The Food Network drops Paula Deen
By Kaitlyn Carrier
Paula Deen has been everyone’s favorite ‘southern style’ cook on the Food Network since the late 1990’s. Paula made her first appearances on episodes of Doornick Dinners and Ready, Set, Cook!, and eventually landed her own shows including Paula’s Best Dishes and Paula’s Home Cooking which continued to be aired until this past summer. In June of this past year, Paula was fired from the Food Network due to racial comments she had made in the past.
The Public Relations for the Food Network struggled while social media comments took off about Paula’s statements. After Paula’s reputation received massive negative press, the Food Network decided to drop Paula from the network completely. This decision is an example of the Social Exchange Theory.
When dealing with issues such as this, it is important to think about the costs and the rewards. Would keeping Paula Deen within the network boost the PR in a positive way? What could keeping her cost the network?
The Social Exchange Theory teaches us to think about whether doing something will have a greater reward or a greater cost. It also tells us that people factor in the consequences of their behavior before an action to ensure that the rewards will be high and the costs will be low. It is also stated that all human relationships are influenced by the subjective cost/benefit analysis.
Rachel Ray told the Huffington Post that Paula would always be considered part of the Food Network family. She also mentioned that in time they would make up, like all good families do.
This could not have been an easy decision for the network, being that Paula had been loyal to her viewers, fans, and the network for nearly 20 years. However, the costs to keeping Paula after her “racial comments” could negatively affect the PR for the Food Network and everyone associated with it.
When being involved in something so big, such as the Food Network, you and your actions no longer go unnoticed. You now are recognized as part of the network and everything you do or say reflects the views and opinions of your organization. These are the costs that are connected to Paula Deen. The benefits of keeping her on her show and dealing with the public’s comments were not great enough to cover the costs. This is an example of PR in practice while using the Social Exchange theory.
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