In my original post about the Paula Deen controversy, I wrote:
Even though we could find plenty of 66-year old Southerners who never used the N-word and many of Deen’s age who joined civil rights protests as early as the 1960s, I’m inclined to give Deen a pass on this one.
If only the past use of the N-word were the only issue.
When I began reading the transcript of Deen’s deposition, I started with the assumption that Lisa T. Jackson’s lawsuit about treatment of employees at Uncle Bubba’s might be groundless — that it might just be a money grab.
But it’s clear even from Deen’s testimony that some of the basic facts of Jackson’s allegations are true and were even admitted by Deen’s brother Bubba Hiers.
And now WSAV here in Savannah has posted a copy of Bubba Hiers’ deposition. In it, Hiers admits to taking cash from his restaurant’s deposits, looking at pornography on two different computers at Uncle Bubba’s, and using the N-word multiple times, in different contexts. It seems clear that other folks in management, including the plaintiff in the lawsuit Lisa Jackson, tried to get Hiers to step away from active management and become more of a figurehead. In one of the odder moments, Hiers notes that the money he took from the restaurant was simply reported as taxable income and that he received a raise when he ceased taking cash from the deposits.
From the deposition, it’s hard to know how often Hiers engaged in these various behaviors that would be any HR manager’s nightmare. Despite the length of the deposition, it’s tough to get a sense of the frequency of anything because of the vagueness of Hiers’ responses.
Despite the general ugliness of this latest document, I’d say it’s possible that Deen and Hiers might even win this lawsuit at a trial largely on the grounds that Jackson was not truly harmed by the behavior she had to deal with.
But, really, why would anyone on the Deen legal team or PR team think this lawsuit was worth fighting? As I’ve said in previous posts, it should have been glaringly clear to any dispassionate advisor just how ugly this whole mess would get if Hiers’ and Deen’s depositions became public.
With Hiers’deposition now available, it’s easier to see where Deen was coming from in her deposition, as she repeatedly tried to normalize and justify her younger brother’s actions.
So now we’re about to get another round of media scrutiny that goes beyond Deen’s use of the N-word. The inevitability of such additional news surely played some role in the collapse of endorsements and other deals.
For a look at this whole mess from a business perspective, I’d highly recommend Businessweek’s For Paula Deen, Management Mess Leads to Career Meltdown. From that piece:
The swiftness with which Deen was abandoned by her corporate partners is a reminder of the sensitivities that continue to surround issues of race and class. Yet her story is only partly a cultural one. A look at the rise and fall of Paula Deen Enterprises demonstrates the particular perils of building a business empire based on the distillation and heavy promotion of one person’s life story. Over the years, Deen lent her name, aura, and visage to an unwieldy menagerie of products, services, and people—including her own brother—over which she exerted little control. Once the foundation of her reputation came under scrutiny, the edifice crumbled.
The analysis has an interesting passage about the effectiveness of selling a downhome personality and comfort food after 9/11. The whole piece is well worth a read.
According to the WSJ, Deen has also “parted ways with her longtime agent Barry Weiner.” For those who want to see Deen recover her career, the WSJ piece gives considerable hope:
Chris Shigas, a vice president at public-relations agency French West Vaughan, who helped to repair the image of National Football League player Michael Vick after Mr. Vick served 18 months in prison on dog fighting and conspiracy charges, said he believes Ms. Deen can recover from her crisis. […]
“The American public is very forgiving. If she could really learn empathy, I think she could salvage her career. If she does, in earnest, work to make amends with the American public and have an open dialogue with groups who are working to educate people every day, I think that would be a good thing for America, and she would create a new brand,” Mr. Shigas said.
“It would be Paula Deen 2.0. I don’t know what that would look like or what it would become, but it would be a new generation of her brand,” he added.
The difference of course is that, at the end of the day, Michael Vick did not have to sell his personality.