Crisis Strategy Brief: Logan Paul
Description Of The Crisis
Logan Paul, a 22-year old American YouTuber, was caught up in a huge scandal at the beginning of this year after posting a video showing a recently deceased individual who committed suicide in the Aokigahara, also known as Japan’s suicide forest. The video gained 6.3 million views within 24 hours of it being uploaded and was criticized by members of the YouTube community, the media, and celebrities. People took to Twitter to share their stories of losing someone to suicide and their disdain for Logan Paul’s actions. Paul’s initial response was characterized as Paul making himself a victim.
Logan Paul's PR Response
After issuing the statement, Logan Paul then released a video apology where he took responsibility for his actions and showed sincerity.
Paul then took a month hiatus from YouTube.
After that month, Paul released a video called, “Suicide: Be Here Tomorrow”.
The video was criticized as being too much about Logan Paul and not enough about suicide victims, causes, and prevention.
Logan Paul then did an interview with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America.
The interview was characterized as painting himself as a victim.
Paul’s first vlog back on YouTube was about his redemption and how he’s still a great YouTuber. He also shows off and talks about his new merch and he makes jokes about the situation. He also mentioned his disappointment in losing revenue and brags about how he’s gained subscribers and engagement.
In this video, he introduced what he called, “his babysitter”. This person is supposed to make sure that Paul doesn’t get into any more trouble.
This video garnered a lot of attention and a lot of the sentiment was related to how much it seemed that Logan Paul hadn’t changed.
My Recommendations
It is clear that Logan Paul’s team worked hard to manage the controversy, and from a subscriber standpoint, the strategy was successful. Paul has gained 245,005 in just the past 30 days and brings in a daily average of 3.5 million views. Additionally, with controversies such as this, things tend to die down after a quick and sufficient response has been made. However, from not only a long-term point of view but also a point of view outside of Paul's fanbase, I think the strategy could have been improved. I say this because people are still angry with him and feel like he hasn’t really changed. Twitter and the YouTube community sentiment shows many thought his redemption tour was only a publicity stunt. This is a challenge I really like to solve.
If we’re trying to solve the problem of believability, I would have suggested that Logan Paul visit suicide survivors and suicide prevention workers without the cameras. This gives Paul the opportunity to really reflect on his poor decision and it shows that he’s serious about the issue and not just doing it for publicity. The interview with Strahan was great because it gave the reach Paul needed. However, Logan Paul’s key messages should have focused more on apologizing, taking ownership, and explaining what he’s going to do to gain back trust moving forward. Additionally, I would have suggested that Paul issue an apology to the family of the victim, either by directly contacting them or by reaching out to the Japanese media. Moving forward with his YouTube content, I would have insisted on bringing in a new editor for his videos and for him to seek therapy so he doesn’t fall into the same attitude he had that got himself into trouble in the first place. With these suggestions, my aim is to not only tackle the crisis but also prevent and manage any further crises.
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Photo by Andre Benz on Unsplash