Molly McPherson analyzes 800 articles about Neutrogena and Hayden Panettiere across four days. Neutrogena said nothing, but 14 articles specifically called out their silence. 79% of coverage was negative, showing how refusing to respond becomes its own story.
Now let's look at Neutrogena silence and what the numbers say. So this is between Sunday and Wednesday of this week of this recording, last week of this airing. Roughly 800 articles ran that mentioned Neutrogena and Hayden Panettiere in the same story. More than 400 separate outlets, 4 days. That's a tight window for news. Now watch the shape of it because it's the shape that matters. Sunday was quiet because this was a very late-breaking Sunday story. Most people woke up to the news. So on Sunday, we had about 50 articles. Monday, it detonated. So we had 366 articles. Tuesday, 271. Wednesday, 152. That is not a story that's petering out. That is a story that is lingering. It did peak on Monday, But it still has legs that's, that's carrying the story into the more multiple news cycles. And here's the tone of that coverage. 79% of the scores were negative. Only 3% were positive. And here's the number that matters the most, the amount of articles that picked up Neutrogena's statement. Yeah, that would be zero because there was zero statement. But there are 14 stories of people just writing about Neutrogena's lack of response. Now, reporters don't Typically put a whole story together about a company's lack of response. But that shows the power of silence boomeranging and working against you. It becomes a story.
