Running Head: SHIA LABEOUF’S REPUTATIONAL DAMAGE AND CELEBRITY ACTIVISM 1
A Man Divided: Shia LaBeouf’s Reputational Damage and Celebrity Activism
Allyson M. Penner
Drury University
April 2017
SHIA LABEOUF’S REPUTATIONAL DAMAGE AND CELEBRITY ACTIVISM
A Man Divided: Shia LaBeouf’s Reputational Damage and Celebrity Activism
Brand Background
Shia LaBeouf is currently 31 years old, known for his quirky
personality, unusual behavior, and eye-catching (and sometimes
controversial) performance art. Born in LA, his career began when he
performed stand-up comedy in his neighborhood. At age 14 LaBeouf began
acting in Even Stevens on Disney Channel, and from then he went on to act
in Transformers, Distrubia, Fury, and more.
Rise to Fame
LaBeouf became known for giving moving performances that were
relatable to all ages. With his career start in Even Stevens, he had a
connection to the younger generations. Then moving to Holes, he became
an iconic actor for many people. With his shift to action movies like
Transformers and away from Disney, he kept his younger fanbase, but it
grew to reach older generations as well.
More recently, LaBeouf has become known for using unconventional
methods to get into character. While acting for American Honey in 2016, he
got multiple tattoos to feel connected to his role. LaBeouf said himself,
“They wanted a f-king fireball. They wanted a loose cannon. I’m learning
how to distill my ‘crazy’ into something manageable, that I can shape and
deliver on the day” (Setoodeh, 2016). Quickly the public learned that
LaBeouf was not the same actor he was when he acted in Holes.
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The Downfall
In 2009, his career started to decline due to drunken behavior and
alcohol abuse. In 2013, LaBeouf was charged with plagiarism. This led to his
first performance art stunt on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.
There he wore a paper bag over his head with the words, “I am not famous
anymore” written on it. From then on LaBeouf seemed to be attracted to the
use of participation and performance art. In February of 2014 he produced
the #IAMSORRY project to let the public interact with him in a room alone
with the same “I am not famous anymore” bag over his head.
In March of 2015, he created another hashtag art exhibit online – a
livestream of his heart titled #FOLLOWMYHEART. Two months later, he
performed the iconic “Just Do It!” (see Appendix A) speech in front of a green
screen – quickly becoming an online meme sensation (Bruner, 2017).
Current Events
Sticking to the theme of participatory performance art livestreams,
Shia LaBeouf is currently partnered with Luke Turner and Nastja Ronkko to
host a four-year-long live stream titled, “He Will Not Divide Us.” The mission
of this live stream is, “a show of resistance or insistence, opposition or
optimism, guided by the spirit of each individual participant and the
community” (Levy, 2017).
This new participatory performance art promoted and conceptualized
by LaBeouf has not been well liked by the museum partners or the public –
leading to necessary police protection and anonymous threats.
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Case Overview Shia LaBeouf is slowly losing his credibility – but this new art project
has made his image even more unusual and confusing. It began when he
started creating his performance art livestreams, and so it continues with He
Will Not Divide Us. On January 20, 2017 (President Trump’s inauguration)
LaBeouf, Turner, and Ronkko began a four-year-long livestream titled, “He
Will Not Divide Us.” Taking into account the politically aggressive season,
this art exhibit and political statement was sure to be controversial. This
exhibit’s purpose was not to protest the new president, but was merely, “a
participatory performance artwork resisting the normalization of division”
(Bellafante, 2017).
Within the first week of the protest, LaBeouf was arrested. On
February 10, less than a month later, the protest was removed from the
Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York and the livestream was
shut down. The museum claimed that the exhibit was a public safety hazard
and that law enforcement could be better utilized in other ways.
RiseEven StevensHolesTransformers
DownfallAlcohol AbusePlagiarism"I Am Not Famous Anymore""Just Do It!"
Current EventsHe Will Not Divide Us
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On February 17, the livestream commenced in Alburquerque, New
Mexico. Within five days, the livestream was shut down again due to
vandalism.
Due to how quickly these vandals and protesters came after the
exhibit, LaBeouf and his two partners decided to move the livestream to an
“unknown location” on March 8. Instead of inviting people to participate,
taking into account the public safety scares, the performance was changed
to be a white flag with the words, “He Will Not Divide Us” in bold letters. A
camera was pointed at the flag to live stream it’s action for the rest of the
exhibit’s existence.
However, this was not going to happen easily. Internet, “trolls” from
the website 4Chan decided they were going to find the flag and take it down,
again, in protest of the art exhibit. While there were no clues given on how
to locate the flag, this group used airplane flight patters, as well as tips on
where LaBeouf was last seen to locate the flag. The flag was located in
Greeneville, Tennessee on March 9, just 37 hours after being put up
(Jackson, 2017). The group removed the flag and replaced it with a Make
America Great Again hat and a Pepe the Frog t-shirt. Thus turning the art
exhibit and political statement into a giant game of capture the flag and an
Internet meme.
This did not stop LaBeouf, Turner, and Ronkko. The flag was removed
from Greeneville, but placed in Liverpool, London on March 22. The next
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day, the flag was removed and again, the livestream stopped. It has yet to
go live again.
This art exhibit could be a crisis in itself. It seems to be an ineffective
political statement that people are resisting and attacking. However, this
paper is analyzing how Shia LaBeouf’s involvement is damaging his
reputation.
LaBeouf’s unusual behavior from the past has greatly diminished his
credibility from the height of his career during Transformers. On the
Internet, users have already taken his brand and turned it into a meme.
They see him as a quirky guy that does weird things and they laugh about it.
This exhibit is not just a weird thing – it is meant to be a serious political
movement. Due to LaBeouf’s new reputation as the crazy actor, people are
not taking this exhibit seriously.
Not only is the public not taking LaBeouf seriously, neither are the
museums the exhibit is partnering with. The Museum of the Moving Image
feared for public safety and claimed that LaBeouf did not care about the
safety of average citizens that were participating.
In the course of three months, they have exhausted three different
museums and one unknown location in an attempt to keep the exhibit alive.
Each museum has had to remove the exhibit due to public safety reasons
and no longer support the exhibit. At this point, it’s unknown if the group will
continue the exhibit at another location or if they will take notice of the
public distaste and aggression and shut it down for good.
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Key StakeholdersFor any business, especially today with readily access to the internet,
stakeholders have the final say in what happens to your business, they
determine if you are in a crisis or not. The same is true for a personal brand
or reputation. Shia’s participation is not only hurting his personal brand, but
his reputation is hurting the art exhibit.
Museums
The most noticeable stakeholders are the museums that have hosted
the He Will Not Divide Us exhibit. They put their own reputation on the line
to host a risky and controversial exhibit and they have paid the price. The
most drama stemmed from the initial exhibit at the Museum of the Moving
Image in New York. After there was violence and threats to safety, the
museum shut down the exhibit. However, they removed the exhibit without
telling the artists, LaBeouf, Turner, and Ronkko. This led to a tweeted
response posted by LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook).
Museums Participants
Collaborators Fans
Stakeholders
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The museum continued to cite public safety as their number one
concern, but the artists stated that they had told the museum multiple times
about their concerns and that the participants needed a safe place to
perform. They claim that the museum ignored them every time.
Later, Councilman Jimmy Can Bramer, chairman of the Council’s
Cultural Affairs Committee said that after the way LaBeouf behaved during
this exhibit and represented the city of Astoria, he was no longer a fan and
would not be supporting any of his movies (Bellafante, 2017).
Other museums made statements and all cited public safety as the
reason they shut down the exhibit (Levy, 2017). The museums that took part
in this exhibit seemed to be excited about the message, but the exhibit in
action took on a different form than intended. The artists did not make many
statements in return on the issues at hand, but merely reported when the
livestream was up or down.
LaBeouf seemed to show a lack of interest in safety of the public
during the exhibit, which greatly distressed the museums (especially the
Museum of the Moving Image). They felt as if LaBeouf was reckless and
uncaring for the participants. They hired police to come protect participants,
but wanted LaBeouf and partners to do something as well. They say
hindsight is 20/20 – but the museum would have not taken on this project if
they knew the exhibit would have produced so much hate and disruption. In
the end, LaBeouf called out the museums, blaming them for abandoning the
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project. All the museums want at this point is an apology - the public safety
hazards happened because of the exhibit and LaBeouf’s presence.
Participants
Next are the participants of the exhibit. They were willingly
participating in the artwork under the impression it would be a peaceful
demonstration in defiance of the normalization of division. They had no idea
they would be subject to hate from neo-Nazis. They had no idea that Shia
LaBeouf would initiate aggressive behavior and get arrested. But even when
he was arrested, the participants were supportive of him and his movement
stating, “I think it’s an awesome project, I think it’s a peaceful project.” And
on his arrest, “We’ve been here with him [LaBeouf] a couple of times and he
has been nothing but nice to every single person” (ABC7NY, 2017).
For these stakeholders, some safety precautions should have been put
in place by the museums so that they could participate in a safe and
responsible way. As mentioned before, with the highly aggressive political
season, hosting a politically motivated art exhibit was bound to have some
aggressors. The participants mostly feel that LaBeouf is doing a good thing
by bringing awareness to the issue of division. However, they do want safety
and they do want answers to why LaBeouf was arrested and why neo-Nazis
are showing up to a peaceful exhibit.
Collaborators
Perhaps less obvious stakeholders are LaBeouf’s own collaborators,
Turner and Ronkko. Whatever LaBeouf does, whatever he says, or posts
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online comes back to reflect them. They have a shared Twitter and
Instagram, but they are both under LaBeouf’s name. Anything that LaBeouf
does can affect their future and their own credibility as artists. Whether they
want to produce exhibits like this for the rest of their lives or become actors
themselves, this will affect employer’s and the publics’ perception of them.
It’s easy to think that with a celebrity on your side, you will get publicity and
media recognition for your projects. That could have been their initial
thought, but with a person like LaBeouf as a partner, you can’t really predict
what he will do next or how the public will take it – potentially damaging your
own reputation the same as LaBeouf is damaging his own.
Despite the potential reputation damage, Turner and Ronkko have no
made a statement on behalf of themselves. All statements given by The
Campaign Book social media accounts are attached to all three of their
names, giving the impression that they fully support LaBeouf and everything
he has said and done during this project. Any films that Shia participates in
are also stakeholders because his actions could affect the profit of the film
and the reputation of anyone involved.
While LaBeouf’s fans don’t play a huge role in the He Will Not Divide Us
project, they do impact his career and reputation. Without his fans, he won’t
be able to make money, go to red carpet events, or be able to get media
attention for his art projects like this one. His fans are the driving force
behind his career. So what happens if they don’t like what he is doing with
his life or his career? They may turn their backs on him. In this case, some
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people don’t agree with the He Will Not Divide Us project. This has an
impact on his reputation and career, which will be examined later.
Objectives and Key Messages
LaBeouf’s biggest downfall throughout this crisis is his lack of
communication. He does not release messages in his own name and he
does not participate in interviews. Instead, he hides behind his social media
and the new persona he has created – the “I Am Not Famous” guy. But this
lack of communication is perhaps the biggest reason for his image
destruction during the He Will Not Divide Us project.
From the beginning, LaBeouf, Turner, and Ronkko knew this issue
would be controversial. The political season was highly involved and the
public was filled with hate and fear. The first bold (and incorrect) move
LaBeouf took was to align his brand with the most controversial issue of the
moment. Becker (2013) states, “Celebrities very carefully select which
issues to champion, primarily bringing visibility to only the most politically
uncontroversial issues – albeit with some exception” (p. 2). Shia LaBeouf
seems to be the exception.
Blame
At the start of the He Will Not Divide Us exhibit, LaBeouf’s twitter only
tweeted the words, “HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US” (see Appendix B). This
happened nearly once per day in January 2017. While stakeholders had
questions for LaBeouf, for example about public safety, those questions were
ignored entirely and instead pushed onto the museums. LaBeouf and his
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partners released a short statement, “From the outset, the [Museum of the
Moving Image] failed to address our concerns about the misleading framing
of our piece as a political rally, rather than as a participatory performance
artwork resisting the normalization of division” (Bryant, 2017). In this
statement, LaBeouf and his partners take no responsibility and place it all on
the museum – this demonstrates a lack of concern for public safety and only
a concern for their art.
As mentioned earlier, the museum blamed LaBeouf and partners for
the lack of concern for public safety. Perhaps LaBeouf’s statement about the
museum was a strategy to attack the accuser. Benoit (1995, p. 78) states,
“If the credibility of the source of accusations can be reduced, the damage to
one’s image from those accusations may be diminished.” LaBeouf attacked
the museum’s concern for safety the same way they attacked him and the
exhibit. This action did not solve anything and stakeholder questions still
remained.
Because of the lack of communication from the project creators
themselves, the museums began releasing statements to address concerns.
Thus, placing blame on LaBeouf and his partners. The Museum of the
Moving Image stated, “Over the course of the installation, there have been
dozens of threats of violence and numerous arrests, such that police felt
compelled to be stationed outside the installation 24 hours a day, seven days
a week” (Deerwester, 2017). In another statement they point to another
reason for shutting down the exhibit being LaBeouf’s arrest.
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Inconsistency
However, once LaBeouf was arrested and gunshots were reported
nearby the group released another statement on twitter, “We have taken the
stream down after shots were reported in the area. The safety of everybody
participating in our project is paramount.”
To the public, this statement was contradictory to previous actions of
LaBeouf. He was filmed attacking someone participating (granted, it was in
opposition to the exhibit) and was arrested for the assault. This does not
reinforce the statement that “safety is paramount.” To maintain credibility,
you must remain consistent. Coombs (2007, p. 6) explains, “Inaccuracies
make an organization look inconsistent. Incorrect statements must be
corrected making an organization appear to be incompetent.” This
statement was not consistent with LaBeouf’s actions or public perception of
the project, further diminishing his credibility.
Public Responses
In crisis communications, if you do not respond, the public and the
media will respond for you. Coombs (2007, p. 6) explains, “If the
organization having the crisis does not speak to the news media, other
people will be happy to talk to the media.” This is exactly what happened
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during LaBeouf’s art project. His lack of communication and response to
stakeholder concerns lead to questions being answered by outsiders and
more questions arising.
Social media began to reveal the extent to which the public was losing
patience with LaBeouf’s brand (see Appendix D). On March 25, 2017 a
Facebook user commented on The Campaign Book’s page, “yawn… are you
artists or trollbait now?... you are on the edge of irrelevancy right now; you
do realize that?” On March 12, 2017 a twitter user posted, “Dear
#ShiaLaBeouf if you look a little better you’ll see you are actually one of the
wedges dividing us. #HewillNotDivideUs he is you.” While it’s typically best
to stay out of social media arguments, the lack of information from LaBeouf
and partners directly correlates to the attacks and questions coming from
social media.
Avoidance
Perhaps the most interesting and confusing segment of LaBeouf’s
project is when they shifted from a participatory livestream to a livestream
of a flag. This was a good move because it showed they actually did care
about public safety, but it did not solve their problem of Trump supporters’
negative responses. Instead, they took a stance of avoidance. Hallahan (p.
43) says, “Although avoidance or deferral of contact is possible, it is unlikely
that any self-respecting activist group would acquiesce so easily.” They
continued to move the project from place to place, each time losing support
and interest. Despite their efforts, they were not able to avoid those in
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opposition to the project – in every location; the flag was found and
removed, halting the project. During the livestream of the flag, LaBeouf and
partners made no effort to answer any stakeholder questions or concerns.
This leads to another rising issue – How long will the public stay interested
before this unpredictable behavior gets old?
Use of Owned Media
While the project developed a website for the livestream (see Appendix
E), it was not adequately used to communicate with stakeholders. The
stream was removed multiple times and the website became inactive during
the short periods of finding new partners to host the project. Stakeholders
(LaBeouf’s fans, participants, agitators, museums) did not have a specific
place to look for answers to their questions. However, Coombs (2007, p. 4)
explains, “An organization may not want to publicize the crisis by placing
information about it on the website. This assumes the crisis is very small
and that stakeholders are unlikely to hear about it from another source.”
While Coombs has a point, if that was LaBeouf’s intention by not providing
information about the project’s changes on the website, it was ineffective.
The news got out about LaBeouf attacking a participant and getting arrested.
News got out about the project moving locations multiple times due to public
safety hazards. This crisis was not hidden; the media made sure it was a
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public issue. By not providing details of these events on the website, they
didn’t have a voice in what the media said and how the public responded.
Impact on LaBeouf’s Career
The most telling sign that LaBeouf’s recent endeavors have had a
negative effect on his brand is the recent debut of “Man Down” in the UK.
The movie is an indie film and only showed in one theatre during the
weekend of April 1, 2017. Only one person bought a ticket for the film –
meaning it made only seven euros total in box office sales. When this
happened, the media caught on – headlines like, “Shia LaBeouf’s Latest Film
Sold Exactly One Ticket at the UK Box Office,” started appearing. There are
other well-known actors in the indie film, “Man Down,” but they were
completely overshadowed by LaBeouf and his increasingly negative
reputation (Desta, 2017).
Ilicic and Webster (2014) state, “Focusing predominantly on the
celebrity distracts consumers from establishing a strong associative link
between the celebrity and the brand” (p. 1042). Because LaBeouf’s name
had been in the news for negative reasons preceding the UK release of Man
Down, his negative brand attached itself to the movie and deterred
consumers from going to see it.
It’s not hard to see that the same thing happened throughout the
entirety of the “He Will Not Divide Us” project. From the beginning when
LaBeouf was arrested, his image became a negative representation of the
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project. His celebrity image overshadowed the project turning it into an
Internet meme like much of his other work.
Today the He Will Not Divide Us project is halted and shows no signs of
reviving. This is the method of concession – the group in opposition to the
project got what they want and the project has shut down. The clear lack of
consideration of stakeholders and minimal communication ultimately led to
the downfall of LaBeouf’s project and deeply hurt his personal brand.
Implications
Throughout LaBeouf’s career, he has seen ups and downs, but it’s
important to note those waves of popularity are completely controlled by the
public – by the fans. Popovich (n.d) states, “People don’t control their own
fame.” LaBeouf is an actor. He had established his brand from the time he
was on Disney Channel to the time he was in Transformers. When he
decided to try to change that with the “I am not famous anymore” stunt, it
was too late.
Threat of Irrelevance
Shia LaBeouf has become known for his unusual behavior. He is
unpredictable and he doesn’t follow the status quo. However, it does seem
that his behavior is becoming less and less shocking. With each new project,
the public loses interest. While the “I Am Not Famous” stunt was surprising,
when LaBeouf is consistently trying to shock the public, his unpredictable
behavior becomes predictable and in turn, boring.
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LaBeouf and his partners tried to keep the He Will Not Divide Us
project alive by moving it from place to place – each time with the same
response. In the end, the excitement of the exhibit had dissolved.
How long will it be before LaBeouf’s unpredictability becomes
irrelevant? Will people get bored and will LaBeouf finally get his wish to not
be famous anymore? While these things can’t be predicted with certainty, if
LaBeouf doesn’t find himself soon, his unpredictable behavior will become
exhausting for his fans and followers and he will fade into irrelevancy.
Dissonance
LaBeouf tried to take his fame into his own hands, but as seen, the
public has control. He has tried to become a performance artist, but is still
seen as the famous actor. By trying to shift his own brand, it has created
dissonance within his fans. They don’t know if he is the beloved actor from
Holes, or if he is the meme sensation screaming, “Just do it!”
When stakeholders of any kind feel dissonance, whether it’s a product
or a person, they seek to relieve the negative feelings associated with it. If
it’s a product, they may return it, but it’s a little different when it comes to a
personal image or reputation – you can’t return a person.
Consumers can take a couple different approaches. They can call for
LaBeouf to return to how he was before or they can turn their backs on him.
Maybe early on stakeholders were sticking by his side, rooting him on, but as
he showed no signs of changing, they abandoned him. The evidence
appeared clearly during the weekend of April 1, 2017 when only one person
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viewed LaBeouf’s movie, Man Down, on its opening weekend in the UK
(Desta, 2017).
The Film Industry
This all ties into the larger implication for the film industry in general.
Because people don’t control their own fame, they must realize their actions
are up to complete criticism and interpretation from the public. Celebrities’
careers are in the hands of the stakeholders. This does not stop them from
becoming politically engaged.
Many celebrities take stances on political and social issues like Meryl
Streep, Ashton Kutcher, and Angelina Jolie. Recently, Meryl Streep gave a
speech referencing the actions of President Donald Trump. Many people
were offended by it stating they would never support her movies again; she
was never that great of an actress, and most notably that she isn’t a
politician so she shouldn’t speak about political issues. Becker (2013, p. 14)
states, “receptivity may depend on the perceived credibility of the celebrity
source and whether viewers believe the celebrity has acquired enough
‘standing’ or expertise on the given issue.” After Streep’s speech it was
clear to see that many viewers didn’t believe she was credible enough to
speak on that topic. The same thing happened to LaBeouf during the He Will
Not Divide Us project and may happen to many more celebrities.
Moving forward, LaBeouf and other celebrities must realize they can’t
control their own fame. Celebrities have to make that choice for themselves
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– do I join a political movement and potentially harm my career, or do I stay
silent? Either way, the stakeholders have the final say in what happens to a
celebrity’s brand, image, and reputation.
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AppendixAppendix A – “Just Do It!” Performance Transcript
“Do it // Just do itDon't let your dreams be dreams // Yesterday you said tomorrow So just do it // Make your dreams come trueJust do it // Some people dream of successWhile you're gonna wake up and work hard at it //Nothing is impossibleYou should get to the point // Where anyone else would quitAnd you're not going to stop there // No, what are you waiting for?Do it // Just do itYes you can // Just do itIf you're tired of starting over // Stop giving up.”
Appendix B – “He Will Not Divide Us” Tweets Jan. 14 – Jan. 19
Appendix C – Public Response (1 and 2 – Twitter, 3 – Facebook, 4 -
Instagram)
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1
2
3
4
Appendix D – Hewillnotdivideus.com
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citing reports of gunshots. Retrieved April 22, 2017, from
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