Influencer Logan Paul: Marketing Interventions and Defusing Scandal

On December 21st, 2017, 19-year-old Samantha opened Twitter to find her feed flooded with screenshots, video clips, and negative comments about a video posted but quickly deleted by influencer Logan Paul. Paul was a famous American internet personality, actor, director and musician who got his start on popular video app Vine, but later moved to other social media sites, primarily Facebook and YouTube where he quickly gained a massive following. The video posted on Paul’s channel featured close-ups of a suicide victim’s body in what is known in Japan as the “Suicide Forest,” for its high rate of suicides. The video had been viewed 6 million times before it was deleted but had gotten the attention of a broader audience. Samantha contemplates whether this scandal should be considered the end of Paul’s career, and if his efforts post-scandal were worthy of him gaining the followers of herself and her friends.