Position Paper 1:

Crisis Public Relations

You love them or you hate them the Kardashians. The Kardashian family incase you live under a rock consists of five sisters who live their everyday lives in the spotlight with their manager mom Kris Jenner. They have been featured on their own reality television show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians since 2007 and with reality television comes loads of publicity positive or negative. Typically the one taking the most negative press is Kim Kardashian whose whole career started with the controversial release of her adult film with rapper RayJ being leaked, talk about a rough start in the public eye.

The adult video of Kim Kardashian and RayJ was the first major crisis of public relations with obviously tons to follow. However their reality tv show came out a few months after the tape leaked immediately starting a negative image for the sister. When asked about the tape a few years later Kim stated that "I felt like I really had to work 10 times harder to get people to see the real me. I felt humiliated." In later episodes of the series Kim's past makes a reappearance and the episode shows her dealing with the public relations aspect of the issue but also shows her emotions behind the scenes of the scandal. In this instance being an early mishap of her image Kim was able to recover from the scandal, as the reality show is still airing today. The sisters take turns being in the publics eye in a negative manner. Kylie Jenner one of the youngest sisters faced negative publicity when she decided to have lip fillers and other work done to enhance her physical appearance. She revealed her reasoning behind these enhancements were harsh words of an ex boyfriend who told her with these modifications she would be more attractive. Almost two years later Kylie launched her very own cosmetics brand with her infamous Kylie Lip kits which she speaks out about saying she wants every one to feel beautiful in their own skin. Kylie releasing her makeup like was how she handled the criticism she was receiving from the press and the public. Considering her makeup empire is now worth more than $420 million I think the way this sister handled the negativity was overwhelmingly successful. Kylie Jenner is the youngest of the five sisters but is the wealthiest and most successful.

Kim Kardashian has been in the public eye since 2007 and has had many scandals including her marriage to NBA basketball player Kris Humphries. There was live coverage of the marriage and was very luxurious. Their marriage only lasted for 72 days, yes you read that right 72 days. The pair then received lots of questions whether their marriage was just purely made for the benefit of the show. The wedding was heavily publicized and had a two episode coverage of the major event being labeled 'Kim's Fairytale Wedding'. In one of her interviews preceding the split Kim stated that she knew the wedding was "doomed from the beginning" but since she was thirty she felt like she needed to be at that stage in her life. Since I am a fan of the show I watched their relationship from the beginning and the whole thing did seem rather staged which is why the pair received so much backlash after the split. Their wedding cost a reported $10 million dollars for a short lived staged romance. Kim obviously recovered from this failed marriage by marrying Kanye West however Kris seems to have given up in the love aspect of life being single since the split. Next up is the oldest Kourtney Kardashian when her longtime partner who she has multiple children with was caught cheating. The pair had been romantically involved for over nine years when in 2015 Scott Disick was caught cuddling up to his ex girlfriend on a yacht the pair then called it quits. However, the two have a very good parenting dynamic and Scott stills stays in touch with the family being heavily involved with his children. Keeping up with the trend of cheating spouses Khloé Kardashian's NBA ex husband Lamar Odom was caught cheating as well but with multiple women.  The pair unlike Kourtney and Scott didn't have any children together so they don't have to parent together. Their split was very public, causing more of a mess and unsuccessfully avoiding a public relations mess.

The family is currently involved in a family scandal as the oldest Kourtney has stated she is "Ashamed of her disgusting family: it's just gross" The three oldest sisters are caught in a war of harsh words and attitude problems. Their reality tv show has made the whole situations between the three extremely public. Khloé stated she has a problem with her eldest sisters attitude and how she treats family members. Khloé was confused why Kourtney would say things like "If you weren't pregnant I probably would've drowned you in the f-ing pool." Kim then comes into the current drama  when she tried to plan a family photoshoot and Kourtney gave her attitude as well. The family as a whole is not handling the situation well and having unsuccessful attempts at solving the problems privately.

Overall the Kardashian family is all over social media, more often than not in a negative way. In some instances they find ways to be proactive and solve their issues successfully, like Kylie turning her cosmetic surgery crisis into a multi million dollars business. But in other circumstances like Lamar and Kholé's divorce they pair handled the situation poorly making their divorce and issues very public. Each situation can be handled differently and could work positively in the favor of the people in the public eye.