Crisis Case Study- Olivia Jade

In March of 2019, one of the biggest college admissions scandals ever got released to the internet, and many people were involved, including the famous social media influencer Olivia Jade. For some context on the crisis, in the spring of 2019, it came out to the public that there were conspiracies that many rich and famous parents were paying their way into elite Universities for their kids. There was then a whole investigation called "Operation Varsity Blues," where they looked into who was responsible and involved in this illegal activity and the consequences of these famous and rich people's actions. Although many people were involved in this investigation and scandal, one of the prominent names and faces that the public eye connected to this scandal was Olivia Jade.

Olivia Jade is a famous Youtuber and social media influencer with millions of followers and the daughter of actress Lori Loughlin and designer Mossimo Giannulli. When this scandal got released to the public, Olivia Jade had a massive following, was working with many famous brands, had her own makeup line, and was a freshman at the University of Southern California. Immediately when the scandal got out to the public, Olivia didn't post anything on social media and kept everything in her personal life offline. As a result, she lost thousands of followers, and lost all her brand deals and brands stopped collabing with her. Olivia was getting a lot of hate on social media, which was the face of this scandal. Although Olivia lost a lot of followers and was receiving a lot of hate, she was also getting lots of attention in the public eye, and her name was being spread around everywhere. Almost every article about "Operation Varsity Blues" somewhat mentioned Olivia Jade's name, and the public and her fans were waiting for a response from her.

For months Olivia didn't post anything on her social media platforms. Olivia kept everything regarding her personal life very private, so no one knew how she felt about this, how she would recover from this, and if she was going to get back on social media. Her first post back on social media was in August, and it was a picture of her flicking off the camera and captioning her photo, tagging all the big magazine and tabloid companies.

After posting this, she either got hate from people saying "she doesn't even feel bad for what she did" or "her privilege is showing." On the other hand, some people thought that it was very on-brand of her and that it was almost a funny and chill way to make her return back on social media. Although some people thought her return to social media was funny, most people have a lot of hate for it, and the response was pretty negative, so she deleted it. Until the investigation and trial of her parents was decided, she didn't post anything else on social media since that first flicking off post. Olivia then decided she wanted to give her side of the story and make a return back into the public eye more professionally and respectfully. So she decided to go on Red Table Talk, a talk show with Jada Picket Smith, daughter Willow Smith, and mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris. On Red Table Talk, she gave her side of the story and mainly stated how she was very sorry for her actions and that she was very ignorant as a child and has learned and matured as a person over the past couple of years after the scandal. The conversation was very civil, and Olivia was apologetic and mature about responding to the situation. However, she still gave her side of the story and said she has learned from this and wanted to get back into social media and Youtube to spread positive messages and do what she loves. After the Red Table Talk was posted, there was still obviously a lot of hate surrounding her and this scandal, but more people were sympathetic to her and were happy to see that she has learned from this and is working on growing as a person. Overall, Olivia got more positive feedback and reaction to the Red Table Talk interview. It was a successful and professional thing that helped her get less hate for this scandal.

After the Red Table Talk, Olivia started to post more casually on Instagram with fun pictures of her friends and travels. In January of 2021, she returned to Youtube and made her first video back after the scandal. Olvia now posts on Youtube and Instagram regularly and has even done things like go on Dancing With The Stars, started a Podcast, and is working with well-known fashion and beauty brands again. Overall, I think that Olivia Jade handled this scandal the best she could have at such a young age and in the context of what life she was living. She was a young college student when the scandal broke out, and she didn't even know much about what the investigation was or how to handle it. Olivia couldn't talk much about it on her social media for legal reasons, making it even more difficult for her to handle the situation. Her whole job surrounded around social media, and since she couldn't give her side of the story on social media, she lost lots of fans and followers simply because she wasn't posting or commenting on the situation.

I think it was a brilliant idea for Olivia to go on Red Table Talk to first officially talk about the scandal. It gave her a way to talk about her situation calmly without people bombarding her with questions, and she was able to give her side of the story. She also apologized and showed how she had changed, which made people respect her a lot more, making it easier for her to go back into the public eye and post again on social media. Something I think Olivia could have done differently to handle her scandal was she should not have made her first Instagram post back after the scandal a rude picture of her flicking off the camera and essentially flicking off her haters. This made the public immediately think that she wasn't sorry for what she did, and it made it more complicated for her to seem like she changed when she wasn't taking responsibility for her actions. Besides that one post, I think Olivia handled the rest of her scandal very well and as professionally as she could have, considering she was so young, didn't know enough about the situation, and legally couldn't talk much about it on social media. Olivia's career and social media presence was clearly affected by this scandal, and it was a very negative thing for her brand. Still, she is working towards reinventing her brand and social media presence and is not letting her past scandal hold her back any longer. Many people still hate on her, and there are many mixed opinions on whether she should even have a platform because what she did was wrong and that she doesn't deserve a second chance. Still, Olivia is working on proving to people that she can change, and she wants to spread positive messages to her followers now. Overall, there are many mixed opinions on Olivia Jade and the "Operation Varsity Blues" scandal. Still, I think Olivia handled the scandal reasonably well, and she is now growing in followers and is off to reinventing herself in the public eye and on social media.