Episode #18: Top PR Minds Share Ideas to Save Ellen DeGeneres, Why Accepting a Demotion During COVID-19 Isn't a Given, and Jim Carrey Opens Up

Talking Shop Podcast

The scandal engulfing Ellen DeGeneres has been a PR nightmare for the popular talk show host, but also creates a significant challenge for the brightest minds in PR. We dissect what has transpired so far, where mistakes were made, and sift through advice from PR professionals on what to do next to save the show -- and her own reputation.

COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on the economy, pushing 40 million people out of a job in the US alone. But while layoffs and furloughs are common, those aren't the only tools in management's toolbox. More employees are finding themselves facing pay cuts or demotions, some of which leave employees in very different roles from what they were hired to do. If this sounds like you, Ewan has some excellent advice -- so listen up!

Then we look at how some of the lowest paid jobs turned out to be the most "essential" during the pandemic, how Canadian comedian Jim Carrey overcame his own fears to become a star, and some wrenching photos from ground zero in Hiroshima and Nagasaki mere weeks after nuclear bombs utterly destroyed both cities.

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Show Notes and Resources

• Former Employees Say Ellen’s “Be Kind” Talk Show Mantra Masks a Toxic Work Culture - Buzzfeed
• Dozens of Former “Ellen Show” Employees Say Executive Producers Engaged in Rampant Sexual Misconduct and Harassment - Buzzfeed
• Dakota Johnson YouTube
• How Ellen will Try to Fix Her Scandal, According to Crisis PR Experts - Vice

Check This Out

• Red Lobster is Not Essential - New Yorker
• Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America - Kurt Anderson
• I Was a Useful Idiot for Capitalism - The Atlantic
• After Atomic Bombings, These Photographers Worked Under Mushroom Clouds - NYT
• Jim Carrey - WTF Pod with Marc Maron

Hosts

Ewan Christie is an employment lawyer and partner at Duntrune LLP in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Cam MacMurchy is a corporate communications executive with a multinational technology company listed in Hong Kong and curator of the Digital Bits PR and Communications newsletter.