Public Relations and Online Engagement

Audiences, Fandom and Influencers

Amber L. Hutchins, Natalie T. J. Tindall, Amber L. Hutchins, Natalie T. J. Tindall

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000437607
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Relaciones públicas

As media continues to evolve, social media has become even more integral to public relations activities, presenting new opportunities and challenges for practitioners. Relationships between publics and organizations continue to be first and foremost, but the process and possibilities for mutually beneficial relationships are being rewritten in situ.

This volume aims to explore and understand highly engaged publics in a variety of social media contexts and across networks. The hope is the expansion and extension of public relations theories and models in this book helps move the discipline forward to keep up with the practice and the media environment. Contributors analyzed a range of organizations and industries, including corporate, entertainment, government, and political movements, to consider how public relations practitioners can facilitate ethical and effective communication between parties. A consistent thread was the need for organizations and practitioners to better understand the diverse backgrounds of publics, including age, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, beyond surface-level demographic stereotypes and assumptions.

This book will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the field of public relations and communication, especially those with a particular interest in online engagement and social media as a PR tool.

1
From slacktivism to activism

Rihanna and Fenty brands “pull up”

Candice Edrington

DOI: 10.4324/9780429327094-2

Introduction

The examination of how activist organizations and advocacy groups intersect with public relations has been a particular area of focus for many scholars in recent years (Ciszek, 2015; Edrington & Lee, 2018; Choi, Overton, & McKeever, 2018). Social movements, more specifically, have piqued much interest as they have made great strides in their communication, heightened visibility, narrative creation and development, and collective mobilization across the digital media (Edrington & Gallagher, 2019). Building and maintaining a strong member base is not the only relationships that social movements can benefit from. Activating support from organizations with similar goals may also be beneficial. Having organizations and celebrities participate in social media campaigns designed to bring awareness to movement efforts, especially when they have a “navy” behind them, is one good way to build and activate that support. Social media platforms have made aiding in the visibility and narrative development of social movements a bit easier while also providing nontraditional media avenues for organizations and their leadership to advocate for or against issues in a more informal way. Given the political polarization in America, organizations are expected to take a stance on social-political issues now more than ever. In this chapter, I explore how Rihanna and her Fenty brands used Instagram to transition from the performative act of just “posting” to the practical task of “pulling up” during the most recent Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement social media campaigns following the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.

Black lives matter

Appearing on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, the three words “black lives matter,” written by BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, concluded a love letter to Black people authored by Alicia Garza. Emerging once again on Twitter after the shooting death of unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown Jr. in 2014, the phrase “black lives matter” gained momentum and became a hashtag movement, quickly initiating the long overdue and often uncomfortable conversation about racial inequality in America. Writers Anderson and Hitlin (2016) posited “the #blacklivesmatter hashtag appeared an average of 58,747 times per day in the roughly three weeks following Brown’s death” (Anderson & Hitlin, 2016, para. 10). Through the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, people locally, nationally, and globally were able to view the very graphic image of the slain teen’s body lying in the street of Ferguson as well as the discourse that circulated with it. This hashtag increased the visibility of the social injustices faced by African Americans for those who were otherwise naïve, similar to the 1991 video of Rodney King in South Central L.A. Because of this, they were able to witness and join the conversation with others.

#BlackLivesMatter quickly moved from online participation to collective mobilization. Over the course of a few months, more reports of killings of African Americans by White law enforcement officers flooded the media. After the enormous response from other activists, Garza and her two friends (Cullors and Tometi) decided to organize the idea of #BlackLives-Matter into an official organization. #BlackLivesMatter transformed into the Black Lives Matter movement with the creation of an official website (Edrington, 2020).

With hopes of ending police brutality against African American people, BLM’s strength rested on the new opportunities provided by social media platforms. These platforms allowed users to share their experiences regarding police brutality, racism, and discrimination, to connect with others across the globe with whom they may have identified, to share resources regarding movement efforts such as protests, to circulate pictures and videos of such instances, and to amplify the voices of marginalized communities.

The endeavors to eradicate White supremacy, end police brutality against Black bodies, and bring about social justice did not end after Brown’s 2014 death. In fact, they had only just begun. Unfortunately, people across the globe continued to witness acts of brutality, discrimination, and injustice inflicted upon unarmed Black people as videos of police shootings continued to be released and circulated. Seemingly, there was another name behind a hashtag on social media that pushed BLM back into the public sphere every year. Social media users would repost images of the victims, voice their frustrations once again, and even protest. Some brands also voiced their support for BLM and efforts toward racial equality and justice. In 2020, however, something was different.

#BlackoutTuesday

As the world paused due to the global pandemic, more and more people began to pay attention to the BLM movement and understand its agenda. With stay-at-home orders in place, we were all constantly tuned in to news sources for the latest on the coronavirus. What we didn’t expect, however, was exposure to another pandemic, racial injustice. First, there was the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery in February. While Arbery, unarmed, wasn’t killed by an active police officer, the video that circulated months (in May) after his murder showed him being gunned down by two white men as he jogged through his neighborhood. In March, the news of Breonna Taylor’s murder surfaced and began to go viral on social media. Although there was no footage of the shooting released, the reports of Taylor, an unarmed Black woman, being murdered by cops as she slept due to a “no knock” warrant created an uproar on social media. The murder of George Floyd in May pushed Americans over the edge. Emotions were at an all-time high as we watched the eight minute and 46 second video of a white officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck, ultimately resulting in his death. According to Alex Altman (2020), writer for Time, “the timing and cruelty of Floyd’s death, captured in a horrific video, spurred, a national uprising” (Altman, 2020, para. 3). Unlike anything that has ever happened before, Floyd’s death awakened a racial reckoning.

In a matter of four months, the murders of three unarmed Black people were highly publicized. Several social media campaigns were created to call for justice such as #IRunWithMaud, #JusticeForBreonna, and #Justice-forGeorge. Another social media campaign, #BlackoutTuesday, generated a lot of participation. Stemming from #TheShowMustBePaused initiative created by two Black women music industry executives, Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, the #BlackoutTuesday social media campaign served as a pledge to disconnect from business as usual and to reconnect with the community. The purpose of this campaign was to show support and solidarity for the Black community. On June 2, black squares flooded social media platforms followed by the caption #BlackoutTuesday. On that Tuesday, black squares captioned with #BlackoutTuesday flooded social media, mainly Instagram. Although the campaign was great in that it added to the narrative of racial inequality, it was met with resounding mixed reviews. Before noon, “more than 14.6 million Instagram posts used the hashtag #BlackoutTuesday” according to CNBC writers Jessica Bursztynsky and Sarah Whitten (2020) (Bursztynsky & Whitten, 2020, para. 2). The collective participation in this effort ranged from those inside and outside of the music industry, and everyday citizens. Beyond the hashtags and black squares, record labels and other companies used the day to hold town-hall meetings, donate money, and plan future action. Fenty Beauty founder Rihanna made headlines with her participation in #BlackoutTuesday.

Rihanna and Fenty “pull up”

Through her intentional celebration of diversity in her beauty and fashion brands, Rihanna “continues to disrupt the status quo” (Saini, 2018, para. 6). As a longtime philanthropist and advocate for social justice, Rihanna often uses her social media platforms to bring about awareness to certain issues. In 2019, she turned down the opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. Unsurprisingly, singer-songwriter and beauty mogul Rihanna participated in #BlackoutTuesday. Continuing to advocate on behalf of the Black Lives Matter movement, Rihanna posted messages of support for the #BlackoutTuesday campaign on her personal Instagram page @badgalriri and on all three of her Fenty brand Instagram pages (@fenty, @fentybeauty, and @savagexfenty). In addition to posting the black square and messages of support, Rihanna paused all operations of her three brands for the day.

Fenty

Founded in 2019 with Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), Fenty is a fashion brand that “values freedom, defiance, and culture” (Fenty, 2020). In addition to the image of a black square, Fenty posted another image with this caption:

Fenty as a brand was created to elevate beauty, power, and freedom! At this very moment racists are attempting to rip those values away from black people and we will NOT stand by and let that happen. We are too powerful, creative, and resilient. In support of the black community, we will be donating funds to Color of Change and Movement for Black Lives. We ask you to speak up, stand up, and pull up against racism and discrimination in all forms.

—@fenty

This post generated over 45,000 likes and 333 comments at the time of this writing. Another post on the Fenty Instagram page highlighted the pausing of operations:

We are not staying silent and we are not standing by. The fight against racial inequality, injustice, and straight up racism doesn’t stop with financial donations and words of support. In solidarity with the Black community, our employees, our friends, our families, and our colleagues across the industries we are proud to take part in #BlackoutTuesday. Fenty will NOT be conducting any business on Tuesday, June 2 globally. This is not a day off. This is a day to reflect and find ways to make real change. This is a day to #PullUp #BlackoutTuesday.

—@fenty

At the time of this writing, this post generated over 34,000 likes with 254 comments.

Fenty Beauty

Created in 2017, Fenty Beauty is a cosmetic brand that “was created with promise of inclusion for all women” (Fenty Beauty, 2020). On June 2nd, Fenty Beauty posted a black square with the same caption as the Fenty Instagram account. The only difference was the addition of the phrase Black Lives Matter which was originally posted as a hashtag. The post was edited after receiving backlash for combining the two hashtags which had a negative impact on information sharing regarding the movement. On this particular post, there were over 141,000 likes and 1,081 comments. To further highlight their acts of solidarity and activism, Fenty Beauty shared an image on June 4 announcing partnership with the Clara Lionel Foundation in support of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Savage X Fenty – lingerie brand

Also created in 2017, Savage X Fenty is a lingerie line created by Rihanna to “celebrate fearlessness, confidence, and inclusivity” (Savage X Fenty, 2020). Similar to the other two Fenty brands, a black square was posted on the official Instagram account with the same caption as the others. However, this particular image was posted on June 1 and referenced the actions that would be taken on June 2. With over 58,000 likes and 387 comments, the words Black Lives Matter were not attached to this post. Savage X Fenty also partnered with the Clara Lionel Foundation to donate funds for Black Lives Matter of Greater New York and the Bail Project.

The comments under all of these posts display common themes of support, hashtag flooding, and #pullupforchange. The comments that are closely associated with the theme of support reaffirm their love for Rihanna and declare that they will continue to support her and the brand. An overwhelming number of comments provide insight into how the use of #BLM and #BlackoutTuesday together creates hashtag flooding and asks that the former hashtag be removed. Lastly, several comments asked the founder to join the #pullupforchange challenge. This Instagram challenge asks brands who voice their support for the Black Lives Matter movement and Black community to release the diversity numbers of their employees. While Fenty Beauty did address the hashtag flooding by removing the hashtag from the phrase Black Lives Matter, none of the brands have yet produced a report of their employee diversity.

Conclusion

On June 2, 2020, music industry executives launched the #BlackoutTuesday social media campaign in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black community. The purpose of this initiative was to pause normal activity and business operations for the day and reconnect with the community in some manner. Although well intentioned, many Instagram users and activists noted that the use of #BlackoutTuesday and #BlackLivesMatter coupled together in a caption under the black square had negative repercussions. According to James Vincent (2020), writer for The Verge, the combining of these hashtags “obscured a channel that’s being used to share vital information about protests, or...