Contrary to popular belief, publicists (or at least good ones) do not lie for their clients. Do we try to "spin" stories to make them look as good as possible? Sure. We aim to prepare well thought out statements in collaboration with our clients to explain situations that need explaining. That said, I always encourage my clients to be honest, to take responsibility for their mistakes and then actually work to correct those mistakes.
If you are looking for an example of Good PR vs. Bad PR simply look at Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. One of them took full responsibility for her actions, gave a sincere and thoughtful apology and is willing to accept the consequences for her actions. The other is living in denial, making excuses and most likely will go to jail. Which of these ladies is looking better? Which of these ladies will work again soon? If you answered Felicity Huffman...you win. There's no prize, but yay you.
Jaclyn Hill represents everything one should NOT do when it comes to PR. I don't know if she has the most incompetent PR team ever or her "PR Team" consists of her mom and sister as some have speculated. Either way, anyone advising Jaclyn to ignore the fact that her lipsticks have hair, mold, shards of metal, etc. and hope it all blows over should be fired. Anyone who advised the CEO of a new brand to deactivate all social media and hide from the world for a month, should also be fired. Eek. This is horrible business. Additionally, Jaclyn should be addressing ALL of her customers and everyone who had a bad experience with her brand and not just those who have continued to support her in spite of many problematic launches.
Jaclyn's "come back" video was 19 minutes of contradictory rambles that explained...not so much. At one point she said she took this time away from social media to rebuild her brand. She had so many meetings, she fired a lot of people and hired a lot of people. Later, Jaclyn says she hasn't left her house due to embarrassment over her failed launch. So based on this, I'm going to assume she rebuilt her entire brand in a mere month from the comfort of her own home. Also, she refused to address any of the "rumors" surrounding her failed lipstick launch. Why address anything from the past when she has new products to sell?
I sent an email to Jaclyn Cosmetics with some suggestions. I did this because I was a long time supporter of Jaclyn's and wanted to offer constructive advice because I want her to turn this around. I did not get a response (nor did I expect to). They did not follow any of my advice (nor did I expect them to). Quite honestly, they probably didn't even read the dang thing. So now it's more like an open letter.
Good afternoon,
I am senior publicist at an agency in Los Angeles. We handle many high profile
clients and specialize in crises management. As a long time supporter of
Jaclyn's, I've watched everything closely and wanted to offer some
unsolicited advice (but also on the house since usually I charge a good
amount).
Quite honestly, this launch has been
handled so incredibly poorly that I'm not sure the brand can come back
from this. I do think Jaclyn can, but it will take time and really
humbling herself.
1. First the lipsticks
need to be recalled immediately. Jaclyn needs to get on camera and say
she's incredibly sorry that it took so long to do this. This is her
dream and it was hard to accept that her first launch failed on this level, but the
health and safety of her loyal subscribers and customers should have
been the number one priority and she's so sorry that was not the case. Moving forward, this will be the number one priority. In the meantime, no one should continue to use these lipsticks.
2.
This has all caused Jaclyn to take a good and hard look in the mirror
and realize that she has a lot to learn before starting her own business
and also to see how much she has changed and become a person she no
longer recognizes. Money and fame have taken over and she wants to go
back to becoming a relatable girl who loves makeup, her subscribers and
the community. She deeply apologizes for any false truths,
inconsistencies and misinformation. She knows it will take time to earn
people's trust back through both words and actions.
3.
She should privately and publicly apologize to Marlena Stell. She
should say she acted both unprofessionally and as a bad friend for
stringing Makeup Geek along and causing them to lose a lot of money in their failed collaboration.
She would like to work with Marlena to see how she can make this right.
4.
She needs to really step back from Morphe and do everything she can to
amend her relationship with other brands and start featuring other
brands on her channel. She also needs to amend her relationships in the
beauty community. She should personally reach out to people like
Raw Beauty Kristi, That Girl Shae, Nicol Concilio, Patrick Star,
Pretty Pastel please, etc and say she is so sorry that they had a bad
experience with her products and that she respects their opinions. She should
also make it a point to promote influencer collaborations and brands
(NOT Morphe). She should look to promote and collaborate with smaller influencers as well.
5. I'd end her video by just saying she's so sorry that she hasn't been a
better brand owner and a better person in many ways. This has been a
huge learning experience, but she doesn't want to give
up on a dream that she's worked long and hard for. She's looking at this as having to start over again to gain trust
from her subscribers and the community, but she is up for the challenge.
Also,
she should NOT be having her mother, ex husband or anyone making
statements on her behalf. Additionally, Jaclyn Cosmetics needs to be very careful
about the comments you all are liking. Some of the comments you've liked
are absolutely unprofessional and mind boggling.
I
mean this all as constructive criticism. I hope you will take some of
my advice to heart. I'm also happy to speak with you about PR services
should you wish to bring on a PR team. I would highly encourage this even if it's not my agency. There are many wonderful PR agencies that could truly help.
So there you have it. I would certainly make sure she went over everything with her lawyers. I'm sure there are certain things that she is unable to discuss legally. Of course, I also always want my clients to say everything in their own voice so they feel comfortable and it is authentic. It is always a well thought out and collaborative effort to make sure that all bases are covered and that the client is able to stay loyal to their audience and to themselves, while honoring all contracts and agreements.
Peter Monn did make a good point when he said that people are still hanging on and staying subscribed to Jaclyn to see what happens. While I do not plan on continuing to support Jaclyn or her brand at this time, I honestly am quite curious to see what happens next.
