Whoppie Goldberg's Firing: Echoes Of Anita Bryant?
the moderate voice
Whoppie Goldberg has been fired as spokeswoman for Slim Fast, super-fast, over off-color comments she made at a Democratic fund-raiser last week. But when you look at it the issues at stake -- and the history of corporate sensitivities -- indicate it's more than just a "free speech" or "lewd speech" issue.
In fact, there is a precedent for a corporation moving to detatch itself from a controversial spokesperson. A name for you: ANITA BRYANT (see below).
First the background:
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Comedian Whoopi Goldberg will no longer appear in ads for diet aid maker Slim-Fast following her lewd riff on President Bush's name at a fund-raiser last week, the company said on Wednesday.
Florida-based Slim-Fast said it was "disappointed" in Goldberg's remarks at last Thursday's $7.5 million star-studded fund-raiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
"Ads featuring Ms. Goldberg will no longer be on the air," Slim-Fast General Manager Terry Olson said in a statement, adding that the company regrets that Goldberg's remarks offended some customers.
Republicans have expressed outrage over the fund-raiser for presumptive Democratic nominee John F. Kerry and his vice presidential running mate, John Edwards (news - web sites), in which entertainers lined up to skewer the president.
The New York Post said of Goldberg's appearance at the event: "Waving a bottle of wine, she fired off a stream of vulgar sexual wordplays on Bush's name in a riff about female genitalia."
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Some things about this:
(1) Goldberg has a right to free speech. And she exercised it. By saying this, we are not making a comment on the pluses or minuses of her message. She got her message out.
(2) A corporation uses ANY CELEBRITY to link up their product with the likeability of that celebrity.
(3) This is a highly polarized election year (which we find out each day as we get emails accusing us of being involved in Democratic or Republican partisan plots each time we take a stand on an issue that someone doesn't like).
(4) By making her comments so politically polarizing she made one mistake; by using suggestive language SHE sealed her fate.
(5) She was no longer the highly likeable celebrity that Slim Fast hired to peddle its weight loss elixers. She now became viewed by roughly half of the voting public as not only someone working against their candidate but crossing the line of good taste.
There are various examples of celebrities through the years who lost contracts due to gaffes, major and minor.
But the one that is the mirror image of Goldberg's controversy surrounds singer Anita Bryant.
We remember it well: during the 70s Bryant, a somewhat bland but likeable singer, was all over televison and radio singing "Come to the Florida sunshine tree" for Florida Orange juice growers. She performed with Bob Hope, was constantly seen, smiling and singing. She did ads for many other leading products as well. She was sort of a female Wayne Newton -- someone with some talent, but inexplicably popular far beyond her actual talent, with SEEMINGLY lasting appeal.
The appeal was not lasting. It vanished quickly once she campaigned to repeal a gay rights ordinance in Miami in 1977. It was big news and she was highly vocal. Liberals, some moderates, and gay activists angrily protested to the Orange juice people. She BECAME HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL.
So the Orange juice folks fired her -- and her financially comfortable lifestyle and visibility on advertising for other products vanished, almost overnight. She never really recovered.
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She -- like Goldberg -- had become a LIABILITY to her employer, who was not paying big bucks because they were fans of hers, or even because they thought she was the biggest talent in the world.
She was highly likeable talent with broad-based appeal....and she LOST THAT APPEAL once she threw herself into a highly controversial issue and turned off a LARGE CHUNK of the buying public she had been hired to ATTRACT. Bryant (like Goldberg) said what she said out of conscience and got to exercise her free speech. And her Orange juice growing employers got to exercise its freedom of choice....that they wanted to gain and not lose customers. Why would they want as a spokesman someone who enraged customers who were threatening to boycott their products?<font size=3>
Bryant has since worked hard in smaller venues, tirelessly working on a comeback and refusing to get drawn into current gay-related issues. She has also battled some big financial problems.
Few expect that to happen with Goldberg, but keep in mind:
(1) Goldberg had a complete right to express her view and it was her right to choose to go over the line. She HAS to have known it was over the line -- since the rule of thumb is you're OK on most jokes on taste if it would be allowed on the Tonight Show (versus HBO where anything goes). It doesn't matter if she didn't use X rated language; if it couldn't be done on a broadcast, it shouldn't have been done. But that is a SEPARATE issue.
(2) Slim Fast hired her because of her likeability. After what she said, she WAS NO LONGER LIKEABLE to a chunk of their potential target market. Or in good taste...and Slim Fast sells likeability and good taste.
(3) YES a segment of the public pressured a company to punish someone with whom they did not agree. But it is not the first time this has happened in American politics...and won't be the last. Next time a conservative may face a change in corporate associations due to comments he or she makes. And the conservatives will be upset. But corporations pay big bucks to celebrities for their image and likeability -- not to suddenly find they have highly visible political activists enraging potential customers.
UPDATE: Corrente: In a post Stay Fat: "You know these products are bogus anyway, right? Eat mindfully and move around a little more, yada yada, or just get happy in your body. Send money formerly spent on Slim-Fast to Kerry. And I don't have a link but a commenter over at Atrios, who claimed to have been at this fundraiser, said (paraphrased) "Whoopie's comments were PG-13 at worst. She didn't use ANY of the "seven dirty words you can't say on TV" unless you consider Bush, of itself, a dirty word."
--Tacitus:"Whoopi is free to speak as she pleases, and Slimfast is free to associate with whom it pleases (as long as they're not in breach of contract)."
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