Issue Summary
Paula Deen, one of America’s most idolized cooking stars, found herself in the middle of a series of PR scandals last June, 2013. The Cooking Channel icon admitted to using racial slurs and remarks in a video interview with the National Enquirer leading to a series of unfortunate events for the star.
Within the first week of the news going viral the Food Network took authoritative measures and dropped her show from further production through the company. Following in their footsteps, Paula’s publishing agency and Smithfield foods corporation made the decision to break their contracts with the star. Paula Deen, a 20 million dollar a year empire, was sued with a million dollar settlement leaving her at a multimillion dollar loss for the 2013 year.
Since June Paula has faced an uphill battle to fix her “momentary” lack of judgement. In the weeks surrounding the scandal Deen weakened her defense with failed TV appearances and incited social media attacks pointing to her seemingly insincere apologies. One of the largest attacks on Deen overall was the way she handled the matter after it had erupted in the media.
In further attempts to mend her mistakes Paula issued two apology videos formally expressed her sorrow for those she may have hurt, however they become a further source of ridicule for the public.
Below are the apology videos published by Deen: