge that something this crazy seems almost made up, there for people have to read and ask to get more. I’m sure more people will come forward in the future and you would think with situation like our president running into issues like this that world would learn of and take transgression seriously. Losing millions can’t be fun especially if I could have been avoded.