Live and Let Lively

Alfred Nobel knew all about reputation management. As the urban myth goes, a premature obituary written about the inventor of dynamite said Le marchand de la mort est mort - The merchant of death is dead

It sounds much better in French. The obituary added “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”?

This ruined Alfred's vibe so he decided to use the majority of his fortune to create the Nobel Prize and the whitewash is history.?

Would he have created dynamite if he knew what the results would be?

Would the creators of the internet and social media forged ahead if they knew what the results would be?

During the early days of the internet it was all so naive and innocent. When the famous New Yorker cartoon about nobody knowing you're a dog came out in 1993, it was charming. There was nothing malicious or sinister about the web back then. It was all cat videos with nary a catfish in sight.

But we evolved and got more sophisticated. As newspapers declined, most of the ad spend headed online and then a lot of that towards social media. Follow the money.

Social media spawned job titles such as social media strategist which is distinct from a social media manager which is distinct from a community manager which is distinct from a brand manager which is distinct from a brand ambassador. What do all these people do? It's hard to say but what is certain is not only do they know how the sausage is made, some of them are making it.

And now we find ourselves at the point in the story where someone's job title is character assassin; cog in smear machine.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about - there was a fascinating New York Times article on Saturday outlining the campaign to smear Blake Lively and destroy her reputation.

It's hard to say what the most horrific part of the story is?

• That someone was willing to do this and had no qualms about doing so? (We could only hope that if they enlisted AI to do the dirty work, it would have enough of a conscience to say No más.) Not only did they have no qualms, they reveled in it.
• That it was so simple for them to do so?
• Or that it was so effective?

If the Ashley Madison fake women and the OnlyFans chatbots didn't turn you into a complete cynic, this should shred, crush and destroy any last skerrick of hope you have that you can believe what you see and read online.

For those of you experiencing a sense of deja vu, it's because supposedly the same people supposedly ran the same playbook when supposedly smearing Amber Heard in her case against Johnny Depp.

So what actually was this smear campaign? Reddit thread after tweet after instagram comment after YouTube video from accounts of questionable origin. If someone actually bothered to dig deeper and look under the hood you will find a lot of smoke and mirrors. It's a Ponzi scheme of white noise.

For instance, take this Daily Mail article by Alanah Khosla and Jo Tweedy which was an example of one of the hatchet jobs against Blake Lively.

What are some of the things the article says about Lively?

• That she opted not to wear a friendship bracelet gifted to her by a fan during the It Ends With Us press tour.
• Resurfacing of an awkward interviews from her past

Everything about this is cringe, but hold on, because you've seen nothing yet.

With the New York Times exposé generating so many clicks, shares and comments, the Daily Mail couldn't sit idly by on the sidelines even though you would have thought they already picked a side - they rode or died with #teamjustin, didn't they? But business is business, so they shamelessly ran a story about Blake Lively being smeared which was basically just a complete rehashing of the first article.

The article contains high-quality journalism such as: During the film's production, messages flooded platforms like Reddit rehashing her past dramas with claim's that Blake is a 'meanie'.?

Now who should write this story, but the one and the same Alanah Khosla...

Strangely, there is no mention in this second article acknowledging the presence of the August 16 piece.

This made me curious - is Alanah Khosla a real person? I had a dig around the interweb and honestly I'm not so sure. Her LinkedIn profile and Twitter account give the Turing test a real run for its money!

The saddest, most miserable, most ironic part about all this is that when this story hit the light of day and those behind the curtain pulling the strings were exposed, the crisis management game of those supposedly behind the supposed smear machine was pathetic.

This is where you have to follow the WWE playbook, embrace the notoriety and turn full heel. Own what you did and be proud of it and then you can run the smear machine for despots, dictators, tyrants, autocrats and oligarchs. They will beat a path to your door and you will make a killing.

Blake Lively will be ok. She has Deadpool in her corner.?

But the bigger picture implications are frightening.?

What can’t be influenced? Rotten Tomatoes scores? Google Reviews? Elections? Reality TV? Nobel Peace Prize winners? Yes, we made it back full circle

Blake Lively has the wherewithal to grab control of the narrative and in turn her reputation, but what if it’s the local plumber, pizza store or hairdresser who is smeared. Their business will suffer irreparably and in turn destroy not only their life, but the lives of their family members.

People need to be better protected that the only thing preventing them from being smeared is the scruples of a publicist, a competitor or someone else in their life who is disgruntled with them.

Legislation has to catch up with this. Just like you can’t go up to someone you don’t like and murder them in cold blood, you shouldn’t be able to smear someone's online reputation by concocting a web of lies and nonsense. You should be accountable for your actions.

And Google isn't innocent in this either. People are motivated to do whatever it takes to manipulate the search results because it works and so the ends justify the means.

Just like a lawyer or doctor needs a license in order to work, should a social media practitioner also require one? What about a publicist or someone in online reputation management? Are there standards and ethics they need to uphold apart from not getting caught?

Cause if not, the claim from bad actors in the space that they can bury anyone will be the only piece of truth in their lives.

PS: It's hard to believe 2024 is coming to an end. What a year!

Wishing you and yours compliments of the season and looking forward to bringing you more Words from the Wise in 2025!

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