by By Addison Nuttbrock
All press is good press, right? In a sense it is true but the press also has the ability to completely shift the publics perception of an individual in an instant.
Liam Payne, a former member of One Direction, has become a hot topic of conversation and has started trending on social media platforms for the first time in years after appearing on an episode of YouTuber Logan Paul’s podcast, Impaulsive. Payne discussed his career, divulged personal information about his former bandmates, and even claimed that he has the most successful solo career out of the One Direction members. It only takes a quick google search to discover that Payne is most definitely not the most successful soloist out of the members. Fans of One Direction took to social media to drag Payne for his false claims and call him out for inappropriately talking about the personal lives of the other members.
The medium that Payne chose to discuss these topics set the singer up for failure. Impaulsive is a podcast by YouTuber Logan Paul, who is all too familiar with public scrutiny. Paul has been involved with a fair share of scandals during his career which has earned him quite a reputation, and it’s not good. It was an interesting choice by Payne, who has been wrapped up in recent cheating allegations, to choose this specific podcaster for an exclusive interview. If his goal was to get people talking about him he certainly succeeded. The YouTube video received nearly 2 million views and just over 40 thousand likes.
After the podcast aired social media users had a frenzy. Old clips of One Direction dissing Payne resurfaced and people voiced their surprise that Paul was not the “insufferable” one in the interview. A once-beloved member of One Direction is now the target of internet hate and humorous memes.
Before the interview, Payne had a relatively neutral public perception. He has faced small controversies and some people didn’t necessarily care for the singer but he hasn’t faced such strong public opinion since One Direction broke up in 2015. This interview will certainly follow Payne for years to come.
In this instance, I don’t think that all press is good press. There aren’t many people or news outlets defending the singer and his wild claims. Who knows though. Maybe this is the type of publicity Payne needs to finally have a single break into the Billboard Top 100. Maybe it was his plan to have the entire internet talk about him. It is safe to say that Payne’s public perception has been shifted negatively. Will he be able to recover?
This whole interview honestly kind of shocked me. It makes me wonder if his main purpose was to get people talking about him because some of the stuff he said was pretty ridiculous. Like you said, it is painfully obvious that he does not have the most successful solo career out of all the members, he’s like bottom two. It just surprised me that he was willing to say this stuff when he knows how fans will react.
Hi Addison!
I always have heard this saying and wondered if it was realistic. In my opinion, this press for Liam Payne is only good if he wanted to receive the backlash he has been. Liam said things that I would never want out there or said by him if I was his publicist. However, his name is all over social media and has been a topic of discussion. This could be a way of getting his name popular again so people will pay attention to any new music releases he will have.
I really liked the way you discussed this interview in terms of PR and “good press”. I remember that immediately following the interview, Twitter went wild and analyzed (in depth) everything he said about the other members of the band, himself, and other celebrities in general. I remember one tweet reading “Does Liam Payne even have a management team or is he out here speaking with no help?” This tweet made me laugh at first but after reading your post in terms of PR, it’s important to know that in this case he set himself up for failure. All of the people he mentioned by name in the interview didn’t ever really have anything bad to say about him, so their fan bases went full “stan” and protected them and called Liam out. Especially fans of his former band, One Direction. It was so clear that the backlash was not worth the attention it gave him, because all of the attention he was getting was so negative. I think this interview being released so quickly after his cheating scandal with his fiance didn’t help matters either. Overall, I thought you did a really good job analyzing this interview in terms of PR and “good press” and I really enjoyed reading your piece.
Hi Addison! Super interesting post coming from a past 1D fan. I definitely agree that not all press is good press but I do think that this interview put Liam into the spotlight better than a lot of things he has done since One Direction. I kind of found him irrelevant and so it’s almost like he has to do stuff like this to keep his name in the press. I did find it very strange that he would do this directly after being caught cheating on his fiancée. A lot of “bad press” for him lately which I don’t think helps him even if it does keep his name in the spotlight.
I love how you opened your blog with a question, I think it really set the tone for your topic and I think the idea of all press is good press is one to really question. Your blog topic is great because it’s been all over social media, and personally, I was shocked and disappointed when I first heard about it. I also agree that it was definitely an interesting choice on Liam’s part to go on Paul’s podcast and it makes you question what his intentions really were. I also dont think all press is good press, especially in Payne’s situation currently going on. As you said, the public never had a strong opinion about him it was always fairly neutral, but this interview definitely shifted things.