Lance Armstrong has had a very bad year. In June 2012 the United States Anti-Doping Agency charged him with using illegal enhancement drugs and in August of the same year he was officially banned from competing. He was also stripped of all his titles won since August 1998, with officials stating that he ran “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”
Fans were outraged, the media went crazy and people everywhere stripped their arms of the yellow Livestrong bands that were once the height of fashion for the sports-centric male.
Armstrong vehemently denied these allegations for as long as he could, taking to calling out the woman who made the accusations, his former masseuse, describing her as an alcoholic, fat prostitute. His lawyer continued to deny the allegations on his behalf until the Queen of the awkward interview, Oprah herself, decided to get the goss.
On Thursday the 17th of January, Armstrong appeared on OWN in a heartfelt one-to-one interview where he obviously tried his best to regain some of his reputation. He admitted to doping in 2008 but denied doing so in 2009 and 2010. He also denied pressuring his Tour de France teammates into doping along with him and said he did not feel as if he cheated because he “looked it up in the dictionary.”
During the interview, viewers flocked to Twitter and Facebook pushing the hashtags #OWNTV and #Doprah established trending topics. It seemed that social media sentiment backfired on Armstrong’s PR stunt as most tweets attacked Armstrong for not feeling bad for his deceptions.
Before the rise of Social Media, disgraced stars would count on how the media reported on their crisis management events – depending on the articles to sway public opinion. Nowadays, companies and brands get to see, in real time, how their plans and actions are being perceived. One way the interview could have been managed better, from Armstrong’s point of view, would have been if the sit down was filmed live and the cyclist could have had a chance to address tweets as they came in. Now, he is faced with the bitter aftertaste of social media shunning.
