The Colab Brief - 129: The Ballerina Farm Fiasco 🐷🐮

In partnership with

The hills are alive with the tales of #tradwives. 

Internet homemakers have been creating a scene for a while now, but things reached a fever pitch last week with the publication of The Times’ compelling interview with Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm fame. 

It’s a fascinating case study that raises several interesting points. Is all press good press? What responsibility does a writer have to portray their subjects accurately? How much opinion is too much opinion? What can you do if you hate a piece written about you, your client, or your company?

Let’s dive in. 

Read Time: 5 minutes.

Ballerina Background 🩰

Earlier this summer, reporter Megan Agnew made the long trek to rural Utah to spend the day with the Neeleman family, with the promise of writing a piece for The Times that talked about their life, their farm, and the success of their business, which sells meat, baked goods, fancy salt, and sourdough starters (among other things).

* Side note: I purchased their sourdough starter years ago and can highly recommend baking with Willa. She’s quite fab.

Hannah, the ballerina in the farm equation, had risen to fame as one of the internet’s original homemakers - homeschooling her eight children, raising a variety of animals on their large farm and creating gourmet meals from scratch, all while amassing over 9M Instagram followers in the process. 

Generally beloved, aside from the ongoing #tradwife pushback, Hannah and her family paint a pretty picturesque image on Instagram and have been the subject of several fairly positive interviews in the process. Including a huge piece in The New York Times.

This time, things went differently.

Megan painted a different picture of the farm family. Instead of describing a happy homestead, she detailed an oppressive husband, a wife without a voice and Hannah sacrificing her dream of being a dancer to create the business that is now Ballerina Farm. 

The resulting article created an uproar on social media, and nearly every major news outlet in the US covered the resulting backlash. 

Of course, opinions about the interview and its validity are mixed. Hannah and family even came out with their own statements following the piece - rewriting their family story on their website and publishing a reel detailing the family dynamic, in their own words.

ballerinafarm

View more on Instagram

Is All Press Good Press? 👩‍🌾

We’ve talked a lot about the fallacy that all press is good press, but there are some positives that can come from negative articles. For one, everyone and their mother has been talking about Ballerina Farm. Hannah’s Instagram following has spiked following the controversy and she has a staggering 64% growth year over year. 

Closing the Sale 🐽

One has to assume the virality of this backlash has drawn more attention to their storefront, especially with the Neeleman’s genius move of posting their story “in their own words” on the About section of their website. 

This essentially pushed passive viewers from their Instagram/TikTok page onto a purchasing platform, increasing their chances of a sale.

 It’s a strategic move that others who need to respond to a controversy can copy. 

Opinion Journalism 💡

Every story has a little element of risk. You never quite know what the journalist will say, how the piece will be colored by their own bias, or if you’ll be portrayed in the way you intend. In this case, the outcome was not as expected.

That’s why it’s important to have an earned and owned strategy. It’s never a bad idea to have a space where you can control the narrative. Hannah used her owned space to respond to an earned piece of coverage, and by doing so, she created an entirely new message and took back the narrative. The same outlets that covered the original Times article are now covering her response. This wouldn’t have been possible without a strong owned platform.

This isn’t only important when there is a controversy. Having an owned channel - whether a blog, a strong presence on social media, or leveraging a space like Substack/Medium - can help you drive eyes from your earned coverage to a place where you call the shots. 

Retribution 📖

Let’s talk about the options you have if someone publishes a negative piece. The truth? Fairly few. Of course, there are exceptions. If a journalist says something that is categorically untrue, you can ask for a retraction (mixed luck there). And, of course, there are certain rules in place to keep someone from mudding your reputation - but if you go down the defamation road, you’ll need strong legal counsel and a lot of evidence. The best strategy is to analyze the piece, let the public response inform the level of your reaction, and then try to take back your narrative through any channels possible. More on this in a coming newsletter edition. 

Whether you love Ballerina Farm or love-to-hate Ballerina Farm, no one can argue that their rise to Instagram (and now real-world) fame has been nothing short of impressive.

Hannah walked (onstage, in heels) so other influencers could run (we’re looking at you, Nara Smith). For a team that seemingly has zero PR support, they’ve managed the entire crisis like pros. Will this keep the Neelemans from doing additional interviews? Will we stop getting the behind-the-scene farm clips that keep us scrolling back for more? Or, is this just another stepping stone to creating one of the largest farm brands on the internet? 

I guess we’ll have to wait and see! 

Until next week - 

Ash + Lizzy

Swag is live! After a year-long search for the softest, coziest, best-quality shirts, we’ve launched our official [under embargo] and [exclusive] merch.

Shop here!

* *Newsletter subscribers get 10% off with the code THEBRIEF at checkout!* *

Like The Colab Brief?

• Learn more about Ashley and Lizzy

• Share with your friends 

• Micro-Engagements (Now Live!)

• The Colab PR Template Pack (Now Live!)

• SWAG (Now Live!)

The Daily Newsletter for Intellectually Curious Readers

• We scour 100+ sources daily

• Read by CEOs, scientists, business owners and more

• 3.5 million subscribers

Sign up today!