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Because a positive societal image is so hard to earn, it seems evident that people and companies with an upstanding influence would do everything they could to uphold their social standing. Still, everyone makes mistakes. While a little “oops” here and there is acceptable - and even expected - this rule is often overlooked when the person or company erring is in the public eye. As social media has grown over the years, these mistakes have become even more prevalent, sometimes causing massive fallouts that damage reputations forever.
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A good reputation can take you far in life
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but it's a fragile sort of thing. As many historical figures and celebrities have discovered
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even the shiniest and most carefully constructed public images can fall apart in a moment after one bad decision
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So today, we're taking a look at some good reputations that changed in an instant
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Sorry, Joan Jett, but some people do give a damn about a bad reputation
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Pop star Ashley Simpson The younger sister of actor and singer Jessica Simpson
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First gained notice as a backup singer for her sibling And later a personality on the MTV reality show Newlyweds
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Featuring Jessica and her new husband Nick Lachey Of the boy band 98 Degrees
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Eventually MTV gave Ashley her own series The Ashley Simpson Show Which chronicled her relationship with fellow singer-songwriter Ryan Cabrera
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and the production of her debut album, Autobiography. The odds were a wild time
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but this once promising music career came to a screeching halt in October of 2004
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when Simpson appeared as the musical guest on NBC's Saturday Night Live
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Simpson lost her voice during rehearsals on the day of the show, blaming acid reflux, which had inflamed her vocal cords
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The decision was reached with producers to use a pre-recorded vocal track
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during the live TV performances, to which Simpson would lip-sync. The night's first song
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Pieces of Me went off without a hitch. But when Simpson took the stage
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to sing Autobiography, someone hit the wrong button and accidentally replayed the Pieces of Me vocal track instead
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Though they quickly fixed the error, Simpson's live backing band already started to play
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Pieces of Me, hoping to cover the mistake. By that point, it was clear something
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had gone very wrong and Simpson had been planning to lip sync over pre-recorded vocals
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She broke into a humorous little jig and then left the stage after about 30 seconds
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During the SNL closing credits, as host Jude Law wrapped up the show
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Simpson apologized to camera and explained the mix-up, adding, I didn't know what to do, so I thought I'd do a hoedown
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Despite her light-hearted reaction to the incident, and an appearance a few days later on MTV's Total Request Live
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during which she related the full story, the SNL debacle massively stalled Simpson's ascent in the pop music world
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Her follow-up single, Shadow, failed to reach the top 40 charts in the U.S
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and went entirely unreleased in Europe. Wait, I thought they loved lip syncing over there
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Oh, this one is with the Gen Zers. YouTuber Brooke Houts grew her channel to over 330,000 subscribers
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through a combination of personal, lifestyle, and fitness vlogs. In 2019, at the peak of her popularity
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Houts posted a video that accidentally included unedited footage in which she seen abusing her pet Doberman hitting and kicking the dog and even spitting on him Houts quickly pulled the video from her channel but many outraged viewers had already taken screenshots
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or made copies and reposted it around the web. The fallout from the video soon escaped the internet
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and sparked a real-world investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department, though their animal task force
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ultimately declined to file charges. Houts claimed that the dog was uninjured
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and that its heavy 75-pound frame and considerable power made it difficult for her to discipline and control
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Her former audience didn't accept this explanation, and her channel's viewership never recovered
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James Jimmy the Greek Snyder was a beloved CBS sports broadcaster for 12 years
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which is the kind of lengthy run that earns you a lot of goodwill, especially from loyal sports fans
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But it wasn't nearly enough to save him after a poorly considered 1988 interview
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which originally aired on Martin Luther King's birthday, in which Snyder made a number of shockingly racist assertions
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Snyder said that black people were better natural athletes because they've been bred that way
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He added that, with the rise of black coaches and staff behind the scenes, black Americans would now have too prominent a role in professional sports
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leaving little to no room for white participants. Even after the public reacted with disgust to the interview
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Snyder seemed to remain mostly oblivious to the offense his statements had caused
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He issued a simple apology, but he was still fired by CBS Sports
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He responded by suing CBS for defamation, breach of contract, and age discrimination in 1991
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alleging that the incident had negatively impacted his health and that CBS had quashed his dream, his dignity, and his spirit
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But Snyder lost the case. Nobody made you say those things, Jimmy
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Artesian Builds, a custom PC manufacturing company, was founded in 2017 mainly to produce and sell cryptocurrency mining rigs
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Over time, they had successfully pivoted into building high-end PCs for gaming
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And as a promotional effort, the company held regular Twitch live streams
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during which they'd raffle off one of their custom-built computers to a viewer
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That's a smart way to create some goodwill, right? Right? Right? Not so much, it turns out
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On one of these streams in February of 2022, a streamer named Kia Pia won the raffle for a free custom PC
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Artesian Build CEO Noah Katz, however, refused to honor Kia Pia's win
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arguing that her channel and audience were too small, with under 5,000 followers
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Katz's decision prompted an immediate and fierce backlash from the internet gaming community
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many of whom pointed out that there had been no posted minimum follower count required to qualify
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Intel, which had sponsored the giveaway live streams, intervened on Kia Pia's behalf
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and both written and verbal apologies were posted to the Artesian Build social media accounts Kat took total blame for the situation and acknowledged Kiyapia as the rightful winner She ultimately declined the prize citing the company dismissive mistreatment
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The rest of the internet gaming community sided with Kiyapia, and Artesian suspended all activities in March of 2022
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By June, they were holding a bankruptcy auction to sell off the remaining assets
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Control-Alt-Delete. Comedy requires expert timing and a nuanced understanding of culture and psychology
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The wrong joke at the wrong moment can have a devastating impact. Take the case of British entrepreneur Gerald Ratner, who took over his family's jewelry business, Ratner's Group, in the 1980s and grew it into a large global chain
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Much of Ratner's success came not from reinvigorating the store's products, but adjusting the marketing, introducing louder and more aggressive advertisements and highlighting lower cost items and bargains
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The state and conventional jewelry industry considered this tacky, but Ratner was undeniably successful
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With him as CEO, the company grew from just 25 stores to controlling more than 50% of the UK jewelry industry
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At its peak, Ratner's group owned retail locations across Europe, along with a number of popular US brands, including Kay's Jewelers
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But Ratner had an honest streak that ultimately proved to be his undoing
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In 1987, during a chat with a reporter from the Financial Times, he commented
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that he's often asked how his company can afford to sell jewelry at such low prices
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and said because it's total crap. Ratner returned to the same theme in 1991
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before 6,000 attendees at London's Royal Albert Hall during a high-profile speech to the Institute of Directors Conference
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In his remarks, Ratner noted that his stores sell earrings for cheaper than a prawn sandwich at Marks & Spencer
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referencing a popular UK retailer, and joked that the prawn sandwich would last longer
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The joke landed with a thud, particularly as the UK was going through a devastating economic
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recession at the time. It came off as though Ratner was not only admitting to selling low-quality
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products, but mocking his customers for buying them. The response to Ratner's remarks was so
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immediately negative, he went on Terry Wogan's popular talk show the following day to backtrack
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and apologize. But the damage had already been done. Ratner's group stock plummeted
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and the company's board removed him as CEO the following year. Fallout from the incident was so crippling
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the company ended up changing its name entirely to Signet Group in September of 1993
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And Gerald Ratner was pushed out of the jewelry industry entirely, presumably headfirst
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When recording artist Natalia Kills was a talent judge on X Factor New Zealand in 2015
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she critiqued contestant Joe Irvine rendition of the Michael Buble hit Cry Me a River That the whole point of the show and even harsh criticisms are part of the show DNA Just watch any clip of Simon Cowell
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But Kills took things in a bizarre direction when she verbally attacked Irvine
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for what she saw as artistic theft from her husband and fellow X Factor judge
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singer-songwriter Willie Moon. Kills told Irvine, I am disgusted at how much you have copied my husband
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accused him of having no value or respect for originality, and called him a laughingstock
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adding, I'm ashamed to be here. As if that weren't bad enough, Moon himself then jumped in
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saying that Irvine was, like Norman Bates, dressing up in his mother's clothing
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and calling the performance a little bit creepy. Suffice it to say, viewers at home sided with Irvine
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over his tormentors on the judges panel. Kills and Moon were both dropped from the show
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after the incident, and it had such a negative impact on their recording careers that Kills rebranded herself
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as Teddy Sinclair, but the internet never forgets, and social media users regularly remind her of the incident
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NASA astronaut, aeronautical engineer, and former U.S. Navy officer Lisa Nowak had quite a resume
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But her very public behavior during a wild 2007 incident overshadowed all her accomplishments
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In 2004, Nowak began an affair with fellow astronaut William Ophelaine. In 2005, Ophelaine got divorced, and Nowak left her own husband in 2007
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allegedly believing that the two of them were going to start a new life together
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What she didn't know was that Ophelaine had already embarked on a new post-divorce relationship
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with a U.S. Air Force captain named Colleen Shipman, facing what she saw as a personal betrayal, along with some career setbacks at NASA
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NOAC-packed latex gloves, a black wig, a BB gun pistol and ammunition
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pepper spray, a hooded trench coat, a folding knife, and other alarming items into her husband's car
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and drove 900 miles from Houston to the Orlando, Florida International Airport
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in order to personally confront Shipman. News reports at the time suggested that she even wore adult diapers during the trip
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in order to avoid having to stop along the way. But Nowak has always denied this detail
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insisting the diapers in the car were for her toddler, who was conspicuously not in the car with her
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She finally caught up with Shipman in a parking lot and attacked her with pepper spray
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Shipman was able to grab the attention of nearby airport police officers who arrested Nowak
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She became the first active duty NASA astronaut in history to ever face felony charges and pleaded guilty in November
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2009 to felony burglary and misdemeanor battery. Nowak was sentenced to a year of probation
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50 hours of community service, and mandatory anger management classes. The 2019 drama film Lucy in the Sky
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starring Natalie Portman as an astronaut who has an emotional breakdown upon returning to Earth
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was loosely inspired by her story