Crisis PR – Favorite TV Star Ellen DeGeneres Accused of Abusing Employees

It is very likely that beloved American host, entertainer, and actress Ellen DeGeneres will remember the summer of 2020 as the worst of her life. Just when it seemed that things were slowly returning to a new normal after the global quarantine, the TV star was met with a deluge of accusations of sexual harassment, bullying, toxic masculinity, and racism that her employees on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ were exposed to. The main culprits for such behavior are three producers, and allegedly, the biggest abuser among them, head writer and executive producer Kevin Leman.

Ellen could relatively easily untangle herself from this scandal (although it remains unclear how such things could happen behind her back) if she had not also been accused of inappropriate behavior, primarily mobbing. If social media is to be believed, as well as individuals who have publicly testified by name about what happens behind the scenes of the beloved American daytime show, the true face of Ellen DeGeneres is a complete antithesis to her public brand. She is not the down-to-earth, endlessly witty, and empathetic heroine of the small screen but a grumpy and unpleasant star cocooned in her soap bubble. Uncovering the real Ellen is also a huge problem in marketing terms because she may be a flesh-and-blood being, but she is also a brand that earns over 80 million dollars a year and the golden goose of the show’s owner, Warner Bros.

Truths and Lies

In marketing (and financial) terms, this scandal is much bigger than what was recently referred to as the PR crisis of the season, that of Kanye West. To recall, American artist Kanye signed a lucrative contract with Gap in July that was supposed to pull the brand out of bankruptcy and restore its, as Americans say, desperately needed coolness.

However, shortly after signing the hundred million dollar contract, Kanye announced his presidential candidacy, delivered a rather incomprehensible public speech, and in a series of tweets accused his wife Kim Kardashian of infidelity and forced hospitalization. Given that Kanye suffers from bipolar disorder, and this was, according to all appearances, one of the, colloquially speaking, ‘bad’ episodes, the world showed a lot of compassion and, in fact, welcomed the fact that public discourse about mental health was initiated, as well as the connection between creativity and mental disorders. With Ellen, the situation is different because her (allegedly) bad behavior is her personal, conscious choice, but also because she built an entire empire on warmth, kindness, unpretentiousness, and accessibility.

The Neighborhood Lesbian

As recently reported in the New Yorker, the fact that DeGeneres managed to build a personal brand that is easily relatable and loved by everyone is nothing short of a miracle. DeGeneres began building her career in the 1980s as a stand-up comedian, and then in 1994 she got her own sitcom ‘These Friends of Mine’, later renamed ‘Ellen’. What she will be most remembered for is that the character Ellen came out as a lesbian on the small screen. This was a precedent in television history, and simultaneously, the real Ellen ‘came out of the closet’ on the cover of Time.

For America, this was too much, so the series was canceled, and Ellen fell into depression, from which she was pulled out by the very daytime show ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’. Since its premiere 19 years ago, Ellen has managed to break down the prejudices that part of the public had about members of different sexual orientations, becoming one of the favorite television figures, the ‘neighborhood lesbian’, as the New Yorker writes, welcomed into American homes. As she stated in her performance ‘Relatable’, it wasn’t easy at first, as some television executives thought that no one wanted to watch a lesbian on a daytime show, suggesting she work on her femininity. However, with the help of the public that embraced her, as well as shows like ‘Will & Grace’ or ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’, which became part of mainstream culture, Ellen managed to attract viewers with her talent and personality, and her sexual orientation fell into a completely different background.

Call the Experts!

Although there are still battles to be won for members of the LGBTQ+ community, the television market has changed since Ellen’s coming out; it is no surprise to see their faces on the small screens. Pioneer Ellen has since become one of the 15 highest-paid celebrities in America, and her show is the most-watched in daytime programming. Given that she reached that position thanks to her character, quick, sparkling language, empathy, and the fact that, despite millions of dollars in her account, she appeared somewhat middle-class, it is logical to wonder whether anything will remain of the brand if the accusations of bad, arrogant, and ignorant behavior prove to be true.

DeGeneres has hired a PR team to help her navigate the chaos, and as Juda Engelmayer, director of HeraldPR, which has worked with celebrities like Paula Deen and even Harvey Weinstein, recently stated for Vice, there are specific steps for crisis communication of this type. He believes that after the recently published public apology, the host will very likely sit down with her PR team and compile a list of all the people who had unpleasant experiences with her. Experts will then prepare responses to each of those individual potential lawsuits (or social media slander). After that, they will devise a way to involve other public figures who currently support her and a scenario for a new public apology that could (Engelmayer recommends this) be the content of her first show after the scandal (if the show is not canceled).

Throwing Ashes

As PR experts stated to Vice, it is extremely important not to ignore the ‘elephant in the room’, to speak about what happened and what will be different from now on. Fixing the situation should not be reduced to behind-the-scenes events, as the employees are not the only victims but also the audience that trusted the host.

It is also expected that the host’s face will appear in some other shows where she will have the opportunity to explain what she has learned from this situation, where she went wrong, and what she will do to change her work environment and/or herself. Engelmayer concludes that Americans quickly forget scandals if they involve beloved celebrities. If Ellen DeGeneres fires the accused culprits (the producers and the head writer), manages to prove that she is trying to become better, and continues to entertain them as she has so far, they will forgive her everything. This outcome plays out if Warner Bros does not uncover more scandals during its private investigation and completely cancels the show. If the matter remains on the existing accusations, it is likely that the situation will calm down during the fall, and Ellen will once again sit on the TV throne. However, the more important question is whether anyone will accuse her of lying afterward.

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