Celebrity Image Repair Controversy: Celebrity Apologies

Being famous can be defined differently for all celebrities. Some celebrities need more recognition than others to feel like they are famous. They need more fans to be enthused by the work they do. Throughout their celebrity life, they tend to make mistakes which later cost them a lot and leads to a public apology. Many people assume that all celebrity apologies are easily planned, but a careful examination of Michael Phelps’ and other celebrity apologies reveals that a lot of strategies are involved in the making of apology for it to gain acceptance. While some individuals argue that the apology is publicly given because of regrets, it’s clear that the celebrities’ strategies are intended to gain advantages when their fans accept their apology.

According to Walsh and McAlister-Spooner celebrities go the extend to create different strategies to approach their fans after their mistakes (158). The article mentions that “image restoration theory encompasses five strategies: denial, evading responsibility, reducing offensiveness, corrective action, and mortification” (Walsh and McAlister 158). The work they put in the making of the apology by using all these different strategies shows that there could be benefits they could gain from the acceptance of the apology. To make the apology more realistic they involve their sponsors and organizations. Being famous might be important to the celebrity but it can’t be concluded that they are going through all this process just to gain the acceptance of the people they barely known for their attention. There are things they can benefit from if their apology gains acceptance and if they are viewed in a good way by the public's

For the celebrities to approach the people with a certain apology they need to understand how the people viewed their mistakes (Zhou and White 1014). This helps the celebrity understand the publics’ expectations from their apology. All this process celebrities go through to make an acceptable apology can’t only be because they felt bad for their actions. There are ways to benefit themselves from the acceptance of the apology. One of the advantages could be the endorsement deals they will be saving. The article states that “The sociological process that makes up moral reputation has been shown to compromise both deontological and theological components and the case has been made for the inclusion of moral reputation construct in future celebrity endorsement literature” (Lianxi Zhou and Paul White 1018). Given these points, it’s hard to conclude that celebrities only care about their image repair because of money although it could be one of the driving factors for the extent celebrities go to approach the people. This also can explain why celebrities give up their normalcy life for all the fame and attention. Furthermore, this can clarify why followers find celebrity’ life entertaining. Some might follow in the footsteps of