Some people neglect the notion that walking around everyday your brand is at work, or that their personal brand even matters enough to care. Well, it does. Truth is your brand is constantly being affected by what you do and what you say.
83th Oscar ceremony was another good year. I prefer last year’s Hugh Jackman’s amazing over done performance, blew everyone away. This year’s hosts were good, but no Jackman! lol
One of the first acceptance speeches was for Female Supporting Actor Oscar. Of the great lineup of nominees, the winner was Melissa Leo for her role in The Fighter.
I was watching headlines happen in front of my eyes.
Great right? Well, Melissa Leo didn’t handle it well. It may been her first Oscar, it may have been the booze, but she gave the most ridiculous acceptance speech I have ever seen. It made me so embarrassed for her I was cringing at the thought of her brand repercussions. I was watching headlines happen in front of me. Then, when I thought it couldn’t get worse for the Melissa Leo brand, she drops the f-bomb.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25aHqm5E4yQ’]
Her brand was almost a nobody yesterday, now full of traffic (good) but it’s fairly negative press (bad). Best thing is that the f-bomb was dropped at around 11pm, so its kinda “ok” because it was technically late night tv, and therefore may be perceive as “cool” for the brand among younger audiences. It can go either way, point is she put her brand at great risk.
Melissa Leo + Good Brand Personality + Oscar =
Prestige, Quality, Poise, Experience, Quiet
Melissa Leo + Oscar + Terrible Behavior + F-bomb =
Cheapening, First-time Luck, Noob, Loud buzz
Its a fine line. Great buzz now, and with some PR damage control it can be turned into a good thing, great notoriety. However her brand will be forever damaged when it comes to prestige. For some brands this may be your only touch-point to your audience / consumers. In order to keep things going your way, keep that in mind as it may be the only way your brand displays it’s personality and when it comes to branding, the best brand personality/image always wins.
Rob McPherson