‘Cancel culture’ insurance offers respite to panicking celebrities

Celebrities and business executives worried about being “cancelled” over their words or actions will be able to take out insurance to deal with the fallout of being caught up in a social media-fuelled culture war.

The policy is being created by Samphire Risk, a Lloyd’s of London backed independent underwriting agency that offers products focused on crime, hostage-taking and kidnap risk, with Borkowski PR, a London-based crisis communications group.

Cover provided by the insurance policy includes crisis management communications services specifically designed to protect individuals against cancel culture, and to mitigate reputational damage caused by negative media and social media coverage.

“Social media turbo charges any reaction and spreads it around the world in seconds,” Borkowski said. He added that “in an age where a single tweet can erase a lifetime of credibility — think of . . . Chrissy Teigen’s cancellation over resurfaced messages — [this] is the insurance against digital volatility.”

There are existing reputational crisis insurance products but Borkowski says this will “bridge the gap” in corporate policies by focusing on personal protection for celebrities, executives, athletes and high net worth individuals as well as offering preventive measures.

The policy, known as Preempt, includes research, analysis, monitoring and training to prevent potential reputational issues in advance, as well as a 24/7 hotline and 60 days of communications work to manage and respond to negative media and social media coverage.

“This includes ‘cancel culture’ and ‘culture war’ fallout, areas where corporations may not, or will not, provide personal cover,” Borkowski said. 

https://www.ft.com/content/66947ec8-b465-4ea7-84e0-efb71e6c6b5d