Running Head: IMAGE REPAIR ON KANYE WEST 1

Image Repair on Kanye West

Jordan Rider

Pittsburg State University

COMM-277-01

Dr. Mason

November 26, 2018

Abstract
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This paper is an in depth examination on the career of the famous rapper and designer, Kanye

West. The main focus of this paper is on image repair. This paper explores the image repairing

tactics West and his PR team performed after the George Bush incident in 2005. Along with

analyzing this unfortunate PR stunt, this paper will determine what tactics were used after the

incident to help West and his image, whether those tactics chosen were effective and what tactics

would have been more useful for West in this specific case. Most of the information in this paper

comes from newspaper articles, website discussions, and other findings that discuss all the

factors of the George Bush incident and other PR incidents made on West’s behalf these past few

years.

Jordan Rider
Running Head: IMAGE REPAIR ON KANYE WEST 3

Dr. Mason, COMM-277-01

November 26, 2018

Image Repair on Kanye West

Introduction

Since live television was first introduced, mistakes on live T.V. have been a common

occurrence. From Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl to Kendall Jenner’s

teleprompter mishap at an award show, and plenty more - one live T.V. incident has always

stuck out in the public relations world. This infamous PR stunt involves Kanye West, the

President at the time (George W. Bush), and Hurricane Katrina. Regarding this incident, this

paper explores image restoration theory, how to use the theory, and why this theory relates to this

specific incident with West.

The Story Behind one of Kanye West’s most Famous Remarks

West has more than enough cases for us to examine, but in this paper, the main focus is

on an event that happened to West over 10 years ago. Although the event is over a decade old, it

is still talked about years later. Typically, in later years, articles are made on this topic on the

year anniversary of the event. This is the story behind one of West’s most famous remarks. It all

began after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Following the natural disaster, a charity telethon was held

to help the victims of the hurricane at 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, New York. The event

was produced in just a few days yet celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Lindsay Lohan, Tim

McGraw, Kanye West, and many more agreed to say and play whatever was needed to help. As

stated by Strachan (2015), “West was cooperating, too. The hip-hop sensation’s second studio
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album, ‘Late Registration,’ had come out that week. West, who was scheduled to appear on stage

alongside comedian Mike Myers, went over his lines with the show’s senior producer and music

director, Frank Radice. Like the other celebrities on the telecast, West was slated to provide the

audience with facts — the amount of damage brought by Katrina, the amount of relief aid

needed, and so on.” (Strachan, 2015). Everything was going as planned but right before West

and Myers were about to take the stage West stated “Yo, I’m going to ad-lib a little bit.”

(Strachan, 2015). Myers said his lines and now it was West’s turn to read the teleprompter.

According to Strachan (2015) this is how it went down, West stated, “’I hate the way they

portray us in the media,’ he said. ‘If you see a black family, it says, ‘They’re looting.’ You see a

white family, it says, ‘They’re looking for food.’ And you know that it’s been five days because

most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite —

because I’ve tried to turn away from the TV because it’s too hard to watch. I’ve even been

shopping before, even giving a donation. So now I’m calling my business manager right now to

see what’s, what is the biggest amount I can give, and, and just to imagine if I was down there,

and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can

help with the set-up, the way America is set up to help the, the poor, the black people, the less

well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, this is — Red Cross is doing everything they can. We

already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way — and

they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.’” (Strachan, 2015). At this moment, all

the producers and celebrities in attendance had their eyes glued on West. With Myers looking

terrified, he continued with his final lines. A moment passes and then West states his final last

words, on live television, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” (Strachan, 2015). At
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this point, it was too late to cut away – Millions of Americans heard those words. Bush later

stated that West’s remark was a low-point of his presidency.

Image Restoration Theory

One can only imagine the type of backlash that could come from such crude comments

about our (then) Commander in Chief. This section is focused on image repair/restoration. What

is image repair? What all goes into repairing ones image? How did West use this theory to help

his image after an incident like this? To start, we must understand exactly what image repair is.

Image restoration is a theory made by William L. Benoit. According to article “Image Repair

Discourse and Crisis Communication” on page 177, “Image is essential to organizations (i.e.,

corporations, government bodies, non-profit groups) as well as individuals. Even if we are

moving away from a notion of image as a single impression shared by an audience,(1) image is

still a central concept to the field of public relations. Firms may take preventive(2) and

restorative approaches to image problems.” (Benoit, 1997, p. 177). When Benoit made the

theory, he stated that two key concepts were essential to image repair. Stated by the same article

as above (Benoit, 1997, p. 177), these two concepts are, “1. The accused is held responsible for

an action. 2. That act is considered offensive.” (Benoit, 1997, p. 177). Along with the two key

concepts, there are a few strategies that can be chosen from when repairing an image. These

strategies include; denial, evasion of responsibility, reduce offensiveness, corrective action, and

finally mortification. First strategy mentioned is denial. Denial can simply be denying what

happened, or shifting the blame to someone else. The second strategy mentioned is, “evasion

of responsibility” which has four versions. The first version is claiming a response was made

from another offensive act. The second version is claiming a lack of knowledge or control over

elements. The third version is claiming the offensive incident was an accident. Finally, the fourth
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version of “evasion of responsibility” is claiming that the offensive action was performed with

good intentions. The third strategy mentioned is “reduce offensiveness.” This strategy has six

versions. The first version is focusing on the good things the person or corporation did in the

past. The second version tries to minimize the negative feelings associated with the incident that

caused image rebuilding. The third version includes the firm employing differentiation. This

means that the act is distinguished from other similar but more offensive actions. An example of

this would be a company claiming something was an accident instead of fraud or something of

that nature. The fourth version involves transcendence. This version attempts to place the act in a

more fixable situation. The fifth version plans to attack the accusers. Finally, the sixth version in

this step is compensation. This is that last strategy to reducing offensiveness. This could include

apologizing and compensating those that were hurt by the incident. Now onto the second to last

strategy of image repair, also known as, “corrective action.” This strategy is simply the firm or

person promising to correct the incident. If those strategies don’t fit, there is one last and final

strategy of image repair. The last strategy is called “mortification.” Mortification includes

confessing and begging for forgiveness. This strategy works best in situations that are un-

avoidable and un-excusable. So, now that we know all about the image restoration theory, what

strategy did West end up using to help rebuild his image after such a blunt claim made on live

television?

Analysis

After further research on the incident that ruined West’s image, and learning all about

image restoration theory and its strategies, we can further analyze this case. In this section we

will take a deeper look into the incident, the steps West and his PR team took to help rebuild his

image, and what image restoration strategies I believe West and his PR team should have used
Running Head: IMAGE REPAIR ON KANYE WEST 7

instead. That being said, immediately following the incident, not only were U.S. citizens up in

arms over the remark, the companies involved in the charity telethon event were just as upset.

Although, it is important to add that there was a solid group of celebrities that backed up West

and his remark. Here are a few things that happened after the event; According to Strachan

(2015), “The Red Cross, a major recipient of the concert’s donations, was particularly furious

about West’s comments and worried that donors would pull their money as a result.” (Strachan,

2015). Along with that, the producers of “30 Rock” cut Myer’s and West’s bit on a later showing

of the telethon, other rappers like P. Diddy and 50 Cent publicly supported West and the remark,

and people like Bill O’Reilly called West out for saying something so horrific. According to

Chappell (2010), (then) President Bush waited a decent amount of time to respond to West.

When Bush finally responded, he did it in an interview with NBC;s Matt Laurer. Stated in

Chappell’s article about the incident (2010), this is what Bush had to say, “’He called me a

racist,’ Bush tells Lauer. ‘And I didn’t appreciate it then. I don’t appreciate it now. It’s one thing

to say, ‘I don’t appreciate the way he’s handled his business.’ It’s another thing to say, ‘This

man’s a racist.’ I resent it, it’s not true.’ Lauer quotes from Bush’s new book: ‘Five years later I

can barely write those words without feeling disgust.’ Lauer adds, ‘You go on: ‘I faced a lot of

criticism as president. I didn’t like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass

destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the

response to Katrina represented an all-time low.’” (Chappell, 2010). As you can see, almost

everyone had something to say about the incident. So, what exactly did West do to help himself

and his image after this? After researching, there are very little findings on what exactly West

did to rebuild his image. This means, that West and his PR team decided to handle this situation

with a mix a few versions from the evasion of responsibility strategy. That being said, West was
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quiet about the incident other than we he was asked about it. If asked, West would defend

himself (evasion of responsibility). According to McAfee (2018), this is what West has to say

about the incident 13 years later, “’I was very emotional and I was programmed to think

from a victimized mentality. Of a welfare mentality,’ West said.” (Chappell, 2018). West

also blames the Democratic Party for using the concept of racism to control voters. After

analyzing the case, West and his PR team handled the situation a lot differently than I

would have. If I was West’s PR manager, I would have told West to use the Mortification

strategy to help repair his image in the public eye. With this strategy, West could have

owned up to what he said, he could have even said he didn’t regret what he said, but with

this strategy he would have apologized. If he would has used this strategy, his apology

should have been made to former President George Bush, U.S. Citizens, and to the

producers and staff at 30 Rock who put on the charity telethon event. To this day, there

are still a lot of people mad at West for his remark. Althou gh, I believe that if he would

have apologized when the incident happened, then maybe this incident wouldn’t be as

well known as it is now and people could have forgave West instead of no longer

supporting his career.

Discussion

In this section, we will discuss future considerations that West and his PR team can use

when West has another image repair situation. West has a long history of ruining his image and

repairing it. From this incident, to the Taylor Swift incident, to his most recent twitter outbursts –

West’s team needs all the help they can get. As stated in the above section, there were very

limited findings on what exactly West did after the remark and how it affected his career. This is

all thanks to West’s PR team. His team was proactive on what information was being put out
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about West and the incident. Currently, in 2018, West is very public about his support for current

President Donald Trump. From a public relations perspective, West could be doing this so

members and followers of the Republican Party can support him and his career again. In

addition, West supporting President Trump also helps people forget that he said something so

vial about our last conservative President. For the future of West and his image, West should

avoid saying anything controversial especially when it comes to politics. Well, we all know West

will not do that, so for the future of his PR team; they need to form a team that is very proactive

and does all they can to avoid West giving his opinion. His PR team needs to tell West to focus

on promoting his music and his fashion label, not his opinions.

Conclusion

Overall, there is a lot to learn from this situation. West learned the repercussions of

talking bad about our nation’s leader; he also learned that although this hurt his image – he was

able to repair it. West’s PR team learned that West is not afraid to hurt his image to get a

message out and that they need to always be prepared. Finally, students studying

communications learned that Benoit’s image restoration theory can help no matter how bad the

situation is.
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References Page

Benoit, W. L. (n.d.). Image repair discourse and crisis communication. Retrieved November 18,

2018, from http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/98A1/Benoit.htm

Chappell, B. (2010, November 3). Bush Says Kanye West's Attack Was Low Point Of His

Presidency; West Agrees. Retrieved November 18, 2018, from

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2010/11/03/131052717/bush-says-kanye-west-

s-attack-was-low-point-of-his-presidency

D'zurilla, C. (2016, July 19). Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift: A timeline of the drama, which now

includes Kim Kardashian West. Retrieved November 1, 2018, from

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-mg-taylor-swift-kanye-west-feud-

timeline-20160718-snap-htmlstory.html

Page, J. & Parnell, L. (2018). Introduction to Strategic Public Relations: Digital, Global &

Socially Responsible Communication. Sage Publications. ISBN 9781506358031

Strachan, M. (2015, August 28). The Definitive History Of ‘George Bush Doesn’t Care About

Black People’. Retrieved November 1, 2018, from

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kanye-west-george-bush-black-

people_us_55d67c12e4b020c386de2f5e
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McAfee, T. (2018, October 11). Kanye West Explains Calling George W. Bush Racist in 2005: 'I

Was Caught Up in a Victim Mentality'. Retrieved November 20, 2018, from

https://people.com/politics/kanye-west-george-bush-racist-2005-victim-mentality/