unicornnews: Anti-bulling campaign drop N-Dubz

A cautionary tale now for those in the business of celebrity endorsement, and no, it’s nothing to do with Tiger Woods.

A government supported campaign to tackle the rise of so called cyber-bullying in schools – where bullys target their victims via email, text or social networks – last year signed up popular urban pop outfit N-Dubz to front their campaign. When the trio released a special anti-bullying song to mark the launch of the BeatBullying campaign last November, Schools Minister Ed Balls said the group were “great ambassadors” for the project.

But the association turned sour last week thanks to the actions of the most maverick member of the N-Dubz set up, Dino ‘Dappy’ Contostavlos. During an interview on the Chris Moyles show on Radio 1 one listener sent a text message to the studio dissing the band and branding Dappy “a little boy with a silly hat”. Not happy with the comments, the rapper seemingly wrote down the mobile number of the listener and later sent her threatening emails. This included the message: “Your gonna die, U sent a very bad msg towards N Dubz on The Chris Moyels show yesterday Morning and for that reason u will never be left alone!!”.

Once the listener started sharing the messages with the press both the band and Radio 1 were quick to apologise, but it was the PR team at BeatBullying who arguably had the biggest challenge on their hands, given their ambassador was doing the very thing they were campaigning against – cyberbullying.

A spokesman for the campaign quickly announced they would no longer be working with N-Dubz, telling reporters: “BeatBullying in no way condones this behaviour and we stress that sending any threatening messages of any kind is completely unacceptable. Dappy’s behaviour is not becoming of an ambassador to young people. We have no further plans to work with the band”.

Meanwhile Balls was forced to review his opinion of the urban act, telling reporters: “This text message was completely unacceptable and it is right that he has not only apologised, but accepted there was no excuse for his behaviour. I know that many artists work with Beatbullying because they genuinely want to use their influence with young people to campaign against bullying. But that starts with ensuring their own behaviour sets the right example”.

Posted Monday January 18 2010 by Chris Cooke

Related categories: Celebrity Partnerships