In the 2011 Super Bowl where the Green Bay Packers took on the Pittsburg Steelers, there was quite an upset before the game. Singer and actress Christina Aguilera messed up the words while performing the national anthem. Reporters say that Aguilera is devastated. According to FOX the Super Bowl XLV was “the most watched program in television history” with its 111 million viewers. While this obviously wasn’t intentional of Aguilera, it is quite the topic of Americans this week. “I got so caught up in the moment of the song that I lost my place,” Christina shared in a statement to JustJared.com. “I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through.”(Read more: http://justjared.buzznet.com/2011/02/07/christina-aguilera-responds-to-national-anthem-fumble/#ixzz1DPnHs5y2)
While Aguilera is working hard to protect her own image, Her PR specialists and publicists are probably working harder. It is up to PR professionals to do damage control when a celebrity makes a mistake such as Aguilera’s. After all, celebrities have reputations to maintain. So what are the steps of damage control? According to marketing scoop (http://www.marketingscoop.com/pr-damage-control.htm) there are steps to take when dealing with a crisis or situation.
First, develop a plan for all types of emergencies. Then come up with a plan to prevent this type of scandal from happening in the future. Follow that with making a written plan to follow. Marketing Scoop says, “Avoid Hollywood clichés.”No comment” responses to the media can be more damaging than making a statement.”Also, making sure that the message is consistent is very important. Otherwise, the public will be confused and not know what to believe. Monitoring coverage and other reactions will help is seeing the success of your plan. Last, it is possible that it will take awhile for a company, product, or in this case, Christina Aguilera, to recover, so have a wide range of time expectancy for the situation to be better.
angelaraehill 