Everywhere you look, everywhere you go, there's a PR crisis

Earlier this week, news broke of a major college admissions scandal. Among the individuals indicted stands Lori Loughlin — our once beloved Aunt Becky (let the countless meme-ing commence). And even more recently, Hallmark and Netflix* have reportedly severed ties with Loughlin. Now, Loughlin's career is most likely over (R.I.P.) and her reputation is severely tarnished, but what I'm interested in unpacking is the media companies that host and produce her content.

First, without a doubt Hallmark made the right decision to sever ties with Loughlin. The Hallmark Channel is a brand that is wholesome and family-friendly — not unscrupulous and fraudulent. And when a conscientious brand like Hallmark associates with a scandal-plagued actress, it creates this cognitive dissonance; therefore, the brand has to review internally the impact of its decision and then dissociate with said actress.

An aside: Unfortunately, I think this is why RCA dragged its feet with releasing R. Kelly from its label. RCA isn't ingrained in the same brand principles that Hallmark or Disney have. So there's less cognitive dissonance among its audience. Hallmark's reputation has more at stake when they associate with controversial individuals than RCA.

An additional piece to this puzzle, Hallmark needs to sell ads against its wholesome, family-friendly content. And brands that are buying into Hallmark and literally positioning themselves nexts to its values probably don't want to be associated with bribery and fraud.

Even though we may have seen the last of Lori Loughlin on TV, something tells me she'll do just fine.

*As of this post's publishing, it hasn't been confirmed that Netflix has dropped Loughlin from Fuller House since she is only a recurring character on the series. There have only been reports.