Video footage reveals the ‘Duchess of Hawk’

Reputation is a double-edged sword. UK tabloid The News Of The World has scored a coup with its video coverage of the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, discussing access to Prince Andrew in return for more than half a million pounds.

The story is an absolute reputation-winner from the newspaper’s perspective. It’s certainly captured twitterers and bloggers all over the planet and will no doubt drive millions of eye-balls to the video footage on the News Of The World’s website.

From the Duchess’s perspective it’s a reputation loser, and it will be interesting to see how she or her PR-handlers respond to the reports and coverage.

If she tries to bluff her way out of it and cast herself as the victim in a vicious sting designed to humiliate her and the Royal family as deeply as possible I doubt she’ll find many sympathisers.

If she fronts-up and brushes it off as nothing to get excited she’ll probably discover quite a few people are excited about it and will continue to be for some time.

Either way, calls for her to become the ‘celebrity endorser’ of products or services in the future are likely to be fewer and farther between, and that’s been a significant source of income for her in recent years. 

Digital cameras and audio recorders come in micro sizes these days. If you don’t want to be filmed or recorded doing, or saying, something that may come back and haunt you, don’t do or say it at all.

Today, more than ever, the camera is always rolling, the microphone is always on and there’s no such thing as ‘off the record’. Assume everything you do and say could be recorded by anyone at any time.

If you’re happy for that to be plastered all over the internet, great! If not, tread with care.