Lindsay Lohan, destroyer of brands

by Jeffery Racheff

Is there really no such thing as bad publicity?

The old saying holds that any chance to get your name in the paper (or on people’s blogs) is worth the flack you might take for scandal or distastefulness. In the long run, so it goes, the potential for brand awareness outweighs temporary bad press.

Of course, this might not hold true in an age when stories of misdeeds and scandal spread like wildfire. I mean, I haven’t seen the statistics, but I’m guessing the news of a severed finger found in a cup of Wendy’s chili a couple years back didn’t result in more people craving square burgers. Bad publicity might be weathered until sunny days, but really bad publicity just brings non-stop rain until you’re at risk of drowning.

This was precisely the concern over the past few days at New York’s Fashion Week, where designers played the part of Wendy’s and Lindsay Lohan was the chili finger. The young actress was unofficially banned from runway shows and parties because of the potential for public embarrassment she tends to bring to those around her.

Designer Jill Stuart reportedly spoke for the majority of clothiers when her team declined to invite Lohan, dubbing the Parent Trap actress a “Brand Damager.” As an “industry insider” told the New York Daily News, “a lot of designers, and especially Jill’s camp, don’t think she’s worth all the press she’d get their show.”

Honestly, what’s really the worst that could happen? LiLo could show up and demand a seat front and center, only to succumb to her massive hangover in the lap of a Gossip Girl seated next to her — well that’s par for the course. But how would that ever get associated with a designer’s brand? If photographers caught her with legs in the air sporting Calvin Klein panties?

Even more surprising (if the ban rumors are true) is that these well-known, successful designers would be scared of someone who isn’t even intentionally trying to destroy them. Is Jill Stuart scared Lindsay will pull a Zoolander? Is there a secret cabal of designers in a war room deep beneath the runway — Donna Karan in a cloak and eye patch, Oscar de la Renta stroking a cat, Vera Wang tweaking the hinge on a trap door in the floor — that are terrified Lohan will actually foil their plans to have the perfect dress-up party?

On the other hand, maybe designers just want to focus on the clothes and drop the drama. Assuming she brings attention to your show, the press (paparazzi) would only be interested in catching Lohan stumbling or mumbling, not in the fashion statement you’re trying to make with your hem lines and bold Spring colors. That would be like Loch Ness trying to promote a bake sale. You’re only kidding yourself when you don’t acknowledge the money-making monster everyone really came to see.

So maybe “publicity at any cost” is not all it’s cracked up to be. Sure, your name will probably make the morning gossip rounds, but if it’s attached to the tail of a plummeting starlet… be prepared to pick yourself out of the wreckage.