Jade Goody, you say???
NOW that the dust has settled, it’s interesting to reflect on the turbulent journey of Jade Goody over the past few months and the overwhelming array of opinions from both cynics and supporters –even within the 9 members of staff in the Serious PR office, there have been hugely contrasting views.
One of the most interesting things to highlight about this topic is that the decidedly astonishing amount of press covering Jade following her journey with cancer allowed a platform for the world to give “somewhat” informed outlooks on her situation; many even considering that due to the substantial amount of publicity, having cancer was simply a stunt to get her name in the papers. Online social media sites such as Facebook have a spectrum of groups either ‘for’ or ‘against’ supporting Goody’s cervical cancer plight.
Not only have the general public been heard expressing their views, but also celebrities ranging from Michael Parkinson to Michael Jackson. Parkinson’s recent comments to the Radio Times caused uproar in both the public and the press where he described Jade as:
“barely educated, ignorant and puerile”,
and said of her that:
“When we clear the media smoke screen from around her death what we’re left with is a woman who came to represent all that’s paltry and wretched about Britain today.”
Whilst members of the public have accused Parkinson of purely being in defense of middle and upper classes, some of the media has simply chosen to focus on Parkinson’s media accusations, singling his comment of:
“The media first recommend[ing] we hate Jade Goody, and shortly thereafter tried to persuade us to celebrate her. She was, in fact the perfect victim of our times.”
In contrast, Jade received love and support from Michael Jackson, David and Victoria Beckham, and Northern Ireland’s own Zoe Salmon (ex-Blue Peter presenter), amongst many others.
The media coverage has produced outstanding increases in awareness of cervical cancer, with petitions in magazines such as Look, campaigning to lower the age of cervical smears to 20 rather than 25, and many young women requesting to have the procedure. However, there have been womens’ rights protestors who have seen the hyped publicity caused by Jade’s cancer to be scaremongering and unnecessary.
And so the question remains: has the massive publicity raised awareness and money for fighting cervical cancer, or did the media attention simply attempt to canonise a D-list celebrity and create a lot of money for her publicist? We’ll leave it with you.