Cancel Culture has been on the rise in recent years, with more and more people calling for the cancellation of products, services, and even people. This trend can be a massive PR crisis for businesses and career-ending for individuals, so it’s important to know how to handle it.
This blog post will briefly introduce you to Cancel Culture and share four tips to help you protect your business from potential permanent cancellation.
What is Cancel Culture?
Cancel Culture (a.k.a. call-out culture) refers to withdrawing support for people or companies due to their actions.
Two of the most common things we hear in our business are: “I got canceled.” and “I’m afraid I’m about to get canceled.”
Cancel Culture’s been on the rise in recent years, with more and more people calling out brands on social media that they feel crossed unacceptable lines. Many things seem not to age well, and what’s considered acceptable vs. unacceptable seems to shift seemingly overnight.
How you address almost any issue can be a risky game, especially if you’re the one under fire.
For more proven tips on how to prepare for crises, craft your message, and mitigate the damage of a crisis, check out our Crisis PR Guides.
Here are 4 tips on how to handle Cancel Culture:
1: Phone a Friend (Or An Expert)
It’s impossible to be objective when you’re the one being attacked.
Going it alone when you’re faced with a potentially career-defining moment exponentially magnifies the issue. Don’t reflexively post a response or let the situation get out of hand before asking for professional guidance.
Brands like Pepsi, Dove, and Airbnb have all been the target of Cancel Culture in recent years. But they all survived. How? They have a team of experts who know how to handle crises.
Pro Tip: Ask for help from someone outside of the situation who can calmly assess the situation, understands the cadence, and knows how to handle the situation.
2: Listen Before You Speak
If you’re getting canceled, instead of getting defensive and clapping back, model vulnerability and listen.
Listen to what people are saying and try to understand their points of view. Don’t immediately jump to defend your actions or start attacking those who are calling for you or your company to be canceled. When we’re defensive, we often say things we later regret. So, take the time to hear them out and see if there’s any truth to their claims.
Pro Tip: You need to sit with this information and reflect before opening your mouth or issuing a response. If the feedback is in real-time, thank them for their feedback and for bringing this to your attention.
3: Apologize & Do The Work
If you’re at fault, apologize.
If you didn’t mean to do it, but it hurt many people, apologies are in order.
Handling Cancel Culture is not about denying people’s truth or how they experienced a situation; it’s about acknowledging how your actions impact others and what you’re doing to educate yourself.
Pro Tip: But whatever you do, don’t just say words you think people will want to hear. Paying lip service or blaming others will do way more harm.
4: Don’t Fight the Masses Trying to Defend Yourself
When it’s an honest mistake or an utterly fabricated narrative, you want to reassure those most important to you. That means picking up the phone and calling them.
For both business and personal relationships, they’re going to want to know what, if anything, you’re doing to insulate them from becoming collateral damage.
It still may result in your contacts temporarily putting some distance between the two of you, but showing them that you acknowledge the impact this could have on their business buys you goodwill. Understanding from the get-go that their need to temporarily step away is a business decision, not personal, and not lashing out at them because you feel like everyone is abandoning you should shorten the recovery period.
Pro Tip: To protect your reputation, you need to correct what’s wrong by telling your side of the story, but you can’t do that by arguing with people on the internet.
If you find yourself in the hot seat and need help with your crisis management strategy, click here to schedule a FREE 15-minute consultation or give us a call now at (310) 396-8696.
We have decades of experience handling some of the most iconic crises and, more importantly, managing all of the scandals you never got to hear or read about.
Gillott Communications is a Los Angeles-based public relations firm that specializes in high-stakes Crisis & Reputation Management with more than 50 years of expertise in strategic communications, corporate public relations, and working with the media.
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