The Barenaked Ladies’ PR problem
Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page was charged with possession of a controlled substance after New York state police found him with cocaine and marijuana, as reported extensively in the Canadian media yesterday. Apparently, he had just finished snorting the stuff with a Canadian dollar bill when police entered his apartment. Why media reported that he was using a Canadian dollar bill is a little weird to me…like at least he was showing his Canadian pride while he was committing a felony offense. Good for you.
If this had happened to another rock musician, Keith Richards let’s say, it might have come across as an incurable bad boy up to his old tricks. However, Page’s image is clean-cut and quirky. Not only that, the Barenaked Ladies have just released a children’s album no less and are scheduled to appear at a benefit concert hosted by Disney and Playskool on behalf of four children’s charities next month. Disney, Playskool and cocaine use…which of these three does not belong with the others?
Needless to say, this is an image crisis for the Barenaked Ladies. Page admitted to police that he was indeed taking cocaine, however, on the band’s website, it issued a statement saying that “the validity of the charges against Steven will be strongly contested.” These two messages are contradictory and it will be interesting to see how the band and Page manage their reputation going forward.
They might want to follow the example of another celebrity whose image was hurt by his drug use: New York Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte. His name was among the many baseball players mentioned in the Mitchell Report for using illegal substances, in Pettitte’s case human growth hormone. Unlike others such as Mark McGwire and Roger Clemens, Pettite was very upfront about the whole issue. He admitted that he had taken HGH and testified to this as part of a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform.
This past spring training, he apologized to baseball fans for his drug use and spent nearly an hour in front of media explaining the whole mess. Over and over again after giving answers, he asked reporters “Did I answer your question?”.
Since then, very little has been reported on Andy Pettitte and his drug use. Life has moved on and a quick search on Google News has Pettitte in more news stories involving sports than his past drug use. Even those stories are more about a possible court appearance involving his past trainer Brian McNamee and his (former?) friend Roger Clemens.
It might just be best for the Barenaked Ladies and Page that they own up for what happened and apologize. There might be some short term costs but in the long haul, it will serve their interests.
What do you think Page and the Barenaked Ladies should do? Is apologizing for the mistake the best option available?
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A Canadian dollar bill?
Steve must like to carry around historic artifacts. Canada replaced both the one dollar and two dollar bills with coins. The one dollar coin – the loonie – appeared 21 years ago.
The smallest denomination paper bill he theoretically used to allegedly commit an offence would be a fiver. That is, that’s the smallest denomination bill if the news reports are correct.
The Barenaked Ladies cancelled their kids concert in New York. This was probably inevitable.
I tend to fall back on my teachings as a child in situations like this. My mom always told me that honesty is the best policy, unless of course you have a good memory.