Since his beginning in the Beauty Influencers Community, Youtuber James Charles has been no stranger to controversy. In December 2015 James Charles launched his Youtube career by posting makeup and beauty tutorials. When he first created his channel, James was only sixteen years old, but his skills as an aspiring makeup artist and the fact he was an entirely self‑taught high school student made people take notice.
So much so, that it gained him enough recognition that he was scouted and then named as the first ever male spokesperson for CoverGirl Cosmetics. At this point, James Charles had a following of 427,000. Until last week he had 16.1 million followers on his Youtube account and nearly as many on Instagram. James also had the Sisters Apparel merchandise line, and several lucrative makeup collaborations most notably his eye shadow palette made in partnership with Morphe. However, according to the article 'James Charles: From 'Coverboy' to Cancelled' published by The New York Times, James Charles is now at the centre of a massive ongoing scandal that has seen him lose three million Youtube followers, the first million of these lost in a single day. James Charles has also well as being unfollowed on Instagram by celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.
The scandal first began after James Charles made an Instagram story featuring a sponsored advertisement for Sugarbearhair, a gummy vitamin company known for using influencers and celebrities such as the Kardashians for brand promotion. The story came as a surprise to his following, considering James Charles has long been a close friend and protege of Tati Westbrook. Tati Westbrook is also a Youtube Beauty influencer, and owner of Halo Beauty, which also is a vitamin company.
Many people, including Tati Westbrook herself, felt that James Charles choosing to promote a rival supplement company in his Instagram stories was a deep betrayal on their friendship. Because of this, Tati Westbrook posted a 43‑minute long video detailing why she was so hurt, and how she no longer wanted to have anything to do with him.
The New York Times article also mentioned how Tati Westbrook's video 'Bye Sister...', coyly named in response to James Charles's catchphrase 'Hey Sisters', addressed other rumours regarding his behaviour that had been circling for some time. James Charles is proudly known as a gay man, but in more recent months has been accused of attempting to 'trick straight men into thinking they are gay.' Westbrook's video went viral, and had been seen more than 40 million times at the Times article was published.
According to an article published on E! Online called 'James Charles Loses 1 Million Subscribers Amid Tati Westbrook Feud', James Charles responded to the accusations by posting a video of his own the same day. James's video saw the 19‑year‑old explain how Tati had been "like a mother" to him since he first began his career. The New York Times noted that the eight‑minute video, titled 'Tati' also has 40 million views.
Given the sheer magnitude of views, this story affects many stakeholders. From the outset, it is evident that this story will and has had a phenomenal effect on James Charles's career, and any future endeavours he wishes to pursue. It has been noted that the story has poorly impacted the collaborations with Morphe Cosmetics and his line, Sisters Apparel. This mean Morphe Cosmetics is also a stakeholder in the story, as being connected to such a controversial influencer could harm their sales and reputation. On the other hand, Tati Westbrook and her company Halo Beauty are also directly attached to the story and therefore, are likely to be affected as stakeholders. Additionally, Youtube is the platform on which most of this feud has taken place, and they are stakeholder also. This story could reflect poorly on the video‑sharing website as they recently sponsored James Charles's attending the Met Gala Ball much to the chagrin of some of the public. In saying of all of this, I believe the most important stakeholder of all is 'James Charles the person', not 'James Charles the brand'. This scandal has been a significant attack on his character and reputation, especially with the rumours regarding his supposed sexual misconduct.
From a public relations perspective, the apology video was flawed and did little to cease the media storm that followed. Viewers saw a makeup‑free, blotchy‑skinned James Charles sitting on the floor of his Australian hotel room. He cried and apologised over and over again in what has become somewhat of a Youtubers' 'I've been caught out, and now I need to apologise while also looking sympathetic, so people feel sorry for me' staple. These sort of videos are as insincere as they sound and has proved in the past not to be effective, in the case of other controversial YouTube content creators like Laure Lee and Trisha Paytas.
Given the sheer size of media backlash and the unfollowing spree that occurred after Tati Westbrook's video was posted, I would have considered the theories around crisis management in order to combat the issue. The theory suggests that a crisis need to be dealt with immediately and is reactive to the issue, however in the case of James Charles's response to Tati Westbrook's video which was met with public ridicule, it is important to note that James Charles and his management team were not even in the same country or time zone when the issue occurred. James Charles was in Australia promoting Sisters Apparel, and had a fan meet and greet first thing in the morning, so his ability to respond to her video and accusations quickly was very limited. As a result, James Charles was two hours late to his meet and greet, which only caused more problems. I believe if James Charles had waited even if only until that evening when he would have been able to give a proper, composed and curated response to not only apologise to Tati Westbrook but also to defend himself, it could have proven to be more effective and less ingenuine. It is also important to consider that when trying to make an argument in defence (or guilt), there usually needs to have evidence to corroborate the statement. The type of people who watch the content these creators make demand for what the internet calls 'receipts'. These are usually in the form of screenshots or videos that are used to prove that conversations or scenarios occurred as the creator claims. Given how impromptu James Charles's response was in comparison to the original video posted by Tati Westbrook, James Charles had not taken the time to gather the supporting evidence which could have helped his case.
James Charles should have also taken the time to address all of the points given in Tati Westbrook's video, instead of just choosing to respond to her comments about being hurt and betrayed. If James Charles had cleared up the rumours regarding his character and the sexual misconduct against straight men faster, I believe that the media backlash would not have been so negative as to present him as a predator. In the age of 'Cancel Culture', influencers and celebrities alike need to be especially careful about the persona or versions of themselves that gets presented to society as it has been made clear again and again that the majority of any love or support projected onto these public figures is always conditional and this has been proven in for James Charles.
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