DONOVAN MITCHELLCONTROVERSIAL VIDEOMEDIA & PR MONITORING2019.07.15Edelman
PR MONITORINGBACKGROUND•On July 7th, after the D.O.N. ISSUE #1 launch event, a fan followed Mitchell to his hotel and asked him to sign a card while he was resting. Mitchell’s team didn’t allow him to sign, following which the fan posted on HUPU to express his disappointment. At the time, thanks to management from adidas, the post didn’t receive much attention.•On July 13th, one of Mitchell‘s Instagram Stories garnered a lot of attention on Weibo and Hupu. The video was in fact an old one, filmed during his 2018 China Tour with T-Mac, instead of during his 2019 China Tour. •In the Instagram Story, Mitchell said: "Man, I’m just trying to relax sitting on the couch. They just out here chilling. They have been here since like in the morning." The word chilling was translated by mistake or intentionally as chirping, and the video was considered to be a sneer from Mitchell towards Chinese basketball fans.•Following the release of the video, the Weibo / WeChat / Baidu search index for Mitchell quickly spikedWEIBO INDEXBAIDU INDEXWECHAT INDEX
•After communicating with media, most of them became aware of, and accepted the true story of events, and helped deliver the right message to the public. •Public opinion was reversed after a large amount of evidence in Mitchell’s favour was released to the public.MEDIA WEIBO PLATFORM COMMUNICATINGISSUE MANAGEMENT This is actually a video from last year. Most of the fans were waiting for T-Mac. Mitchell was just showing how amazed he was at T-Mac’s popularity in China. The video has for some reason been dug out again during the D.O.N. ISSUE #1 launch.Many fans were misled. The so-called "sneer" video was released in 2018. Mitchell used the word persistent to express his amazement and admiration.This is a video from last year. Some fans misunderstand his meaning because of language differences. He was totally inoffensive, and he does respect Chinese fans.It’s very usual that basketball stars don’t recognize you, whether you wait 24h for him. Stars don’t have the responsibility to know you.Every day, the players have intensive schedules and they need some time to relax without being interrupted.Stars also need some personal time.When Mitchell was in Harbin during his 2019 China Tour, he showed his respect to a lot of students and staff.
•In the afternoon of July 13th, the PR team wrote an article from the perspective of Mitchell’s fans, clarifying the truth and defending Mitchell in Hupu SHH fourum.•The passage was highlighted and gained more than 35,204+ impressions.•Many fans changed their opinion from negative to neutral or positive and expressed that they want to see more details and evidence of what actually happened.HUPU COMMUNICATINGISSUE MANAGEMENT POSTCOMMENTS
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