"Hi Michael, can you come to the office for a chat, it's important..."

Multi-Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps gets caught on film smoking dope. A PR nightmare? How will it affect his many million dollar sponsorships?

People still love Amy Winehouse despite what she’s been caught with on tape. Same for Phelps – he probably blew his clean living image – but he did say he was sorry. Sometimes, interference with a story can make the situation look worse, writes the New York Post.

Michael Phelps’ agents did a big belly-flop when they tried to stop a British newspaper from running a photo of the super-swimmer smoking pot by offering to have Phelps write a column, public-relations pros said yesterday.

"When they went and tried to do this scammy, sleazy deal-making or cover-up, that was the disgraceful part, not that a kid was sucking on a bong," said Linda Mann of Mann Media.

The News of the World published a photo of Phelps toking from a water bong at a South Carolina college party last November. The tabloid reported that Phelps' handlers from marketing giant Octagon tried to kill the piece by saying he would pen a column for the paper for three years.

"The newspapers love the cover-up more than the actual story, so when they offered the quid pro quo, [the News of the World] just got two stories for the price of one," said Michael Maslansky, whose firm, Luntz Maslansky, focuses on crisis communication.

BrandFreak was more concerned with this youthful exuberant episode’s effect on his sponsorship.

In a public statement, Phelps admitted that his November inhalation of weed represented "bad judgment." But then he used his age as an excuse: "I'm 23 years old" and acted "in a youthful and inappropriate way”, he carped. (No doubt, dude—but you've got $100 million in endorsements at stake.)

Fortunately for Phelps, there's still a little time. "I would like to see him tell his fans, many of whom are children, that he made a big mistake—and he should mean it," veteran PR man Sam Chapman tells Brand Freak. "The key to successful crisis communications is being authentic."

All that ‘being authentic’ didn’t convince Kellogg’s. On 9 February 2009, Kellogg’s announced it would drop Phelps because his photo smoking marijuana, which was published all over the world, was ‘not consistent with the image of Kellogg’s’. Had Michael not allowed himself to be caught on camera (best option after not smoking a bong at all) – or perhaps even being more humble and admitted it was a really stupid thing to do – he might have escaped criticism.

Because he was not contrite enough, he also got cut from the swimming squad for three months and who knows whether he’ll swim professionally again.

Consider Shane Warne’s goings’ on. When Shane first strayed from Simone, sponsors stuck by him, as did his wife, as did his fans. It was only after repeated inappropriate behaviour that Warne was considered a ‘risk’ for sponsors, a PR crisis in the making and an ex -husband.

And remember Mel Gibson’s incident? Here’s his story, as told to the New York Times.

When the actor Mel Gibson was arrested by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on July 28, damage control should have begun immediately, public relations professionals say.

“Go fast, go humble,” said the longtime Hollywood publicist Michael Levine.
Mr. Gibson’s anti-Semitic remarks when he was arrested on a drunken driving charge received wide distribution on the Internet, in newspapers and on television. The swift and dramatic public denunciations of Mr. Gibson’s words has prompted discussion in the public relations industry about the best way to handle such occurrences.

“Usually when a celebrity gets in trouble, the first thing they do is try to deny it, even though there may be photos,” said the veteran New York publicist Howard Rubenstein. “They come up with a litany of reasons why the media is at fault. The second thing they do is nothing, hoping it will disappear. The third reaction is: ‘Look, you know the owner of the paper. Kill it.’ And, finally, they get to the fourth stage: ‘Help!’ ”

That’s where the disaster corps comes in.

Mr. Rubenstein said the case of the actor Hugh Grant was the standard for successful damage control. In 1995 Mr. Grant was charged with performing lewd acts with a prostitute in Los Angeles. He quickly agreed to appear on the “Tonight” show on NBC and answered Jay Leno’s question: “What were you thinking?” His nationally televised demonstration of bashful British contrition transformed the sheepish Mr. Grant from naughty to nice.

Although Mr. Gibson’s rant might not lend itself to a “Tonight” show appearance, the principle remains the same: address the situation as quickly as possible.

Once a client levels with him, Mr. Rubenstein said, he adopts almost the role of priest to penitent. “They have to say they’ll never do it again, but they also have to say it to themselves and mean it,” he said. Strictly from a pragmatic standpoint, Mr. Levine said, Mr. Gibson should have sought public pardon the moment he sobered up.

“I try to get them to do some public kind of statement and then go radio silent and not keep flogging that wild beast,” he said. “If you can turn the corner, you can actually help your career,” Mr. Rubenstein said. “A truly recovered alcoholic gets increased respect.”

Mr. Levine said he had compiled what he calls the four pillars of celebrity crisis management: Speed, humility, contrition and personal responsibility.