COM 540 4-1 Final Project I Milestone Two
Jian Gomeshi is a former CBC radio host of some fame—or rather, infamy—in Canada and also in the United States. He is perhaps best known as the former host of the radio show, “Q,” which he co-created and hosted, and which at one point was syndicated by 160 U.S. radio stations. (Shea, 2014) His is a very successful example of building one’s personal brand… publicly. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), who had employed him for 12 years, used those 12 years to carefully craft him into a cultural icon, building on his immigrant background, his attractive looks, his voice (described as a “velvet baritone” (Kingston, 2014)) and his charisma. Gomeshi was known publicly as an “impossibly sensitive, progressive feminist.”
In the fall of 2014, all that changed. The news that Gomeshi had been terminated from CBC and that charges of sexual assault (that Gomeshi framed as consensual BDSM sexual activities) had been brought against him rang all over the country, leading to shocked outrage from his ardent fans and followers. This was a complete about-face for a person who had hitherto been “the unofficial ambassador of Canada’s ‘creative class.’” Amid media frenzy, allegations and hearsay, bits and pieces of Gomeshi’s “private” life began to emerge. Gory details of the toxic work culture he perpetuated, the (much) younger women he pursued and the dire warnings both at York University (his alma mater, and also where he became president of the student government, campaigning on a platform of fervent support for the rights of women, minorities and the LGBTQ population) and at CBC that women should be cautious around him began to trickle through the media, with plenty of visibility on social media. Indeed, Gomeshi first took to Facebook to protest what he saw as unfair bias and treatment at the hand of CBC in an emotional post that was addressed to “my friends and family.” That Gomeshi was eventually acquitted of all charges (CBC News, 2016) may have brought some relief to the fans that he had left, but still triggered protests, including one that culminated in a march to Toronto’s police headquarters, indicating that his public persona had been irreparably broken.
Angelina Jolie is another, very prominent, case of private and public personas colliding, but in this instance, the private image that broke free was a positive one. Jolie’s past was not without spicy controversy: there was ample speculation (and apparently, some vindication from Jolie herself) about her promiscuity which, together with her tattoos in an age when most actresses of good repute did not actively display them and her involvement with Brad Pitt branded her as the original “bad girl” of the entertainment world. (Goldberg, 2009)
Fast-forward to the present day, where we find Jolie as a human rights activist, cancer awareness advocate, mother of six and a United Nations goodwill ambassador. It could be argued that Jolie purposely rebranded herself; it may have been that after using her anti-establishment image to boost her career, she realized it was time for a change to accommodate changing demographics and perhaps changing politics, but it can equally be argued that there are simpler ways to do this than to adopt six children and undergo an elective double mastectomy. The New York Times’s Nicholas Kristof summed this sentiment up well when he gave this comment: “Frankly, if a celebrity isn’t genuinely interested in poverty and is simply trying to get good press, there are better ways to do it. Traveling to Darfur or Congo is dangerous, expensive and uncomfortable, and the outhouses have bats, scorpions and camel spiders. But if a celebrity is willing to put up with such challenges, he or she can get public attention in a way that no one else can. I once was on a panel where Angelina’s eyes filled up as she spoke of Iraqi refugees she had met in Syria; for anybody who was there, that scene was worth 100 of my columns.” (Rothma, 2013)
We know that fans and the general audience enjoy viewing celebrities as “real” people, that they inherently like to imagine that celebrities can actual people, and not just the roles they play. Authenticity fuels emotional attachment, which can only be a boon to those using their brands to promote themselves, whether for intrinsic value or otherwise. (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016) The concept of an authentic self, however, online seems to have gone awry in the earlier history of both of these examples. Gomeshi, for one, clearly perpetuated a very precise professional persona through the media. His professional brand was so successful that in a playful pas de deux with Kraft Foods, Kraft mocked up a KD package with Gomeshi’s image and tweeted, “Well, hi there, Jian Ghomeshi, you smooth-talking, early-rising, exquisitely coiffed national treasure.” For all intents and purposes, Gomeshi did maintain a social media presence, populated liberally with excerpts from his trademark “musings” on his radio show (which his audience later learned was penned by his staff), photos of himself at cultural events and easy, engaging dialogue with his fans. An authentic version of his branding did not exist online at all: there was no private social media profile—that the various investigations into his allegedly predatory activities—that evidenced his BDSM proclivities, his insecurities or anything that detracted from his shining, stellar professional profile. In this, Gomeshi did a brilliant job of professional branding, which utterly masked any sense of authentic self.
Jolie also participated in the masking of her authentic self early in her career, responding publicly to sly innuendo about her sex life (“I was very sexual in kindergarten,” she told the Metro (Harmsworth, 2007)) and engaging in widely viewed and publicized actions that fueled her professional brand, such as kissing her brother at the 2000 Oscars. Gradually, however, her authentic self began to surface and overcome her professional brand, as her visits to the refugee camps in Pakistan, Tanzania and Sierra Leone in 2001 were highly publicized. It seems clear that the motivation behind this change is rooted in Jolie’s acceptance that her personal and professional branding were quite at odds, and rather than perpetuate this disparity, she sought to transition the professional to the personal and revamp the former altogether.
The ethical considerations in Gomeshi’s case are obvious: the citizenry of at least one country trusted him implicitly, and believed so fervently in the professional brand that he had created of wholesomeness and genuineness, that the revelations of his darker sexual history (regardless of the lack of conviction on the assault charges) came as a complete and total shock, even to people who thought they had known him. These people included his former bandmates, who released a statement with the words, “We are sickened and saddened… We had no inkling that Jian engaged in this type of behaviour.” There is also anecdotal evidence, that is to say, stories that were reported by various media outlets that may not have been fully validated, that suggests that Gomeshi used his public persona to attract younger women, who were then taken aback by the personal side of him that emerged. It is this disparity, one imagines, that led to the allegations that led to a Toronto police investigation, and the resultant fallout. Kington’s article quotes a former Q staffer, who puts the ethical fallout succinctly: “CBC represents public trust.” That trust had been betrayed.
The ethical considerations in Jolie’s case are less clear. Did she willfully deceive her audience and fans by perpetuating a deliberately anti-establishment professional brand when her personal brand was so much more wholesome? Perhaps, but it may be argued that she extended her job of entertainment to her professional brand as well, that she viewed her job to entertain the masses on and off the screen, which mitigates the ethical dilemma somewhat. In any case, Jolie navigated quite successfully around the ethical considerations by bringing her professional brand on par with her personal brand, and evolving her professional image to caring mother and ardent activist.
The question of professional standards does not even come into play in Jian Gomeshi’s case. The persona that he—coached carefully by CBC, who does not escape culpability by any means—crafted was purely a self-perpetuating marketing tool. CBC allegedly ignored complaints from both male and female staffers about Gomeshi’s toxic behavior in the workplace, thereby going against professional human resource principles and responsibilities.
Jolie seems to have done better in her adherence to professional standards, though admittedly, those standards are not of Corporate America, but of the entertainment industry. Her public brand was and is consistent and thorough in both incarnations, supported by copy and photography that perpetuated each version.
It is unclear whether or not Gomeshi’s public brand would have suffered at all had three women not brought forth their allegations, especially since Gomeshi apparently did not have a personal or alternative social media presence at all. Putting aside questions of criminality (Gomeshi was not convicted, so the point seems to be moot), perhaps the best practice that he—or CBC—could have put into place was the constant monitoring of Gomeshi’s name online., also known as continuous management (Loop, 2013). There were instances of criticism of Gomeshi appearing sporadically on social media (Kingston’s article specifically mentions a disparaging tweet by a former CBC colleague that resulted in “an angry phone call.”), and both CBC and Gomeshi should have taken steps to address that criticism, not by censoring the criticism, but by turning action inward and training Gomeshi to represent his own brand better and more thoroughly.
For Jolie, a different best practice may have offered her a smoother road to respectability and authenticity: photographs. Paparazzi photography abounds, but she may have mitigated the amalgamation of her personal brand with her professional brand by removing from media circulation those professional photographs that show her in a sexier, noir light and replacing them with images of the brand that she was transitioning to: elegant, sophisticated, maternal and somewhat more human. That she managed the transition eventually is not under debate, but the transition may have happened more quickly.
References
CBC News. (2016, March 24). Jian Ghomeshi trial’s not guilty decision triggers outrage, march to police headquarters. Retrieved from CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jian-ghomeshi-judge-ruling-1.3504250
Goldberg, J. (2009, October 30). The Stuff Of Legends: Angelina Jolie’s Sex Life. Retrieved from The Frisky: http://www.thefrisky.com/2009-10-30/the-love-life-of-angelina-jolie/
Harmsworth, A. (2007, April 18). Metro. Retrieved from Jolie: I was sexual at nursery age: http://metro.co.uk/2007/04/18/jolie-i-was-sexual-at-nursery-age-284815/
Kingston, A. (2014, November 6). Jian Ghomeshi: How he got away with it. Retrieved from McLeans: http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/jian-ghomeshi-how-he-got-away-with-it/
Christine M. Kowalczyk, Kathrynn R. Pounders, (2016) Transforming celebrities through social media: the role of authenticity and emotional attachment. Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 25 Issue: 4, pp.345-356, https://doi.org/10.1108/ JPBM-09-2015-0969
Loop, P. (2013, October 17). Managing Online Presence. (A. News, Interviewer)
Rothma, L. (2013, May 14). Angelina Jolie’s Public-Image Turnaround. Retrieved from TIME: http://entertainment.time.com/2013/05/14/angelina-jolies-public-image-turnaround/
Shea, C. (2014, January 28). Well, Hi There: Jian Ghomeshi, live and off the air. Retrieved from Toronto Life: https://torontolife.com/city/jian-ghomeshi-cbc-q/