I’ m sure we’ve all heard the phrase “All press is good press even bad press” before. And if not, it basically means as long as your name is in the press, your being spoken about.
But in the age of ‘Cancel Culture’ can this still be the case?
Cancel Culture seems to have taken over the internet, you never really know what who’s is getting cancelled next…
But let’s begin with what ‘Cancel Culture’ is; it is when those who are in the public eye are denounced by the society that follow them, for making racist, sexists or just generally offence remarks. We have entered a whole new era with ‘woke’ audiences, who have decided that they are not letting celebs and influencers get away with offensive remarks or actions scott free.
It can happen in an instance, one-minute people are using your song in every other tiktok the next it’s like it’s disappeared out of thin air, because your racist comments from online chat rooms where found. (Doja Cat).
But can Cancel Culture have a serious impacted on a person’s career?
Many celebrities have faced the raft of cancel culture between 2019-2020. As the internet continues to expand and our society becomes less tolerant towards racists and homophobe’s, there is no were left to hide. It seems celebrities past comments and mistakes are being found one by one. While some have made a recovery from their time in cancellation, others have lost job opportunities, followings and the publics respect.
Kevin Hart
A great example of Cancel Culture damaging a person’s career is Kevin Hart. Kevin Hart made the decision to step down as the Oscars host in 2018, due to backlash from old tweets from 2011 making offensive homophobic jokes. Hart refused to make any more apologies about the topic but insisted that he would step down to avoid any distraction from the event. However, this is not worse a case scenario. While he may have to step down from his Oscars role, since the incident Kevin Hart has still managed to maintain a successful career and has appeared in many films.
Shane Dawson
If your looking for worst case scenario, look no further than YouTuber Shane Dawson. Dawson has participated in many YouTube drama and feuds over the years. But the nail in the coffin for Shane Dawson, was the old videos of him making inappropriate jokes towards a young 11-year-old Willow Smith and videos of him doing blackface. The online community decided that they were done with his actions, Shane lost a million subscribers in the two weeks following the controversy, according to Social Blade and YouTube demonetized three of Shane Dawson’s YouTube channels. From July 2020-Late October 2020, Shane Dawson wasn’t heard of and with his returned to YouTube video, Dawson decided not to speak about any of the previous controversary. So, for now there is no telling whether or not Dawson’s career will ever make a great recovery.
A New Cancellation Platform?
These days, the press is not the younger generations main source of news, especially when hearing about the latest scandal. Social media is. Tiktok whilst mostly being a platform for funny videos and 60 second dances, has recently been took over by cancel culture. It’s no longer the public using this platform to call out and cancel influencers and celebrity. Famous TikToker’s and Youtubers, are using this platform to cancel out each other.
Charlie D’Amelio’s, a 16-year-old TikToker with a huge following of 95million as of November 2020, has recently been a target of a tiktok cancellation/call out. A short clip of D’Amelio was aired, where she was seemingly complaining about her food made by a private chef and not being at 100 million followers yet, spark angry amongst Tiktok users. However, this situation was then blown up by another huge TikToker Trisha Paytas decided to call D’Amelio out herself. This act resulted in Charlie D’Amelio getting tones of hate, death threats and 1 million followers. This has also led to what seems to be a cancellation war between the D’Amelio’s, Paytas and Youtuber James Charles, who called Trisha out for her actions.
So, is all press still good press?
Personally it’s a no from me. The public are now watching celebrities every move, it’s almost like people are waiting for them to trip up, say a word they shouldn’t, for the chance to take them down. And the crying apology videos are becoming less and less sympathetic as time goes on. Not to say there’ll never be a recovery from a public cancellation. But any Celebrity who may find themselves in the midst of a cancelling situation, is going to need to give their publicists one hell of a pay rise.
Keela Costello is a third year BSc in Communication Management and Public Relations student at Ulster University. She can be found at LinkedIn.