ALEJANDRO DROPS THE PRESS

21 November 2019

Noah Taylor

The company's press release, which was released yesterday and seems to have been successful in restoring the public's opinion on it after sexual assault allegations were levelled against its CEO - as evidenced by its strengthening stocks on the stock exchange market - seems to not have gone over as well with the superstar footballer.

Yesterday, The Press released an official response to an opinion piece published on The Guardian on the 10th of September which alleged that the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Oscar Wright, 49, had had an inappropriate relationship with the author, Nandi Williams, 22, who was his assistant at the time. The Press had released two (2) unofficial responses through its Instagram. The first claimed that Nandi was "just a disgruntled former employee looking to make a quick buck," and the second was used to highlight The Press's support of women's shelters, seemingly suggesting that the CEO would never sexually assault a woman because of that. The responses only seemed to enrage the public further and have since been deleted. Yesterday's more formal response, delivered by Oscar Wright to a bevy of journalists, reassured the public that the company was taking seriously any allegations against any member of the organisation and that a major restructuring of the company was underway.

Aside from the vague statement, most of the journalists were confused as to why this statement came from the person who was being investigated to begin with. We were also disappointed when Mr. Wright refused to give us any details on what some of the changes they are implementing as part of their "restructuring".

Needless to say, the public seems to have been placated by the statement as the value of the company's stocks has increased in by over 559% overnight and some major clients like LG and Nestlé Foods have returned to the media giant. One client, though, seems to be unimpressed by the statement. Alejandro García, Chelsea F.C.'s new captain imported from Catalonia after he took Badalona F.C. to the semi-finals in La Liga for the first time since the club was established in 1903, has expressed disappointment at the statement in the most powerful way possible: he has stopped working with the company even as everyone else seems to be rushing to get back into business with them.

When asked why he took such a long time to leave the company in the first place, he listed 2 reasons: "The first thing they did was stop working on my campaigns without informing me. They chose to focus on themselves (which I get - self-preservation and all - but I do think they should have told the clients that they were putting their work on work as they try to work out their own problems, just the basics of professionalism. I felt like I don't need to work with a company so big that it doesn't see the value in its own clients.

"And then the statement itself was sketchy. I am not sure if I completely believe everything that was said at that event. I'm not sure I even believe half of what was said - and not a lot was said. So, to me, that's just lip service to get people to like the company again. That's not very sustainable. What happens when another scandal breaks out?"

Also important to note is how little Mr. Wright was willing to talk about the allegations that have been levelled against by Nandi, even as we tried to get him to talk about them. The entire event seemed to be as much about restoring (?) the company's reputation as it was about neutralising Nandi by burying her story. It is uncannily representative of the history of white men assaulting and impregnating black women, and then actively and/or pro-actively silencing them.

It was deeply saddening to see a variant of that action being done in the 21st century, and to see Nandi's framing of today's society actually come to life, where we got to see just how much progress we've made from the mistakes of our forefathers (it's not much)◼️