Sometimes the Best PR is No PR

So, I think I can speak for Black women everywhere when I say that we are disappointed with how this year has played out for Jonathan Majors. He was well on his way to superstardom and becoming a wholesome heartthrob for women everywhere with his seemingly calm demeanor and ripped physique. In March 2023, Johnathan was arrested on misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment as a result of a domestic dispute with his girlfriend. Given that he was seemingly in the peak of his career coming off of the release of Creed III and Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, there was a lot of speculation around the validity of the accusation given the timing and the sweet and quiet public persona he had become known for. However, when his team made an attempt to clean this up in the eyes of the public and the media, they actually did more harm than good.

His team released a series of statements and text records that they hoped would clear his name and turn everyone against the accuser, when instead they seemingly confirmed her story and changed most people’s opinion on the kind of person they believed he was. Although in PR it is important to get in front of an issue and begin to clean things up as soon as possible, sometimes it is more important to let things run their course. When it comes to matters of abuse, there is no amount of PR in the world that will “fix” it for most people, however in this situation, Johnathan’s positive standing in his community and his lack of public former offenses would have carried him far. By jumping in with “evidence” without properly vetting his past or considering the meaning of the messages and how they would be perceived by the public, I fear that Johnathan’s public “cancelling” was expedited. Let this be a lesson that sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all.