Ellen Degeneres Sweet and Kind or a Fake Facade ?

 Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! This week in class we talked about leadership, media strategies, crisis, and change. As strategic communication professionals, we hope that there will never be a time where we are involved in a scandal or crisis situation. Although we hope that this will never happen, we must be prepared just in case it does. This week I'm going to talk about Ellen Degeneres. 

A scandal is an action or event that is considered to be ill in morals, legally wrong which causes backlash from the public. Social media has made it overtly easy for scandals to come to the light and cause the rise and downfall of people and businesses. Let's take a look at Ellen Degeneres. It's 4:00 p.m. on a weekday afternoon. I've just gotten home from school and The Ellen Show is just coming on. My mom and I loved watching the Ellen Show. She seemed so amazing! She reminded me of a big little kid. She was a jokester and a prankster. She showed characteristics that I had experience in my own household. My mom is also like a big little kid. We have prank wars as a family and we all love to joke around and have fun. Watching The Ellen Show just reminded me of home. It was a never dull moment. I always say in my head that there should be more people like her in the entertainment industry. Everyone that ever appeared on her show seemed as if they adored her and loved being on her show and even her production crew and her DJ Twitch. Everyone made it seem as if Ellen was exactly who she appeared to be through the television screen. 

Last year in July, allegations were made about Ellen Degeneres saying that she created a toxic working environment for her employees. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and reading. I was saying that it wasn't possible for Ellen to put her employees through a toxic working environment. It didn't make sense to me. Ellen's entire brand was created off of positivity and kindness and to see her name being tarnished shocked me and the entire world.  Here are the details: 

• Last July a  current employee and 10 former employees anonymously spoke with BuzzFeed about their different experiences on set. They alleged that they were penalized for medical absences, racial microaggressions, and the fear they had about going public. 
• It was stated that she only remembered the names of her white employees
• Joked about box braids (common hairstyle for black women)

Her employee and ex-employees alleged that her "be kind" attitude was all for the show according to Buzzfeed. The executive producers of the show released this statement: "Over the course of nearly two decades, 3,000 episodes and employing over 1,000 staff members, we have strived to create an open, safe and inclusive work environment," they said in a joint statement to BuzzFeed. "We are truly heartbroken and sorry to learn that even one person in our product family has had a negative experience." Although the executive producers of the show said something in regards to the allegation. The world wanted to hear from Ellen herself. 

After the Buzzfeed article was published, The Ellen Show went under internal review by Warner Media Company. Once the news became mainstream Ellen issued this message: "Hey everybody – it’s Ellen. On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness – no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect. Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry. Anyone who knows me knows it’s the opposite of what I believe and what I hoped for our show." Ellen gave this message to people magazine. "I could not have the success I’ve had without all of your contributions. My name is on the show and everything we do and I take responsibility for that. Alongside Warner Bros., we immediately began an internal investigation and we are taking steps, together, to correct the issues. As we’ve grown exponentially, I’ve not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I’d want them done. Clearly, some didn’t. That will now change and I’m committed to ensuring this does not happen again," she continued.

Although Ellen sent an apology and message it wasn't good enough for some. The allegations against Degeneres swarmed social media and she was canceled by a lot of people. Celebrities began tweeting saying that they've heard about the toxic work environment and it added fire to the already burning flame. Other celebrities defended Degeneres. Buzzfeed released a second article and alleged that 6he top producers of the show had been involved in sexual misconduct. For nearly two decades Ellen had captured the hearts of millions and last summer her downfall became. It takes so long for individuals to build credibility and it only takes a few minutes for them to lose everything. The rise and downfall of Ellen is just a small story on why it is important for businesses and companies to have an internal crisis communication plan. Degeneres had won the hearts of millions and because of an article and social media, her reputation has been tarnished. Her show returned the air but the ratings were at an all-time low. Being able to manage the crisis in the correct way and already having a plan implemented that allows for a crisis to not continuously be expanded is what I believe every company needs. 

How do you feel about Ellen now? Did you ever watch her show prior to the allegations and can you notice a difference? Do you believe that social media adds fuel to the fire when scandals occur? Let me know in the comments! I'm putting the link to the People magazine article right here.

See y'all online next week! 

"It’s not who we are and not who we strive to be, and not the mission Ellen has set for us," they added. "For the record, the day-to-day responsibility of the Ellen show is completely on us. We take all of this very seriously and we realize, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better."

2 of 10