Spin Back Where You Came From

By: Arment Dietrich | September 18, 2007 |

On Sunday, Sept. 9, MTV hosted their 24th annual Video Music Awards in Las Vegas. By now, most people are probably aware that the infamous award show is breeding grounds for extremely bold statements, whether in fashion, scripting, live performances (pythons, girl on girl kissing, to name a few) or locations.

The buzz starts with the announcement of nominees and guest performances, predictions on who will win and in which category, who is wearing who, who will show up holding hands, and who will be stepping on the red carpet solo, i.e. Diddy. I am a sucker for celebrity news and gossip.

What has always struck me as impressive is that the VMAs always tend to deliver exactly what people expect. Ridiculousness! Either they don’t give a damn (which MTV has made clear that they don’t with their tastelessness or flashy publicity stunts) or viewers just don’t have any expectations. Even more so, hosts, performances, presenters, advertisers, promoters, and designers bring IT to the VMAs. Hosts are at their funniest, performers at their highest energy, presenters at their sexiest, designers with their hottest threads — so when Britney Spears (yes, how dare I mention the name after her sluggish performance) is due for a comeback, she better damn well make it clear that she is back (like sexy is). Hype and chatter surround this music maiden either because she shaved her head or because she lacks parenting skills. What she really needed (other than underwear) was a saving grace and she received it with the positive talk circulating around her upcoming album and opening performance at the VMAs. Spin at its best, right? WRONG! — If you can’t deliver, don’t even bother.

Britney Spears shot herself in the foot. From a public relations standpoint, she had the best opportunity to turn her career around. She was headed for an MTV “Where are they now” episode and fast. I would even go as far as saying that with the diminishing viewership of the award show and Britney’s downward spiral, MTV or her PR reps or both decided a Britney comeback could do both parties some good. Nope. Instead, Spears singlehandedly delivered the most nebbish performance I have ever seen in MTV award show performances and quite possibly her career. One thing is for sure, MTV and Britney’s “people” are together drinking from the same whiskey bottle wondering how and why she screwed this up.

If you have the opportunity to clean up your image, make a turnaround or a comeback, don’t screw it up — it may be your last chance. For Britney, she will always have her fans but unfortunately her ship has sailed.

Case in point: Put your money where your mouth is. People always expect results. — Jennifer Hernandez