Mend It Like Beckham
Issue 2: Lessons in Comms from Britain’s Other Royals
Emotional. Voyeuristic. Erotic at places. Few recent things have gripped us so viscerally as Netflix's four-part documentary, Beckham. Hitting 12.4 million views in its first week, ‘twas the doc that launched a thousand questions. Should we all be cooking mushrooms one at a time? Could I, too, pull off a sarong? What if I’d stuck to that thing I was good at as a kid?
Beyond the floppy hair, purple suits and a much-skimmed over orthodontic glow-up, there are a few sparkling lessons in how to spark a smarter conversation (and how to not) to be gleaned from the Beckham doc too.
Join us as we break down three big ones.
1.Act
The big conversation-starting ideas, strategies and executions that give businesses something to talk about. It’s about walking the talk to lay the foundations of a powerful message.
Walking the talk is almost always the only rock-solid way to right wrongs and the smartest way to steer the conversation back on track: it’s why we always put action at the front of any strategy.
But perhaps the most pitch-perfect case study of putting your head down and getting the job done is the downfall and subsequent resurrection of David Beckham in the aftermath of the infamous red card incident. Sure, it’s an extremely heightened example: a football player elevated to god-like status versus the more-vengeful-than-Satan British tabloid machine (not to mention the public). But Beckham’s red card for kicking Diego Simeone’s leg in the 1998 World Cup is irrefutable proof that when the product is good, people love it. If it lets them down? They’ll hang an effigy of you in a noose outside the pub.
The solution? Deliver an even better product.
While it’s not an excellent example of parenting, David’s dad instilled one very important lesson in his son that lends itself well to a business or brand in crisis: “Twenty five years ago, if I’d have turned around to my dad and said that I don’t feel great, he would have said, ‘Boy, just get on with it’. So that’s how I grew up and that’s how I knew how to kind of handle a situation like that.
“I became, I wouldn’t say a cold person, but I was able to block things out that were challenging and difficult for me at the time … I’m not a person that sits and reflects on past achievements and things like that … the next day you’re on to the next season and you’re onto something else.”
And get on with it he did, within the year leading Manchester United to become the first UK football team to win the treble: the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. He would later return to the World Cup as England captain and capture the heart of the nation in a free-kick against Greece.
Beckham’s stoicism in getting back out on the pitch and acknowledging the responsibility to change the narrative was solely on his shoulders led him to deliver an undeniable result: taking him from Britain’s most reviled man all the way back to national hero. It’s not just a heart-warming story, it’s evidence that while transparently acknowledging fault – more on that in a sec – is critical in a crisis, the real conversation-changing magic occurs when you fix the root cause and deliver something that is irrefutably better. Alan Joyce could have benefited from this series being released a little sooner.
It’s not just the red card either, every global conversation spotlighted by Beckham was sparked by old Golden Balls’ actions and not his words – because let’s face it, he’s known for his right foot and not his left-brain. He became a household name for kicking a goal from halfway at just 21 years old, he shaved his head and you’d swear a generation of school children had alopecia, he won an MLS Championship and changed the narrative of football soccer in the US, he wore a sarong. A TikTok search for “David Beckham cooking one mushroom” shows 4.7 billion views. We could keep going but you get the point. It all starts with action.
2. Explain
The way those big ideas are distilled into words that resonate, build brand identity and nail the message.
Then there was Beckham’s rumoured affair with Rebecca Loos — touched upon loosely in the documentary, only to be brushed over, reframed, skirted around (Loos is never mentioned by name) and then sort of… dropped. Rather than get to the bottom of anything, the Beckhams chose to focus on the pain of tabloid allegations and the strain it placed on their marriage without confirming or denying anything outright.
And one must ask: what was the point? Who decided it was a good idea to exhume a rumour that had laid dormant since 2004, and then not resolve it fully. What was the conversation intended to be? What result were they hoping for? Was it naivety or arrogance that led to such an approach?
Beckham’s refusal in the series to take responsibility for his alleged affair was a surprise and a mistake: a surprise because the army of comms consultants who have surrounded the Beckhams for years would have surely advised otherwise. A mistake because, suddenly, almost 20 years on, the same rumours are swirling again. In summary, it’s an ill-informed way to spark a less-than-favourable conversation.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain, Loos commented: “My message is [if] you make mistakes, own up to them, say sorry, and move on.”
It’s excellent advice — kindergarten stuff — and one of the core principles of good communication. The original Loos scandal was the product of a different era. But you can’t kiss and tell like you could in the naughties. Social media and a 24/7 news cycle mean the good old days of spin, evasion and telling outright fibs are long behind us. The truth will always come out. And a documentary geared to be quite the Beckham lovefest could have been a perfect opportunity for him to confront the issue head on. To own up, apologise and move on.
But by not facing the Rebecca Loos scandal, Beckham and his producers have created a whole new media storm, scuffing his image once more. Perhaps the commotion prompted more people to watch the series. But it also provided a masterclass in bad comms… or a masterclass in one of the key rules of good comms. Ironically, it’s the same thing David chided his wife to do early in the documentary, stating: “Be honest!”
And if you’re hell-bent on not doing that, why bring the skeletons out of the closet at all?
GOOD CHAT ON THE MATTER
This whole doc was, after all, an exercise in how David and Victoria see themselves.
For a bumping double-header example of corporate self-incrimination and truth avoidance landing a company in a bigger hole than it started, look no further than Volkswagen, as told by Colin Jost in his memoir A Very Punchable Face. Head to chapter 27 and start from 1:43, or listen to the whole thing; it’s worth it.
3.Amplify
It’s not a conversation if no one’s listening. Cleverly amplifying the message to the right audience, at the right time, is the final piece of the puzzle.
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in comms — nay, the planet — working harder than the PR team of Nicole Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham. There’s the Vogue videos. The couple quizzes. The 100k-per-episode cooking shows. The effort poured into making the Peltz-Beckhams into A Thing is frankly inspiring.
But it isn’t working, is it?
Brooklyn — who sports a level of confidence we should all aspire to, despite being a man who irony, charm and talent evades — has never quite managed to be much other than being the eldest son of Posh and Becks. A poster child for nepotism. A bit of a dud. While David spent every moment of his waking life perfecting his craft, Brooklyn’s signature trick seems to be giving everything a brief and expensive go, before sighing and quietly giving up when nobody claps. (He attributes this to his Pisces sun.)
His latest calling seems to be just: the husband part of an It Couple. But the Beckham name alone — or hyphenated — does not a Posh and Becks make. All the press in the world can’t make people care, and the most fascinating thing about the Peltz-Beckhams suspiciously regular Vogue placements continue to be the comment sections, which, if you’re feeling a little bitchy, are always worth a read.
There’s a reason why Amplify is our third — specifically third — pillar of effective communication. Without action, there’s nothing to amplify. You already got that point in our Act section, but if David illustrated it, his first-born personifies it. Everything David touches turns to gold, everything Brooklyn cooks, says, or blinks at courts confusion and ridicule.
Brooklyn’s mother belongs in the chat, too. One of The Spice Girls’ most iconic and defining features, their nicknames — Baby, Ginger, Posh, Scary, Sporty — stemmed not from clever brand strategy on behalf of the artists or their management but from a “lazy journalist” who couldn’t remember their real names. The takeaway? Amplification can become you. If you act and explain in a way that gives them something fun to talk about, it can make you an icon. But calling yourself a chef before you’ve done the work? A photographer before you’ve figured out the f stop? At your own risk. All the press in the world won’t get that vision off the ground.
GOOD CHAT ON THE MATTER
This review of Brooklyn Beckham’s resume so far.
The Sad Nepotism Cycle of Brooklyn Beckham.
Elephants are hard to take photos of, okay?
Picks & Recs
Spend it like Beckham
Free business ideas inspired by the Beckham doc. Yours for the taking.
BECKHAM BRANDED BEEKEEPING KITS
Seems like an obvious extension of the brand, no?
SIRongs
Sarongs are back, baby!
But how do you get men to buy them?
Just as many hetero males need beauty products to be explicitly and ruggedly labelled FOR MEN,
we’re betting there’s an op to take a humble, ordinarily unisex sarong and label it as such, too.
THE SINGLE SHIITAKE CAST IRON
One at a time.
Speaking of mushrooms…
A Big Year for Shrooms
It’s been a rollercoaster of a year for the fungi family’s NPS.
January
The Last of Us is released. Fungi wariness apt to soar.
February
Are we hallucinating or? Australia allows much-regulated, prescribed magic mushroom use for treatment resistant depression.
Body & Soul names “mushroom stacking” as a health and wellness trend for 2023. Adaptogenic lattes continue to sprout up at your local coffee shop. Microdosing gets a bit macro.
August
A year and a half after then-”chef” Brooklyn Beckham is ridiculed for his beef wellington recipe, an even more disastrous beef wellie is served in rural Australia: three people die.
September
Wiz Khalifa, undeterred, launches a mushroom-growing kit.
October
Beckham documentary released. Act of preparing more than one mushroom at a time is rendered obsolete.
November
There’s no fun in fungi. Woman charged with murder in alleged mushroom poisoning.