It’s been a long few years for Justin Bieber fans who haven’t gotten a new single from him since What Do You Mean in 2015. As one of the most successful artists of the 2010s, fans expect nothing less than upbeat and club-worthy pop songs from Bieber. Not only that, but they expect his songs to soar to the top of charts and secure a number one spot.
However, from the moment that he announced his return to making music, the rollout of his new single “Yummy” was bizarre.
An Australian media company, Pedestrian TV, published an article discussing how on January 7, Bieber started posting 13 pictures of babies with the hashtag #Yummy. There was some backlash online for this odd way of announcing a new single, considering the song is about his sexual relationship with his wife.
One tweet from user @chloezakowski reads, “Justin Bieber posting pictures of random babies and hashtagging it #yummy is gross. Am I too sensitive? That’s gross, right? The song is literally about sex.”
As written about in Forbes, the song ended up debuting at number two on the charts, despite the uncomfortable method of promotion. For most artists, this can be considered a massive success; however, it was apparent from Bieber’s social media that he was not satisfied with the single’s accomplishment. He took to Instagram live, which was reposted by Twitter user @Allysreborn, to tell his fans that he was “doing everything on his end.” He then asked the viewers to leave the Livestream and start streaming the song.
Soon after, Bieber reposted a series of fan-made edits to his personal Instagram that laid out step-by-step instructions on how to get “Yummy” to number one. The post instructed fans to create a playlist with only “Yummy” on it and play it at a soft volume throughout the night while they sleep. It also asked fans to buy the song multiple times on iTunes or Bieber’s website. The post ended with an encouraging statement reading, “remember, this is Justin’s comeback, and if we all come together, we can get him his sixth number 1 on the BB Hot 100.”
This post confused his followers since he didn’t credit the fan who made the edit. Since then, the post has been deleted but was later reuploaded to Twitter by user @codyspearz.
It goes without saying that these activities are desperate and transparent, and one of the basis of public relations is facilitating a positive relationship between the organization (in this case, Justin Bieber) and the general public. With Bieber and his PR team desperately promoting “Yummy” in the way that they did, it sounded ungrateful and made the public resent not only the song, but Bieber as well. There are countless negative tweets, memes, and blog posts towards Bieber’s promotion of the song, which then starts to look bad on Bieber as a brand.
With his comeback album set to come out only weeks later on Valentine’s Day, this was a terrible time for Bieber to be facing public scrutiny. The public opinion of Bieber could have negatively affected the sales of the new album, so his PR team decided to go into damage control mode.
The third single from the album came out on February 7, 2020, titled “Intentions,” featuring rapper Quavo. The song is very “women-positive,” and the music video has people talking. Highsnobiety, a German streetwear and media blog, wrote about how the video focuses on the Alexandria House, a transitional housing program in Los Angeles.
In the video, Bieber donates $200,000 to the program, gives a female college student who was struggling with transportation a car, and has a link encouraging viewers to donate as well. The song and video blew up on Twitter in a positive way; a couple of tweets include:
“So Bahri (the girl in the video) was struggling to get to school, so Justin bought her a car so she no longer has to worry about her journey to school and back #IntentionsOUTNOW” – @festivebieber
“A celebrity as huge as Justin Bieber using his platform to let women talk about their struggles in life and to promote a foundation that helps them is honestly the nicest thing I’ve seen an A-list celeb do these past few months; his heart is the size of the world #INTENTIONS” – @flatIinesl*t
“Justin Bieber just dropped INTENTIONS Video with Quavo, and this part where he surprised this lady with a new car is the most beautiful 😭. He also donated $200k to ALEXANDRIA HOUSE to help women and children fight abuse. A rare gem 😭♥️#IntentionsOutNow” –@izybaby01
Had Bieber made his comeback with something as big and meaningful as “Intentions,” he likely wouldn’t have faced any backlash for his “Yummy” release. As PR students, it’s essential to recognize these kinds of events that can alter public opinion. Regardless if it’s a large scale scandal or a tiny bump in the road, it’s always easier to maintain a good reputation than it is to come back from a bad one.
Lauryn Landry, BPR student
