When Virality Backfires: The New Rules for CEOs

Andy Warhol's quote about fame is very well-known: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." With social media today, his observation appears more prescient than ever. But many years before, Cervantes’ Don Quixote stated: "Freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts that heaven has bestowed upon men; no treasures that the earth holds buried or the sea conceals can compare with it; for freedom, as well as for honor, life may and should be ventured; and on the other hand, captivity is the greatest evil that can fall to the lot of man." Should virality, as honor, be equally considered as worthy even when it accomplishes hate or criticism?

Recently, CEOs have been at the forefront of the debate. Coldplay’s "kiss cam" scandal was a trending topic for more than three weeks, a long period in average social media time. It had all the elements of a novel: betrayal, shame, good-looking people, and of course, Chris Martin’s British humor as he remarked on the surprising situation. Some weeks later, another video broke on the internet: a millionaire CEO stole a cap from a child at the US Open. Almost at the same time, one of the largest food companies in Europe dismissed one of its leaders after it was revealed he was having an affair with a subordinate. The spotlight quickly turned to the related companies, their values, their leadership, and the reasons why their corporate governance must change.

Widely attributed to P.T. Barnum, a businessman and circus owner, the phrase, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” has been used by marketers and public relations offices for almost a century. But, in the digital era, the social pressure is so great that immediately we saw the end of prestigious careers, either through dismissal or resignation.

Obviously, there is a lot that can be learned from these situations, but especially in the age of digital culture: the awareness that we are surrounded by cameras and cellphones all the time and whether we've lost the right to anonymity, irretrievably or not. Even though most posts condemned relationships crossing professional boundaries or unethical attitudes, there were also voices raising the alarm about the strict scrutiny of these people and their actions.

Today, doxxing is a common practice, where people publish personally identifying information about an individual on the internet without any consent and often with malicious intent. Its characteristics are very simple: you find their data and you share it; you can then judge or criticize and with that, go viral. That’s why, in a few seconds, the whole world knew the name and job of the executives at the Coldplay concert. More than one user posted the video to their respective partner's profile because “they need to know.” Almost immediately, people found more photos, details of their careers and families. They didn’t need to be hackers because we all share our private and professional information on various platforms, and with facial recognition and artificial intelligence there are no secrets — and searches take no time at all.

Certainly, Oscar Wilde, who stated, "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about" didn’t know about social media. Tragically, however, he suffered social rejection in a sensationalist judgement. History has resized his literary figure and his work but, in his life, the personal and economic consequences were brutal.

Astronomer, the company of the married CEO and HR executive caught in the Coldplay video, had its own viral reaction to the scandal. It hired Chris Martin’s ex-wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, to star in a video campaign about the company to help overcome the negative attention. The company was adaptable, and the campaign was a game changer — and even funny. Nevertheless, not all corporations can afford such scandals. 

In Mexico, we've also seen similar videos emerge, including Lady Racista or Lady Polanco, a journalist who lost her job because she shared a video complaining about the waiters of a restaurant who asked her to leave with her friends because they had stayed beyond the restaurant's closing hour. Apologies were given but she lost her principal job — and it became difficult for her to find other work in traditional media, as would happen with CEOs who have gone viral for the wrong reasons.

Undoubtingly, it is a great step that society reacts to preserve values like loyalty, transparency, or workers' rights. It helps us to have a much greater sense of community and empathy. Nevertheless, companies must focus on preventing such publicity because the damage doesn’t end by firing an employee. For long time now, CEOs have not only been the leaders of a company but also mentors and role models for their employees, young students, and the standard for the competition. It is not just about the degrees or experience that we see in their resumes. As Jane Goodall famously said: “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make,” and of course, the kind of content related to your company you want to see in social media.