Do Not Create Attention For What You Should Be Burying
Instead of repeatedly talking about something that annoys you, do not talk about it at all— at least not publicly.
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In February 2022, professional footballer, Kurt Zouma, who plays for West Ham United F.C. in England, was filmed kicking a cat (I am not linking the video) and it created a wave of performative outrage.
Performative outrage is that annoying anger that people show over missteps to elicit that they are better than whoever the outrage is targeted at and that everyone should ostracise such persons because they threaten the fabric of something dear to us; typically our morals. Performative outrage is the opening performance that ushers in ‘cancellation’. And performative outrage was what Kurt Zouma faced through March.
At first, Kurt Zouma and his team were up and about answering questions, writing apologies, promising to donate to this and to that, and telling people to forgive and forget the unfortunate situation.
But it only got worse.
A lot of factors were at play for Kurt Zouma —including his race, his celebrity status, his star power (or lack of), and his charisma (or lack of)— but Zouma’s team continued to take the performative outrage bait and feed it with attention.
Until David Moyes stepped in.
David Moyes is Zouma’s manager and when they asked him if he was going to drop Zouma from his team because of his action, he only answered the one time: he will not drop a good player over a misdeed.
That was the end of that saga.
While Zouma’s team were trying to bury the video and the performance as fast as possible, Moyes said “fuck it! he did it! y’all have a good day”, and that was the end of it.
Again, it could be because of race dynamics, or that Moyes himself is well-respected in England. But one thing is certain, after that one response, Moyes only responded to the issue with silence. It had me wondering how effective silence was as a tactic in overcoming uncomfortable situations.
I had been reading about this and how it impacts marketing, and then last week, something happened.
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