Will Miley Cyrus’ career suffer after being caught on camera smoking Salvia? From a PR perspective likely not and here’s why. The American public has actually come a long way in the past ten years of accepting the idea that their idols and heroes aren’t infallible. In fact, when a celebrity presents themselves as anything less than perfect, we think they gain a significant amount of credibility with the public because even the public knows they are not perfect.
Cyrus can learn a lot from Brittney Spears who presented herself as a pristine, good girl for so many years before collapsing under her carefully constructed PR lie. Spears did several things that the public at the time considered reprehensible but, in the end she still performs and she still has millions of fans. Cyrus doesn’t have to go through was Spears did if she’s simply honest with her fans. She may lose some of her fans in the short term but, she’ll gain a tremendous amount of respect from her loyal fans in the long term.
Recently, Bill O’Reilly lashed out at Cyrus’s Salvia video and verbally assassinated her. What many people don’t realize that Salvia is currently legal and Cyrus committed no crime. O’Reilly’s attack on a woman half his age who’s beloved by millions is actually a very positive factor in negating some of the PR fallout from the video. Cyrus can thank O’Reilly.
In the future Cyrus should be smart and not allow herself to be video taped doing anything remotely controversial. It’s one thing to admit you’re not perfect but, it’s another thing to have millions worldwide view your imperfect actions. So far, Cyrus has proven to not have a substance abuse problem that’s affecting her performance dates or her interviews. If she continues to show up on time and do well, there’s no reason why Disney or any media conglomerate should even think of dropping her.