Being cancelled in 2023, when is it truly a death sentence for your career?

Every public figure and brand's worst nightmare is to be cancelled, whether from an old Tweet or a mistake in your latest interview. With great PR, most 'cancellations' are fixable, but sometimes even with the best teams, it's just not possible. As a crisis management agency, we have figured out the main reason some public figures/brands cannot survive their cancellation... Relevance.

Some public figures (using the term lightly) are not relevant enough to be 'uncancelled' and have their image fixed. Why? You're forgotten and no longer have enough attention on you to witness or care about the fixes. We are aware that this sounds incredibly harsh, but it's true. If you're cancelled too early on in your career, or you're simply not that known... Or maybe you're replaceable. It can be close to impossible to fix the situation at hand.

You are stuck in this downward cancellation spiral if you're not a relevant celebrity and easily forgettable or replaceable. Your last piece of public attention may well be the PR disaster, and if your audience forgets you while you go on your break and moves on to another version of yourself, it's close to impossible to climb back up.

If your cancellation surrounds race, religion, or homophobia - you will lose brand deal opportunities, and current brand deals will terminate their partnerships with you. On the other hand, if you're incredibly well-known and people remain interested in what is happening with you during your "reflection time", you will have a fighting chance to fix your image upon return and move on, hide the bad press and win back deals and trust.

If you're not relevant and people have lost interest overall, your online look will remain stale, and if you reach out to brands, they will perform a quick Google and see that the latest news is still what has happened. No brand will want to risk its public image to work with an influencer/YouTuber or celebrity who has been caught out when there are so many other options.

The irrelevancy will eventually show on social media with little to no engagement and no brands being interested, and before you know it, your public image is finished.