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Reese Witherspoon BWR Public Relations 9100 Wilshire Blvd. West Tower, 5th Floor Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Reese Witherspoon: Return of the American Sweetheart

Overview
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon was born on March 22, 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She began acting professionally at the age of 14 when she landed her first leading movie role in The Man in the Moon in 1991. Overall, Reese has appeared in 46 movies and counting. The Academy Award winner has created the kind of unforgettable characters that connect with critics and audiences alike, making her one of Hollywoods most sought after actresses. Reese Witherspoon has the ability to transcend generations with her charisma. Lately, she has shifted to the role of producer instead of acting, producing the upcoming movies Gone Girl and Wild, which are slated to be released in 2014. With a net worth of $80 million, her success as an actress and upcoming producer has made her accomplishments memorable. Some honorable mentions include: One of People Magazines 25 Most Intriguing People in 2001 One of People Magazines 50 Most Beautiful People in 2002 Named one E!s People of the Year in 2002 nd Ranked 22 on Entertainment Weeklys Most Powerful List Won an Oscar Award in 2006 for Best Actress in Walk the Line Received three Golden Globes for Best Actress in a motion picture for Election (2000), Legally Blonde (2001), and Walk the Line (2006) 77 awards nationally and internationally for Best Performing Actress and Best Supporting Actress In addition to the entertainment side, Reese Witherspoon is involved in many charitable organizations. Since 2007, she has served as Avons Global Ambassador and Honorary Chairman of the Avon Foundation for Women, representing a company with a conscience and strong rights for Womens Empowerment. Reese strongly supports the passage of the International Violence Against Womens Act that has been active on behalf of the Rape Treatment Center at the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Save the Children. Also, she has served on the board of the Childrens Defense Fund for many years in order to raise money and awareness for all their programs.

Positive and Negative Outlooks

Overall, Reese Witherspoon has a loyal fan base that greatly respects her. When searching her fan pages online, there is an overwhelming amount of sites that are dedicated to her success as an actress and her commitment to organizations. Most people would say that her charming personality and her innocent, family-friendly appeal

allows those viewers to connect with her. Throughout her career, she has always stayed in the positive aspect of the media, scoring major roles in movies and becoming a spokesperson for organizations and company brands. However, in recent times the public has witnessed Reeses life taking an unfortunate turn down the wrong street. In recent years, the media has focused on the drama of Reese getting divorced in 2007, and most recently in April of 2013 when she was charged for disorderly conduct while her husband was being arrested for driving under the influence in Atlanta. During this incident, she was infamously quoted in asking the police officer Do you know who I am? while arguing over her husbands arrest. Kevin Smith is a movie producer who worked with Reese in Overnight Delivery and portrayed his experiences with the actress in a negative manner. In one of his blog posts, he wrote, I was at some party with Joey Lauren Adams, my recent girlfriend, and Reese had just got a part Joey was hoping to get. So Joey said, Hey Reese, I just wanted to say congratulations. I think youll do really great with the part. And Reese just gave this dead-eyed look and was like, Whatever At this point she wasnt even the Reese Witherspoon that everybody mistakenly knows and loves. She was Reese Witherspoon with that kind of attitude back then; I guess she was meant for stardom. (Lebeau, 2013) Some potential problem areas to focus on include how the public and long-time devoted fans reacted to the decline of Reeses image due to the incidents. The video of her husbands DUI tape spread like wildfire over the Internet, showing her irrational behavior. Another area to discuss is that she has been in the shadow of other celebrities who are in recent movie releases. Reese is currently in the process of producing two movies and filming one where she has a starring role. This has left her out of the media spotlight, which leads us to our overall plan of the campaign to correct an unfavorable or inaccurate public image.

Campaign Overview
The goal of our campaign will be to correct an unfavorable and inaccurate public image. After her arrest in April, Reese Witherspoons public image faltered. Many people started to look at her as just another Hollywood starlet that thought she was better than the law and did not have to listen to legal authorities. The police camera video that was released became an instant sensation on YouTube and was broadcasted across the nation. Since the incident with the Atlanta Police, Reese Witherspoon has taken a step back from the public eye, perhaps rightfully so. It is now time for her to come back into the spotlight and get back into the hearts of the American people where she belongs. Therefore, the theme for our campaign is going to be The Return of the American Sweetheart, because she has been so often referred to as that by her fans and critics alike.

Objectives

Make the public aware that Reese is shifting from doing acting to doing more producing and behind-the-scenes work Reassure the public of Reeses remorse for her disorderly behavior during her husbands arrest To show Reeses commitment to her husband and children Reese Witherspoon is still Americas Sweetheart despite her unfortunate run -in with the Atlanta Police Reese Witherspoon has moved away from acting roles so she can pursue more endeavors in producing As a wife and mother of three, Reese Witherspoon is devoted to her family, like many other American women

Messages

Tactics

Media Relations o Reese should make appearances on morning shows, such as The Today Show or Good Morning America, to help promote and raise awareness for her movies that she is producing. o Reese should do feature articles in entertainment and pop culture magazines, such as People, that would also promote her latest endeavors, as well as talk about her life at home as a wife and mother. o Reese needs to use social media to her advantage and gain followers. She needs to promote campaigns and productions she is involved in to make her publics aware of her along with her achievements Community Appearances o Make appearances across the country with Avon to promote her partnership with the Avon Foundation for Women, which aims to end violence against women. o Make appearances on behalf of the Childrens Defense Fund, which ensures that all children get a healthy, fair, and safe start to life, particularly with poor or minority children.

Proven Maxims
An appeal to audience self-interest is most likely to be effective.

Reese has been able to connect with fans on a personal level since the early stages of her career. Since the fans have always been drawn to her, they have been able to relate to her more in a down to earth setting instead of seeing her as the public eye starlet all of the time. Through her movies, fans have always been interested in her work and that is why she was so famous after her huge roles in Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama. We would again hope that she can get back to this point in her career with her fan base after the bad publicity from her arrest with her husband.

Major issues and events cause wide swings in public opinion for brief periods. The degree of lasting change tends to diminish with the passage of time.

This proven maxim relates back to the first with her career and how she has been viewed in the spotlight from her fans and society. Due to her recent arrest and stepping back from the public eye, fans have wondered where Americas Sweetheart has gone to and when will she return to her movie stage. Once the issue is resolved around her career and she gets back into the groove of things with her acting/producing talents, public opinion will change once again based on her performance and outreach. Fans want to see the best for their sweetheart but until she can break out and get rid of the negative public light, it will not help her at all to get back to the point where she can succeed

Messages related to goals are more readily acceptable than messages related to the steps and methods of attaining the goals.

Our messages are related to helping Reese work towards improving her public perception and returning back to her image as Americas Sweetheart in society. We want to help move her back to the positive side by showing the awareness of how she has changed since the incident, and representing the positive side to her being more focused on her family. She has moved away from acting towards producing which society is being informed about, so they do not think that she has disappeared completely. We plan to help Reese show this to the public eye through our goals and relay to them that she is back in a new style.

References IMDb. (n.d.). Reese Witherspoon. Retrieved November 4, 2013, from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000702/?ref_=nv_sr_4 Lebeau. (2013, August 10). What the hell happened to Reese Witherspoon? Retrieved November 4, 2013, from Lebeau's Le Blog: http://lebeauleblog.com/2013/08/10/what-the-hell-happened-to-reesewitherspoon/