Reputation important? Think Mel Gibson

What a few days it has been for Mel Gibson. He is in the midst of a crisis. And this crisis does not look like it’s going to settle any time soon. Can he resurrect his reputation or is the damage too great? To some degree that will depend how the ‘acute’ phase is played out, and what happens in the next stage – the chronic stage of the crisis.

Gibson’s drunken, anti-Semitic tirade puts his Hollywood future in doubt, the newspaper headline blared this week.

You know the story. Actor, Director, Business, Mel Gibson, is arrested in the early hours of Friday morning in Los Angeles, for drink driving. As the week has progressed, we have watched the story unfold. Gibson allegedly made anti-Semitic remarks to the arresting policeman. He apologised. Not good enough. Much commentary about Mel’s true feelings being aired in a drunken state, forcing Mel to apologise again. In the meantime, the Mel Gibson story has dominated media outlets across the world for five days. Television talk hosts interview Hollywood who’s who, newspapers seek comment from Jewish leaders, radio stations take talk back. And the constant theme – Mel Gibson has revealed his true colours. He could be blacklisted. His career, his organisation, could be dead in the water.

Let’s unpack this from a reputation perspective.

Firstly, what is Mel’s reputation? There is Mel the person and Mel the business. Can they be separated?

Mel Gibson is a brand. He is a multi million dollar brand. That brand needs to be understood and nurtured. That brand revolves around the flawed father of seven, who turned his back on alcohol to save his marriage. It features his return to the Catholic faith and a desire to capitalise on his reputation to make a movie on that faith – The Passion of Christ. Already, through that process, there had been rumblings about his anti Jewish sentiments. It features his marketability. It features his integrity, his charm, his looks. All those things and more contribute to his reputation. His personal reputation cannot be separated from his company’s reputation. They are one and the same.

The next question to ask is 'who gives Mel is reputation?' The answer to that is - his stakeholders.

Who are the stakeholders?

Movie producers, directors, fellow actors, the funders, the distributors, the publicists, the agents, the media, his family, his employees, the list goes on….and ultimately, his audience, his fans. The movie industry is particularly complex. You can’t make a movie without funds. You can’t attract the funds if you have lost your box office draw. You will struggle to make money if your name is mud, if you have been black listed. Think back to the damage inflicted on Hollywood during the McCarthy era, the ‘red under the bed’ hysteria of the1950s.

Who are Mel’s main stakeholders? The powerbrokers of Hollywood, and it is there that his reputation rests. Mel has committed the cardinal sin. He has voiced anti-Semitic sentiments in an industry that strongly relies on the Jewish dollar. The concern being expressed is that Mel has revealed his fundamental, deep-seated beliefs at his weakest moment and therefore no matter what he subsequently says, it will not be believed.

Mel is in serious trouble! And he knows it. As I said at the beginning, he (and his business) are in the acute phase of the crisis, and they are madly attempting to stop the hemorrhaging, because that is what is happening.

There will be fallout. Damage has been done. Did he understand his stakeholders? Undoubtedly. He lost control. He allowed his addiction to take over, for whatever personal reason, and his reputation has been shattered. There will be a financial price. There will be a personal price. The longer the heat is turned on high publicly, the harder it will be to restore. But evidence suggests that it takes up to three years for a company to return to equilibrium after a significant blow to its reputation. How forgiving is Hollywood?

Do you know what are the hallmarks of your reputation?

Have you spoken to your employees, your clients, your competitors? Do you know who your key stakeholders are? Do you understand what keeps them aligned to you? Do you know what would force them to reconsider that alignment? Can you see that, whilst reputation appears to be difficult to measure, the risk of losing it is profound? Do you have a risk management plan, which includes reputation? Do you have a media crisis strategy? Do not underestimate the power of reputation.

As Socrates said many years ago:

Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of – for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once more extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again.

The way to gain a good reputation is to be what you desire to appear.

Mel Gibson forgot that!

For further assistance, email Positive Media, penny@positivemedia.com.au. We will help you think through the various drivers relating to your reputation, to create a plan to protect and enhance that reputation and to develop a media crisis strategy if all else fails.