Lemon Pound Cake: The Juice & The Squeeze

It’s a lesson that dates back to Barbra Streisand, at least — despite the popular saying, there is such thing as bad publicity. Today, we look at the Sheriff’s Office in Adams County, Ohio, who lost a lawsuit Wednesday against rapper Afroman, known in the courtroom by his legal name Joseph Foreman.

The Sheriff’s Office claimed defamation against Mr. Afroman for his song Lemon Pound Cake, which he wrote after the Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant in his house attempting to find drugs. The “Because I Got High” artist did not have any drugs, but did have a delicious dessert on the counter that lends its name to the song title. His celebration after yesterday’s decision is going gangbusters on social platforms.

The case was frankly hilarious, with deputies answering under oath about receiving hundreds of lemon pound cakes since the song’s debut, and one even addressing whether his own mother was a female dog.

Filing the lawsuit against Afroman was a poor decision by county leaders, and I question how much input their Communications Director had in that conversation. Afroman’s socials have skyrocketed, with many of his Instagram posts reaching 1M+ views. Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s office is limiting interaction on its own Facebook, presumably to avoid any further embarrassment and give their social media specialist a break from the futile work of online moderating.

This is why strong government organizations have strong communications leaders— to avoid the landmines and pitfalls that come with bad publicity. The freedom of speech means freedom to scrutinize government decisions and leaders, so that must be taken into consideration when protecting your brand. When you do the job right, and involve comms from the start, armchair quarterbacks like me don’t get the opportunity to scrutinize your judgment.

Here’s a fun little cascading effect, the Adams County Sheriff in Colorado has had to post on their page that they are not the one’s who sued Afroman.

Now let’s sit back and enjoy a nice slice of LPC as we celebrate the win for the First Amendment.