When a feud is brought into the court of public opinion, the winner isn’t necessarily the one who’s technically “right.” It’s the one who crafts the better narrative.
That’s the main thing that Kelly Clarkson is missing in her viral clash with a small business in Brooklyn, according to Evan Nierman, CEO of the global PR firm Red Banyan.
“This is more about feelings than facts,” Nierman said.
The much-publicized kerfuffle started on Saturday, when Clarkson shared a post on X about her recent visit to Art of Play, a store that sells toys, puzzles, gifts, and other oddities.
Clarkson said she was treated poorly at the store, comparing herself to Julia Roberts’ “Pretty Woman” heroine — specifically, the memorable scene in which she is rejected and mocked in a fancy Beverly Hills boutique.
Clarkson said she tried to buy something expensive at Art of Play but was treated as if she “couldn’t afford it.”
However, the shop employee Clarkson dealt with remembers the interaction differently. Art of Play responded with a public statement, saying that Clarkson inquired about a one-of-a-kind mechanical bird puppet nicknamed “Molly,” and she was told it wasn’t for sale.
When Clarkson doubled down, insisting that Molly came with a $15,000 price tag and calling the employee a “liar,” Art of Play clarified its claim. In a follow-up statement on Instagram, the store said that Clarkson had been offered a nearly identical version of the bird, created by the same artist, for $15,000, as well as a comparable version by a different maker for $2,000.
Who’s right, and what really happened? We may never know, and it probably won’t matter in the long run. But from a PR perspective, Nierman said this back-and-forth over trivial details is neither convincing nor productive.
“Both Kelly Clarkson and the store are trying to play the victim card in this dispute,” Nierman explained. “But the only people who really know what happened that fateful morning were the sales associate, Kelly Clarkson, and Molly, the bird, who will never sing.”
The ‘victim card’ can only get you so far
Nierman pointed out that Clarkson doesn’t have much to lose by airing her petty grievances on social media. She’s a rich, famous singer with three Grammy Awards and nearly 9 million followers on X.
“You’d be hard pressed to make the case that her life is going to be derailed in any significant way, even if she was mistreated by the store and its staff,” Nierman said.
But Clarkson doesn’t have much to gain here, either.
By playing the “victim card,” she has ignored the etiquette of online power dynamics, siccing her loyal fans on a small business over a brief interaction. Even if everything she said was true and Clarkson really was mistreated by the store’s staff, the fallout isn’t flattering.
“They both want to be right, whereas what they should be looking for is an off-ramp where they could both look good as opposed to being the victim in this circumstance,” Nierman said.
One idea? The fight started over a bird, so perhaps it should end with one.
“The best possible outcome at this point would be to get her back to the store and find a way to get her a singing bird,” Nierman continued. “That would tie this whole thing off very nicely, and everyone could move forward and deal with more important issues.”
You know what they say: It’s not over ’til Molly the animatronic bird sings.
