Where’s Ashley Dupree’s MySpace? With A Few Lessons From Martha Stewart, She Could Have Been America’s Sweetheart

by Brian Brady

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

Memo to Ashley Alexandra Dupree: America is the land of “reinventing yourself”. Ask Sidney Biddle Barrows, Vanessa Williams, Donald Trump, or even Daryl Strawberry how forgiving the American public is. Americans crave drama, revere celebrity, and have a sense of justice about them.

Mac Daddy El abused the public trust, as did Pete Rose; that’s a tough obstacle to overcome. Martha Stewart did the same but carefully atoned and controlled her public image to turn the greatest of haters around; that’s what we’ll discuss today.

How can Martha Stewart’s case study teach Ashley Dupree how to become America’s Next Sweetheart? More importantly, what can you learn from Martha’s PR/Marketing strategy to boost your online marketing efforts?

Who is Ashley Dupree and why do we care about her? Ashley is a budding songwriter and singer with a compelling story. She was cast into the limelight as Eliot Spitzer’s paramour; taking a few large a month for companionship. Now I don’t want to comment on the morality of prostitution; in 49 states, it’s illegal. Whether you’re an Emporer’s Club “provider” or a sex worker trolling Grand Central, the State of New York considers prostitution a crime. The allegations against Ashley have not been proven in a court of law and frankly, I don’t care if she did it or not. Why?

Most Americans view her actions as a private matter; one look at her MySpace profile shows that 5 million people have shown an interest in her. Many well-wishers have sent messages of support. Ash is getting some eyeballs. Let’s look at Martha Stewart’s case study to see how Ash can go from being just another R&B wannabe to America’s Sweetheart.

Martha Stewart built an empire selling crafts and lifestyle. The “ultimate homemaker” lifestyle turned into OmniMedia Corporation, selling magazines, producing television shows, and creating her own “lines” of products. That almost came crashing down some 4 years ago when she was convicted of insider trading.

I was in Las Vegas, with my securities trader friends, when the decision came down. Bond traders are a fraternal bunch; a boys club to say the least. Not a man in the casino LIKED Martha Stewart prior to July 24, 2004- she annoyed us and confounded us with her ability to build her empire from paper mache. We pretty much agreed that her arrogance was approaching that of Leona Helmsley. While we privately reveled in Martha’s distress, we expected her to be treated fairly. A fine and a suspension from the board of Omnimedia seemed appropriate. After all, that’s what happens to men, right? If Martha wants to be in the boys club, she should play by the rules.

Then, they convicted her and sentenced her to jail time. While that may have been the law, it was applied inequitably. How could Franklin Raines wreck FNMA and get off with a fine while Martha was sentenced to the pokey? Immediately, Martha received gratuitous support from a group of dice-throwing, beer drinking, golf playing mysoginists (I’m exaggerating with the last word- we were having a he-man’s weekend)

The art of the comeback didn’t lie in the unfair treatment, it was manifested in the calculated actions Martha deployed to protect her public image. First, she appealed the conviction. This was necessary because she publicly expressed her outrage at the unfair treatment.

Then, Martha ASKED to do her time, regardless of the outcome of her appeal. Five months in a federal pen? She did it standing on her head. From the Washington Post:

The useful thing about going down for a few months is it fast-tracks the process of Humbling Up. A spell behind bars can be the equivalent of a visit to the Betty Ford Center for status abuse. The biggest peril of multiple media is multiple resentment. It was never Martha’s public that forsook Martha. The women who followed her went on liking her recipes, her products and her domestic advice. That’s why, despite three years of the hazing of Martha herself, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia hung in there when everyone thought it was doomed to go the way of Bon Vivant. Like the Cheshire cat, she was able to disappear, her annoying, controlling personality vanishing from view, leaving only the smile behind.

Martha’s offense was a crime of lifestyle for which she’s already overpaid. She was just doing what the rest of her set was doing. People don’t forgive such people their trespasses; they envy them. How many of us even have the opportunity to abuse executive authority, or manipulate markets? The level of venom Martha experienced was all about how she made every other mini-player in the media firmament feel like a wallflower. Status rage is always the ugliest.

Here’s the best part- she kept her mouth shut when she got out. Martha carefully controlled her message by releasing videos to the media and starting a web log (it used to be Martha Talks). The information starved press ran her videos and the throngs of Martha supporters clicked through to Martha Talks. Martha stayed on message, kept her fan base, and turned the biggest bunch of chauvinistic a$$hol3s (me included) into strong supporters. Martha is now a “stand up guy” in my book.

UPDATE: As I was writing this post, Ashley Dupree’s MySpace page disappeared. My advice to her would have been this:

1- Clean up the MySpace page. Get rid of the bikini pic and drunk in Vegas shots. Put pictures of you, singing in a ball gown, all over the page. Focus on your artistic talent.

2- Play up the struggling artist story. America loves an underdog and the WORLD loves a rags to riches story.

3- Voluntarily cooperate with the authorities. Play the Amber Frey card. While you may implicate yourself in criminal behavior (unlike Amber), what did you really do…dance with the Governor of New York?

4- Carefully control your public story. Stay on message. Ashley Alexandria Dupree is an R&B singer. If you get sentenced to a few weeks in jail (highly unlikely), write a song about it. When this whole thing blows over, you will have created raving fans of your music. Americans admire people who admit a mistake, atone, and move on to bigger and better things.

What does this whole saga mean to you, the online real estate marketer? We should be watching this case study with particular interest because a social medium (Myspace) was the center of the mainstream press expose. I believe Ashley could have used that to her advantage. Internet sites can be ever-lasting but altered (by the user). Real guerrilla marketers would have noticed the traffic and changed the message to be more in line with their long-term goals. We use the big guys’ strength to our advantage.

Mainstream media and social media are starting to converge. Mainstream media still preaches while social media communicates but the distinct line, between the two, is rapidly fading. Whether you like it or not, you are a media player.

You can wake up one morning and find your blog post on the front page of the New York Times. If you make a mistake in cyberspace, correct it. Atone quickly. Never dismiss the power of the traffic…never. Get on message, stay on message, and move on to the big goals…

…just like Martha did.