Has Matt Hancock rebranded himself with his jungle journey?

Matt Hancock has undoubtedly been 2022’s pantomime villain, but having reached the final three in the jungle, was his decision to abandon his constituents in favour of kangaroo testicles a public relations triumph or an epic PR fail?

Penguin PR 's very own Sarah Newton ?? discusses the reinvention of public figures and brands after their scandals have swept through the media:

When he arrived in the jungle Matt had very little to lose. Humiliated after flouting his own lockdown rules, cheating on his wife and being blatantly ignored by the newly appointed PM Rishi Sunak, Matt Hancock was untouchable.

Inevitably he was repeatedly nominated for all the trials, leaving some of the other celebs feeling robbed of the limelight. But although Jill Scott was eventually crowned Queen of the Jungle his podium position at the end of the stint surely made his jungle journey a triumph.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen these sorts of masterclasses in reinvention. Back in the 1990s Kate Moss was dropped by H&M, Burberry and Chanel after photographs emerged of her allegedly taking drugs. But the fall from grace that so many predicted never happened. She was working with the same brands again within a year and her earnings are thought to have doubled after the incident, from ￡2m to ￡4m.

In 2001, Winona Ryder’s Hollywood career went up in a cloud of smoke following drug and theft scandals, but after a break from the big time she’s back on our screens in Stranger Things. Similarly Robert Downey Jnr’s career seemed to be over after authorities caught him with an?unloaded gun, heroin and cocaine in his car. He was written out of the hugely successful Ally McBeal TV series but fast forward and he’s dominating the box office as Iron Man.

Similar reinventions are currently taking place under our very noses. The disgraced Prince Andrew is quietly under the radar, but this week’s announcement that his former wife Sarah Ferguson will be joining the royals for Christmas at Sandringham signals that the PR machine is getting into gear to paint him as the loving family man.

Will Smith appeared on the red carpet this week, tenderly kissing the bald head of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith in a move designed to show the gentle and loving side of the man who lost his cool and slapped a comedian live on stage at the Oscars.

Of course, it isn’t just celebrities that have turned negatives into positives. Coca-Cola faced a PR disaster in 2021 when Cristiano Ronaldo, footballing legend and money-making juggernaut, began a EURO 2020 press conference.

Before speaking, he removed the Coca-Cola bottles from the press conference table (positioned there as part of a massive sponsorship deal) and instructed the assembled media to 'drink water'.

According to news reports, this simple act wiped billions off Coke's market value. But, more importantly, it was followed by a flood of free publicity, with various players and personalities expressing their own views - including Russian manager Stanislav Cherchesov gulping down an entire bottle before beginning his own press conference.

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Similarly, KFC seemed destined for ridicule when the chicken restaurant ran out of chicken. Their answer to the crisis was simple in terms of public relations, they owned it! We always recommend to clients that saying something in the face of adversity is far better than saying nothing.

And that's exactly what KFC did in February 2018. Their full-page apology, led by an image of a KFC bucket with the letters rearranged to the very appropriate 'FCK,' appeared in two national newspapers but reached a combined audience of over a billion people via social media and editorial coverage.

So, the evidence tends to suggest that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but those of us who are old enough to remember Gerald Ratner would have to disagree.

The high street jewellers named after its founder was thriving and the Ratner’s success earned him an invitation to speak at the?Institute of Directors?which was attended by over 6000 business people and journalists.

“Ratners doesn’t represent prosperity — and come to think of it, it has very little to do with quality as well,”?he began.?“We do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for ￡4.95. People say, ‘How can you sell this for such a low price?’ I say, because it’s total crap.”

Not content with that blunder, he went on to say:?“We even sell a pair of [gold] earrings for under ￡1. Some people say, ‘That’s cheaper than a prawn sandwich!’…I have to say, the sandwich will probably last longer than the earrings.”

Ratner’s share price dropped by ￡500 million (US$1.8B today), within one week of the speech. Customers across the country started boycotting his products which resulted in the loss of sales volumes and the closure of hundreds of stores and layoffs of a substantial number of its workforce.??

By November 1992, Gerald Ratner was let go as CEO of Ratner’s Group and he had to sell shares of the company to pay off the ￡1B (US$1.3B) he owed the bank. He walked away with nothing.?

It’s a cautionary tale and in the world of Twitter, Facebook and countless other social media channels it’s even easier to ‘do a Ratner’. The slightest cheeky comment from a digitally-empowered employee could so easily turn into a PR disaster.

So, what will happen to Matt Hancock’s career? He’s certainly come out of the jungle with a better reputation than when he went in. But this bounceback is likely to be shortlived and politically his career on the front benches is probably over, but that doesn't mean we won't be hearing a lot more from Hancock, certainly in the short term.

His book, Pandemic Diaries, will be published this month, and there'll be another reality TV appearance next year, in Channel 4's Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.

In the meantime, look out for him entering stage left – chances are there’s a Captain Hook, Jafar or Sheriff of Nottingham costume waiting in the wings with his name on it.