Our CEO Melissa Davis examines the latest crisis PR episode, this time courtesy of Gregg Wallace, and considers what lessons can be learned
In terms of ‘public relations’, MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace is having the equivalent of a bad hair day or three.
In the slightly tortuous broadcasting setup we now have, BBC News, operationally independent of the BBC, investigated reports it received of crass and harassing conduct by Wallace, presenter of a BBC flagship programme, which is made by an independent company. Wallace has now ‘stepped away’ from this independent company while it conducts an investigation.
Wallace denies the allegations. The joke doing the rounds in PR circles is that he seems to be taking advice from Prince Andrew. Either that or, on the evidence, until very late in the day yesterday, he didn’t seem to be taking advice from anyone.
He could have said, ideally through a spokesperson, that he was sorry if he had made anyone feel uncomfortable, but that as there was an investigation, with which he was cooperating, he would be saying nothing more for now. And keeping to that.
But no.
Well, that escalated quickly
In one relevant salvo, Wallace, who possibly thought he was ‘coming out fighting’, made things much worse.
The allegations, he said in a video posted on his Instagram story, came from ‘a handful of middle-class women of a certain age’.
The response ranged from outrage to eye-rolling. He had also been responding through, variously, his production company and his lawyers.
Now, I am a middle-class woman of a certain age, and I’ve known my fair share of harassment in the past, but my interest here is as a communications professional. And viewed through that lens, this is a mess.
What can we learn from this?
So, a few thoughts:
- There are a lot of parties involved here – BBC News has been joined by other media outlets; the company that makes the show is keen to protect the value of the show, so has its own agenda; there are women with complaints (and that number never goes down, does it?); there’s the BBC as a commissioning broadcaster; and there’s the public commenting on social media.
- Wallace doesn’t control any of that – none of those involved control the whole thing. Perhaps that’s what led him to reach the one thing he does control, his Instagram account.
- Wallace could have decided to just say brief things through his lawyer or a spokesperson. Is he responding to questions, or not?
- He’s made it worse by not even acknowledging the feelings of people making complaints.
- He’s widened his target, and therefore his detractors – to include all middle-aged, middle-class women. I’m pretty sure they are prominent among MasterChef’s audience.
- Wallace needed to recognise that the details of his alleged conduct (especially the alleged incident with the sock – I’m not typing it here), were weird and lurid enough for the story to run.
The story continues…
And then? He took to Instagram again, but this time to apologise. And he’s done it in a way that makes me think someone has at least had a word.
“I want to apologise for any offence that I caused with my post yesterday, and any upset I may have caused to a lot of people.
“I wasn’t in a good headspace when I posted it. I’ve been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion, I felt very alone, under siege, yesterday, when I posted it.
“It’s obvious to me I need to take some time out while this investigation is underway. I hope you understand and I do hope that you will accept this apology.”
Think before you speak
Communication matters, and has the power to make things better or worse. In such impossible to control episodes, with their multiple actors with different agendas, the one thing we can decide is what we say, or don’t say.
And that requires thought, judgement and planning.
If you’d like to talk about the best strategy for negotiating a difficult situation, I hope you’ll get in touch before you press the record button.
