The Use of the Apologia Theory to Mitigate Damage to a Celebrity's Image and Career

 

By: Taylor Washington

 

Abstract 

 

The amount of celebrity coverage in daily media sources has continuously been on the rise with no sign of slowing down. According to Pew Research Center for the People & The Press (2007), when asked about which issues, if any, get too much attention from the news media, fully 40% of the public cited celebrity news. Consequently, numerous celebrities find themselves in daily catastrophes seen and analyzed by massive public that some are able to overcome and others are unfortunately attacked and defeated by. In order to combat this, there is a plethora of crisis management tactics that can be utilized – even more specifically, the Apologia Theory consisting of a denial, evasion of responsibility, reduction of offensiveness, corrective action, and mortification strategy. While scholars have studied This study will specifically focus on R&B singer Chris Brown, whose various crises have attracted a heightened amount of media attention beginning in 2009 when he pleaded guilty to physically assaulting his then-girlfriend pop star Rihanna. Shortly after in 2010, Brown found himself in the lime light again after partaking in an argument via Twitter with former B2k singer, Raz-B, in which Brown referred to him as homosexual and taunted the singer over his allegations of being molested by his manager at a young age. The next year was not much different as Brown took the stage at Good Morning America in 2011. Brown flew into a rage on the set of the show. He was seen smashing a window and storming out of the studio shirtless after the co-anchor, Robin Roberts, kept directing the conversation back to his felony assault on former girlfriend Rihanna. And for years, the cycle has continued. Through in depth interviews and secondary analysis of data including ticket and record sales, this study will take a look at each Apologia Theory strategy that Brown has used following a crisis and determine which Apologia Theory strategy is most influential and impactful when a celebrity is attempting to mitigate damage to their image and career. While many scholars have studied crisis management methods (insert sources here), few have sought to analyze which strategies are the most successful in mitigating damage.

 

The findings reveal that the Denial technique yields the most forgiveness while the Mortification and Corrective Action techniques yield the least amount of forgiveness. Furthermore, it reveals that image reparation and the Apologia Theory are unrelated and that image repair is most reliant on factors such as offense history and whether the apology is oral or written.

 

In regards to financial report, the study shows that the first offense has the greatest impact on sales regardless of the Apologia Theory technique used. Furthermore, when it comes to overall sales, the study was able to show that the Apologia Theory has no significant impact. The results found that severity of the offense plays the biggest role in following sales, however, most are able to separate an artist from their music and/or career.

 

The results of this study can then be further made applicable to publicist and entertainers dealing with a crisis in critical need of saving a reputation and, even more so, saving a career. The practice of analyzing the theory of apologia, its different tactics, and results driven by these practices is significant in that it can, and should, be applied to not just entertainers, but anyone seeking to overall save face from a billion dollar corporation to a small non-profit.