First off let me just say that I'm finding it extremely difficult to add pictures to this post without continually messing everything up. Hopefully I learn the ins and outs of this soon.
Anyway, these are pictures from the October bulletin board in my residence hall; it's featuring ideas for Halloween costumes (if you couldn't tell.) The idea for the Kanye West and Taylor Swift costume was the one that intrigued me the most, from a PR perspective. I'm sure everyone remembers in September when Kanye pulled a less-than-classy move and took the microphone from Taylor Swift at the VMAs that probably had his PR people cringing. (link further down)
This post is going to bring up numerous points, so excuse its disorganized form. First point- This event happened over a month ago and people are still fixated on it. A couple's Halloween costume? Ideas like this can be found just google-ing couples' costumes. This proves that in the PR world, one mess up can be forgiven, but not forgotten.
Second point- What did Kanye West himself do for crisis management? Multiple sources say that before the VMAs were over, Kanye (or someone) was on his blog and posted in all caps: "I'M SOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM. I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD'VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED!"
However, apparently Kanye deleted this posting and put up a new one: "I feel like Ben Stiller in "Meet the Parents" when he messed up everything and Robert De Niro asked him to leave... That was Taylor's moment and I had no right in any way to take it from her. I am truly sorry. " This one can be found on his blog.
One has to wonder, is a blog post, especially one put like so, appropriate for an apology? Possibly this strategy was to show fans that he in fact was apologizing, but in my opinion, these don't sound like intelligent and sincere words that should be taken seriously.
Here is a video of what happened at the VMAs. It includes Kanye's interruption, Taylor's reaction that night to reporters, and an appearance made by Kanye on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I like the fact these were all put together, which is why I'm posting it, but please excuse the commentaries added by "LGrier 2008." Note the twitter reference!
Taylor Swift apparently accepted Kanye's apologies (video). She also discussed the incident on the View, shown in the article in the above link, and with Oprah Winfrey (video). Point 3- Oprah is an opinion leader in this day and age, and she clearly is putting Taylor Swift in a positive light and advocating that she handled the situation beautifully. Many people who watch Oprah aren't necessarily in the same crowd as those who are familiar with Kanye West. Oprah is helping people to form opinions of the situation that are possibly biased towards Taylor Swift. Not that I'm cutting Oprah in any way. The point is, as an opinion leader, she is helping people to assess the situation.
This brings us to Point 4- being on the good side of Oprah Winfrey, the media, people's facebook and twitter sites can only be doing wonders for Taylor Swift and her PR, because everyone is advocating that she handled it well, OR they feel sympathetic towards her. Either way, it has resulted in more support for her, and more associations of controversy and distastefulness for Kanye West. Just because Taylor forgave Kanye for his outburst, it doesn't mean she, or the public, has forgotten it.
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