It may be difficult for Justin Timberlake to recover from the backlash caused by his DWI arrest, says a PR expert as the singer gears up for an upcoming court hearing.
After pleading not guilty following his June 18 arrest in Sag Harbor, New York, Timberlake, 43, has a July 26 court date but is not expected to appear in person as he will be in Poland for his world tour. However, the legal proceedings attached to his arrest isn’t the only battle Timberlake has to face and he may have a much harder time trying to convince the court of public of his innocence.
According to award-winning PR experts, Eric Yaverbaum, the CEO of Ericho Communications, Timberlake made a grave error in the weeks after his arrest when he attempted to joke about the incident while performing a concert on June 29.
“So, uh, is there anyone here tonight that is driving?” Timberlake asked Boston crowd. Yaverbaum advises Timberlake to remain silent on the subject, criticizing the singer’s flippant attitude as the “worst thing” to do.
“It just doesn’t come off well in any way, shape or form, to me, that’s a mistake,” Yaverbaum says of the joke.
“There’s pending legal issues,” he continues. “So generally speaking, what I advise everybody is… let it wind itself through the court before we start trying to manage the story.” He adds, “The worst thing that could possibly happen is, is that he would say something that would make this case even worse for him.”
For Timberlake’s critics, his DWI arrest was just the latest in a slew of negative stories stacking up against the singer.
In 2021, Timberlake faced a reckoning after the release of Framing Britney Spears. The “Mirrors” singer was criticized for how he treated ex-girlfriend Britney Spears in the aftermath of their split.
Quickly, people online joined in to point out that Timberlake also used Janet Jackson as a scapegoat amid backlash over their 2004 Super Bowl halftime performance in which he accidentally exposed her breast. Jackson was vehemently lambasted and blamed for the incident.
In response to mounting condemnation, Timberlake issued a vague apology via a now-deleted Instagram post on February 12, 2021 without mentioning Spears or Jackson by name. “I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right,” he wrote.
“People could consider it a deferred karma [or] comeuppance,” Yaverbaum says of the response to Timberlake’s arrest. “Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, he always seems to walk out unscathed.”
Yaverbaum advises that Timberlake could learn a thing or two from the many complaints of people online. “Public sentiment being what it is, what’s most important is to hear it,” he says. “You make money because you have fans. Hear what they’re saying and if you don’t want to, you run the risk of selling less music, being less popular, making less money. If that’s a risk you want to take, fine.”
Before you go, click to see celebrities who have spent time in prison.
