238: The Art of Manufactured Outrage: How Celebrities and Brands Court Controversy for Buzz and Profit

For the past few months, there has been this media theory that's been percolating in my head. I've been watching TikTok, I've been watching social media campaigns, but then this one popped up and I thought, that's it. This is my new theory. Welcome to the Indestructible PR podcast, where you use current events and tested media and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. In this episode, let's talk about manufactured outrage for the purpose of the algorithm and profit. Oh, and buzz. In the world of marketing and advertising, the goal is usually to generate buzz, you know, to get people to buy a product or some type of call to action. A few years back, there was a term called outrage marketing. So this synced in with the. With social media, social media and the social media algorithm to get people, you know, outrage, you know, stir up a controversy to get people to talk about your product. This idea of nudging people towards a product, you know, this consumerism approach, you know, really has been around for a while. But this term outrage, is this idea of capitalizing off of people's emotions. When you tie that into social media, you can actually see the value to doing that. There's nothing new about that concept, but I've noticed lately that there's a different spin to it. There's more intent behind it. There's more of a pressure point, if you will, to try and mobilize people to create and generate more outrageous. So it's almost outrage marketing. Plus, since I'm not a marketer, I want to put it in the public relations lane, but it's more about manufactured outrage for the purpose of PR or publicity. I've been thinking about this for a while, and as I said, when I heard about Bud Light and what Bud Light was doing with a new campaign around March Madness with, you know, sending out, you know, cans, you know, Bud, Budweiser, Bud Light cans, to a number of influencers. And one of those influencers was trans. Trans actor Dylan Mulvaney. And Dylan Mulvaney. I mean, when you think of someone in the trans community who's an influencer, I mean, that's really the only name that many people come up with. And this is a story that popped up, you know, a couple weeks. But it has legs. And what the term means, when a story has legs, it means that people are still talking about it. When people talk about things, then the media picks up on it, and the media is still talking about the story. The Bud Light Controversy still has legs. How do I know? I was involved in this story. I do not believe that someone did not sit and think our primary audience is going to turn to what degree is up in the air. But we're definitely going to get that pushback. And it feels like someone saw a value in that. NBC News was taking a different spin, you know, on the Bud Light controversy, which I was glad to hear, because when they first reached out about when I saw Dylan Mulvaney, my first reaction was really still. We're still here. But they found a new angle to the story because the story is evolving. And one of the reasons why I think it's still evolving is, is because culture is evolving. And we are also coming into a political season. So the Bud Light controversy went straight into the political season, the campaign season. And who picked up on it? Governor DeSantis. Now, Governor DeSantis came out with this new ad, like this woke campaign ad. If you've seen the Bud Light controversy, I'm sure you have. I don't even need to include it. Take a look at the Governor DeSantis ad. What do you think the motivation is.

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Governor DeSantis is leveraging outrage. And it's so easy to do that. A number of politicians, you know, are doing that. They took advantage of what they're describing as a woke campaign. It is perfect to get people who think a certain way, act a certain way, vote a certain way to mobilize around your cause. Also, what's changed after the term outrage marketing became well known, we had a political campaign in this country that learned how to, you know, almost weaponize this type of mobilization. And I have to give credit where credit is due here in terms of this president mastering a communication medium. Think back to all the presidential. You think of all the presidents and the communication mediums of choice and what they're known for. Fdr, his fireside chats with radio. You think about jfk, you know, he was our first real television present president who went from black and white to color. His looks were perfect, his tone effect, his family, the Optics behind it. Perfect for television. Ronald Reagan, the great communicator that leads us into, you know, President Obama, he was the president who brought us into the social media age, although he is not the one who really knew how to harness it. Hillary Clinton and Obama were two campaigners who knew how to harness social media. But when it came to the medium motivating people and mobilizing people, that honor belongs to Donald Trump. And this idea of conservatives using social media as a platform is not new. You know, Donald Trump did not create. Candidate Donald Trump did not create, you know, this type of campaign, you know, if you will, white nationalists, you know, white supremacist, that whole cause learned how to harness the power of social media. If you have a YouTube channel and you have a lot of subscribers, you're going to be able to monetize that channel. Easy to mobilize with video social media, some leveraged misinformation, weaponized misinformation. You can go into dark channels, dark web. It's perfect for a group that operates in the shadows. It's perfect for them just to collect their followers and really, really spread a message. It was very effective. Doesn't mean it was right, but it was effective. How I think this dovetails into where we are right now is you take extreme conservatism, you know, the white nationalism, but then you just kind of move it into the mainstream. Now, by no means am I saying that the. Your average conservative shares the same view as white nationals. Not at all. And I'm in no means saying that a conservative has, you know, bad views whatsoever. We have conservative, we have liberals, we have, you know, independence. But it is that segment of conservatism, that segment of the people who are choosing to embrace this idea of woke up. You know, when I hear someone say woke in a campaign or a quote or a tweet, that's a very particular type of conservative, okay, that now there's a segmentation that's happening there. And that is the group, the woke group. Those are the people who are trying to wake up their base in the particular base that can be outraged. And they can be outraged by a statement. They can be outraged by a president, an idea. They can be outraged by a rainbow flag. They can be outraged when there's a trans activist who is holding up a can of beer and what did they do with that beer? So if you've been following the Dylan Mulvaney campaign, that campaign on social media, the pushback happened on social media, happened in video, it happened in retweets I had mentioned this On a previous TikTok, I believe, I don't know, somewhere in social media, but I happen to be in Indiana. I was speaking in Indiana and I was at this, this resort in French Lick, Indiana. Do you know who's from French Lick, Indiana? So I was, I was texting people. Do you know who's from French Lick? A lot of people know. People who I know who know sports, immediately said, yeah, Larry Bird, duh. My son immediately, you know, Larry Bird. But when I was there, I noticed as I was walking to the hall to get ready to speak, there was a sign in the hallway that said, you know, performing in May, I believe, was Travis Twick. I can't say his name. And when I saw it, I thought, hmm, I always wondered what happened to him, you know, the singer, the country singer. And now he's at the French Lick resort. Okay. And then as I was walking to. As I was walking to the room to speak, in my mind, I'm thinking, I wonder what Travis thinks of him, his career. Like, does he love, you know, this stage of it? Because, you know, not that there's anything wrong with performing at hotels, but he's probably, you know, at a smaller scale than he used to be when it comes to performing. So it's interesting that I said, whatever happened to that guy? And not what, two days later? I think it was on a Friday. So maybe I got back on a Thursday or Wednesday. I used to look on Twitter and there's Travis Twit tweeting about Bud Light. Oh, my goodness. Who was able to zoom into relevancy? But the guy who I saw on an ad, you know, in French Lick, Indiana, you know, performing in a hotel. So he was supporting kids Rocks, you know, shooting, you know, the cans of Bud Light. And how many times have you seen the video of Kid Rock, you know, shooting the cans of Bud Light? You haven't? Okay, well, take a look and take a listen. Bud Light's controversy is still brewing. The latest fallout to top marketing executives on Leaf, A company spokeswoman telling the Journal, so what spurred all the backlash about beer? So this is why I have this theory now. When I see any type of outrage or someone apologizing for something, you know, the CEO of Bud Light, they came out with a statement. It wasn't a full on apology, but they were, you know, acknowledging that a lot of their base, you know, a lot of their customers did not appreciate the campaign. And that statement came out on a late Friday afternoon. And if you work in the news Business or if you watch West Wing, you know, about the trash day. Friday is the day that, you know, organizations would put out the trash. In other words, if there was news that they did not want to get picked up, they would release it late on a Friday. With the objective is that it would miss the Sunday newspaper because you had the Saturday paper the next day, which is the lowest red day of the week for news. And you didn't want it, you know, on Sunday. And you would. You didn't want it during the week, you know, as well, because whether it's a newspaper or a weekend weekend newscast, it was. It wasn't going to hit, you know, the news. And so a lot of companies still live by this idea of, you know, the Friday news dump day. But because of social media, that's changed a lot because social media doesn't sleep, social media doesn't take a vacation. And in fact, you know, social media lights up over the weekend. So it's as if the story is just ready to go on Monday. So these stories tend to have legs now. So I don't think anyone can really decide, like, when is the best time to release these news stories. The Friday afternoon. I mean, sure, there might be some logic behind it, but I also think it works, you know, it also works, you know, against you. And so I was in another NBC News now story, and honestly, it was. Oh, my gosh, it was. It really was a debacle because I got called at the last minute and they said, is there any way that you could speak about Dylan Mulvaney? And that story had just happened. And I said, oh, yeah, you know, I was actually working on a TikTok on it, but I just hadn't done it yet because I had. I had gone to the dump. I just needed a break. And I had to quickly get to the dump before it closed. So I changed shirts and I think I went to the bank too. And I came back and I got the call, so I had to rush and I had to make this Sophie's Choice decision. When you appear, you know, on a. On a broadcast is I do I look somewhat camera ready or do I just prep, you know, for, you know, for the story? And I chose to be camera ready or try. And in my efforts to do that, that I ended up disconnecting my Internet. So just literally like moments before I was supposed to log in, I was able to get it back on, but there was a panic moment there. But I did not have time to make myself look good, and it certainly showed anyway. But I digress. But I had talked about, I was on with Hallie Jackson with NBC and you know, she came in, you know, with this angle of, you know, you know, what do we take about, you know, take from the statement. And the statement from the Anheuser Busch CEO I thought was somewhat pandering. You know, they, it was written to pander to again that, that kind of conservative base, you know, the people who are the consumers, you know, of Bud Light. So it almost abandoned, you know, the campaign that they were doing. Now, I do not believe for a minute, not for a minute, that the whole Bud Light campaign was just this idea and completely envisioned and then executed from the one marketing person who's now on leave. More people need to, needed to know about it. Now I would agree probably that maybe the CEO of Anheuser Busch didn't know it, maybe. But other people had to know. You don't give a VP of marketing just right to say, okay, we're going to try something new here. We're going to do a trans influencer campaign when this is our base. So I think that there was just, there was some, you know, lack of planning. You know, they were ill prepared, I think, to, to manage the blowback, definitely. But I, I don't believe for a moment it was just the brainchild of just, you know, one person. I will never believe that because of this concept of outrage marketing, they knew what they were getting into by, by signing Dylan Mulvaney. A Mar.1 marketing person doesn't sign an influencer and sign off on all of it without telling anyone else. So people definitely knew. And so I feel that one of their tactics of this kind of, you know, pushing the envelope to get a new audience was to use a trans activist. Why not one of the most, if not the most popular one on social media right now, Dylan Mulvaney. And they knew. Dylan Mulvaney did a campaign with Ulta. If you've been in an Ulta, I mean, that's mostly geared towards female or people who identify as females. You know, it's, it's, it's makeup, it's shampoo, it's hairspray, it's, it's all of it. And there's a lot of blowback from Ulta using Dylan Mulvaney. So certainly there's going to be blowback and pushback on Bud Light. I really feel like there was a manufacturing of that outrage there that they could take advantage of it. Now the question is like, why, why would anyone do that? Right? Why would anyone risk alienating Their base. And there is a risk in that though. I want to see who are the die hard Bud Light fans and the ones who are feeling themselves dumping out the beer. Did you really dump the beer? Are you going to come back to it at some point? And a lot of people had to buy Bud Light beer to dump the Bud Light beer, you know what I'm saying? So sales could not have taken that much of a hit. But this whole idea of outrage now I'm feeling, this theory is that it is manufactured for the algorithm. And that was a piece, another part of the NBC News story that they picked up. Take a listen. The algorithms on social media platforms, they favor outrage, they favor all caps and brands and politicians are figuring it out. So what I was talking about there was using the social media algorithm within this, you know, outrageous mindset. I don't want to use outrage marketing because that's more, you know, sales centric. I, because I want to look at earned media as well. Because there's paid media, which is advertising, and then there's earned media, which is more PR and marketing. Yes. But there is this idea about nudging people to react. That's, that's the magic place. Okay? That's where things happen, where you can generate, generate buzz is, is on social media because people generate buzz. Buzz gets picked up by the press and then that's. That circular buzz continues and then they're looking for new elements of the story. And the reason why this, this Bud Light story has legs is because there's so many updates to it. You know, there's the outrage and then there's the CEO statement and then the execs are late. First the VP of marketing's laid off, you know, and then her boss was, know, was laid off. There's all these different legs. But then the piece where the politicians come in and that's what I was speaking to about Governor DeSantis. Now Governor DeSantis who is likely running against the king of the person who created in this manufactured outrage. So he wanted to get on the bandwagon. And also I didn't say this in the piece, but why would Governor DeSantis do this now? So in my biz, me, my head, when someone says something, it's never a coincidence to me. People say things for a reason. People say things because someone needs to hear it and that's why they say it. When people do things online, say things online, I'm always thinking, I don't think, why did they do it? I'm thinking, who did they do this for What's. What's the objective? Okay. There is a reason behind it. Governor DeSantis, in my opinion, was doing this. I mean, one, clearly, to just, you know, ride the coattails of this big wave. You know, there are other politicians, you know, like Sarah Huckabee, who are kind of jumping on the bandwagon, you know, the I am a woman, you know, bandwagon with her koozies. That was also highlighted in the piece. Governor DeSantis likely, you know, running against former President Donald Trump. But also there's the big, you know, Walt Disney kerfuffle. You know, in Florida, he was outmaneuvered by Walt Disney. He. He tried to strip Walt Disney of all the power on the board. And at the 11th hour, Walt Disney went in, and they undid it. So. So Governor DeSantis wouldn't have the power. Now, what is a group name? A group that loves Walt Disney World. Okay. LGBTQ plus. Right? So he was outmaneuvered. He looked bad. He looked bad. Egg on the face. So this was a perfect opportunity for Governor DeSantis to jump on the bandwagon of this manufactured outrage. So he came out with his ad. Now, why I see this more and more. It's not just this Bud Light. So let's move off of that for a bit. When I. So on Tik Tok, you know, I'm on it a lot at Molly, be my person. And I get tagged constantly. I get message constantly, people asking me to, you know, dissect, analyze, deconstruct, breakdown, apologies constantly. And I. It's. It's funny how I certainly didn't set out to be the great apologist, breakdowner person. I wasn't very articulate saying that. That's not what I do. But I love to analyze, you know, the. The intent and the wording, you know, behind an apology, because I have my framework, my indestructible PR framework. You know, own it, explain it, promise it. And so I'm always looking for that framework, and I don't look for it to really judge people. I look for it to see if I'm right. I just want to know. It's my survey. It's my sample. Am I right? I mean, I wrote a whole book on it. Does it make sense? But it hasn't really failed me. Like, I always see the framework and successful apologies, I always see it. But what's turning now, what's changing is that people are not genuinely apologizing. They may say the words, but they don't really mean it. So, case in point, last week I posted a video after huge response about Meghan Trainor. Now, Meghan Trainor, on her podcast, she was talking about. She was talking about teachers. So she has a podcast called Working on it that she co hosts with her brother, Ryan Trainor. And I don't have a problem with making trust Trainor. I like Meghan Trainor. I knew about Meghan Trainor way in the beginning because I knew she lived on Cape Cod for a while, went to school in Nantucket, where I used to spend a lot of my summers. So I always liked her for that, you know, and this is the first time that Meghan Trainor has ever, like, come into my feed about anything. But everybody wanted to know about my opinion on her apology after she said this on a podcast. But we're homeschooling our kids. Same.

I think.

I. Yeah, everyone on Tick Tock is. They're like, this is what it's like to have a kid in school in America. I have a bulletproof backpack. I was like all that. Like that. But also kids giving me teachers. That was my trauma. Teachers, teachers, you know, but then also, yeah, the violence. I mean, I think it's just that thing.

I was bullied by some teachers. So in that moment, I got angry and said, f teachers. F those specific human beings back in the day. But I did not mean that to all teachers. I love teachers. I fight for teachers. I think they have the hardest job and they are the most underpaid. I don't want to make excuses. I'm just so sorry.

So you could hear in that clip of the apology that she seemed a little nonplussed by it. Here's my apology. There wasn't a lot of gusto behind it. Now, I'm not going to say that Meghan Trainor is the only one doing that. I've been noticing this for a while, that celebrities, people in the public eye that need to apologize, you know, particularly celebrities, they're not doing it like they used to. You know, you would see a video where if someone comes in and they sit there, they look like it's a hostage situation and that they have to apologize for it. They put something on YouTube. I've done plenty of podcasts about it. I've done plenty of tick tocks about, jeez, that's turned into my Tick Tock page. But I've noticed the shift. Shift. And I'm going to say the point that I noticed it, though, it doesn't. It doesn't pertain to them, is when Tom Brady and Gisele Bunchen divorced. They announced it on Instagram, but on Instagram stories. So Instagram stories go away after 24 hours. And I thought, huh, that's, that's very strategic because they wanted their statements. One was black and white, one was white and black, both very difficult to read. And then poop, you know, they go away. But it, it got me thinking more and more about the strategic apology and what is, you know, what are some of the tactics that make these apologies strategic? So Instagram stories, definitely one of them. Putting an apology on social media algorithm. Also, people, when they have stories that they don't want pick up from the press, Instagram stories goes away. So that means that publications, you know, newspapers, print, even broadcast, in some cases, they really can't use it. They can get a screen grab, but they can't grab the social media post and put it and hyperlink it into a story. It vanishes. So you're removing an asset from the mix. So all it is, all you could do is a screen grab, if you can even do that. And even if you do a screen grab, it's so difficult to read that newspapers, you know, or digital outlets, they're not going to use it. So strategic. So now I've always been looking at the strategic apology. So now people are writing a little bit differently. They're not as genuine in their apologies. And the Meghan Trainor apology, again, not the only one, but the Meghan Trainor apology seemed so lax, yet so almost prepared in a way. It's as if she knew what she was doing and saying, but she wasn't acting that way. So when I see that it manufacture comes to mind. It's not organic, it's not genuine. I don't claim to be an expert in this, but I feel like I'm a. I got a really good read on human emotion. I've been through enough in my life that I think I can really figure out people. I can figure out deception, I can figure out truth. I can figure out what motivates a person, you know, just based on how they're acting. You know, it's just, I guess, you know, being at the rodeo for so many years, but you can almost tell too, when someone isn't genuine. And I did see one TikTok where a psychologist or therapist or someone was saying, oh, now look when she smiles at this point, I mean, they were dissecting to the millisecond. And I, you know, I kind of agreed with that. Like, yeah, this doesn't seem genuine. Now why then? Why wouldn't she have a genuine apology? Well, it could be if you just want to play place apology in the middle of your crisis. Because a crisis is going to generate people getting outraged. So what did Megan Trainor do? You heard her say it. She talked about F teachers. Like, saying F teachers is like saying, you know, f cute puppies. You know, like, it's, it's, it's. It's something that, you know is immediately going to cause outrage. And also the fact that she did it on her own platform, on her own podcast, on a podcast that she could edit. You could edit the audio, you could edit the video. She knew what she was doing. And even saying, you know, f teachers, you could reel back on that because that doesn't. That's not something that naturally comes out of people's mouths. You could say, you know, f people who shoot students and teachers at schools. I mean, I think we can all rally around that. But not F teachers. So what's a segment of the population that lives on TikTok social media? A lot of women, you know, a lot of platforms, their number one users are females. Women. People who identify as female. Also, they use it at certain times. Also, females tend to. Or people identify as females might easily more identify into groups. Okay. And then you have a segment of a, you know, part of a. A segment of the profession where most teachers. I, I mean, I have the studies, but I'm just spitballing on this one. Are females. Not all, but many are females. Just like nursing. Like, those are two segments that are really, really strong and powerful on social media. So why not pick on a group that's going to be outrageous? Could have very easily have said f nurses, and it had the same effect. So it just felt as I was watching, like, this doesn't seem real. This doesn't seem organic. So what does Molly do in this situation? Molly goes to the goog. Because Molly knows when she. Megan Trainor. Oh, let me do the different sound effect. Meghan Trainor. She knows she's going to see something for sale. She knows it. She absolutely knows it. And sure enough, there was. I think she did an exclusive with today's show. So NBC News had her apology that was at the top of the SEO. But then Meghan Trainor, gender reveal. Meghan Trainor, gender reveal. All of a sudden, it's Meghan Trainor, Mama. And then I thought, okay, it has to be more than that. Like, oh, my goodness, there's a book. There's a book that came out right after the apology Let me read it. So this is a blurb from the book Meghan Trainor could be your pregnancy bestie. Thanks to her new book, Mother Singer, Trainor is ready to share her pregnancy experience and insights with other moms in her TMI guidebook, Dear Future Mamas. So she's speaking to other moms, other females, and people who identify as females who also happen to be teachers. A lot of them. How, what did Dana Carvey say? How convenient. The church lady. So in my comments on TikTok about Meghan Trainor, so you have to think, okay, what, what do, what do people think on TikTok, you know about this? Most, Most. So many people. Yes, most of the reviews are coming in. I agree with your theory. You know, also, teachers have been shot at and killed while doing their job teaching this year. True, all of it. So many teachers, you know, on her podcast. Not a podcast, her own podcast. And you know, she's. Oh, and here someone pointed out the face displays dupers delight. I saw that same post. Everyone, everyone in my comments, for the most part are saying that Meghan Trainor was wrong. Now, yes, you're taking a hit, she's taking a hit. But oh, the benefit. Oh, the payoff. All you have to do is fill the SEO with just new stories, just throw new stories, new anything. Because now the baby, geez, you have the gender reveal, you have all the posts about the baby, you have social media. Social media is part of social, it's of part search engine optimization. So all this blowback will likely go away. Meghan Trainor is a singer who is appealing to a certain generation. And that generation, for the most part, is not the generation that's offended like she, I believe if I were to think about this strategically wanted to offend older teachers, you know, ones who might be more riled up because they've been teaching a longer time, they're more tired, they're more exhausted, you know, from the profession, they're closer to retirement. I don't know. I could be going way, way, way more down this kind of manufactured outreach piece than she intended to do. But I don't know. I don't know. So I'm going to leave you with that. And so now on every episode of the podcast, I always include one indestructible PR tip. It's an easy leave behind tip to help you create and build an indestructible reputation. And it's this. There is no doubt that outrage marketing works. There is no doubt it works. You are going to get all the buzz and the chatter, you're going to get the earned media. Hey, you might even get news stories. Who knows? But if you are a company or a brand or a person who wants to use it and you don't have to be had a Bud Light or big beer, you could be running for mayor in town. You could be someone you know, you could be at a school district and you're just chiming in on social media. You could be a CEO of a small business, you know, in town. It doesn't matter if you are the face of anything. If you are going to jump on an outrage bandwagon or if you yourself are going to manufacture that outrage, know that it comes with a cost. Yes, you'll get your earned media. Yes, you'll get your buzz and yes, you'll get a lot of people talking about you. But you're also going to get of a lot label, okay? And that label is going to be a hard one to remove. So if you're comfortable having that label on you for a long time, that means you only have one segment. So it's one segment of the audience of maybe your employees, of consumers, of voters, whatever it is, you're going to alienate another group and more, more likely than not, you're going to alienate them for good. So do it. And if you, if you are going to do it, know that it comes with a risk. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks for listening and watching. Bye for now.