Inside the brand strategy behind the Beckham family drama — and who controls the narrative now

When Brooklyn Beckham chose Instagram to air his grievances amid reports of a rift within the Beckham family, it was easy to dismiss the move as impulsive.

But crisis and reputation experts say the decision — and the British family's response — points to a far more calculated approach to managing public fallout in the age of social media.

"Everything about it is strategic," Susan Grantham, a reputation management expert at Griffith University, said.

"This isn't a 26-year-old randomly deciding to post something. It's been orchestrated to contribute to a specific narrative," Grantham said.

"Nothing goes out on social media, particularly when you're part of a very famous family, without it being checked over and thought through."

Brooklyn — the eldest son of ex-professional footballer Sir David Beckham and former Spice Girls member Lady Victoria Beckham — posted to Instagram Stories last month saying he did not want to reconcile with his family. 

He accused his parents of being "controlling" and claimed they had tried to "ruin" his relationship with his now wife, American actress Nicola Peltz Beckham.

The message, shared in a format that disappears after 24 hours, quickly spread beyond social media through screenshots and reposts.

According to US-based crisis communications strategist Molly McPherson, who hosts the PR Breakdown podcast, that amplification was no accident.

"Brooklyn Beckham is piercing his family with an arrow," she said.

"Everybody is going to his Stories and clicking on him and following him — so now he's getting the engagement."

The episode, experts say, shows how younger generations are increasingly shaping crisis narratives on their own terms — and often before traditional media can frame them.

Grantham says Brooklyn's decision to speak directly to followers rather than through a spokesperson reflects a fundamental shift in how crises now unfold.

"We're in a unique moment where different generations expect to be communicated with in different ways," she said.

"Youth audiences expect correspondence through social media, so responding in the same environment where the drama is occurring is now standard practice."

By choosing Instagram Stories — a format that disappears within a day — Brooklyn was also shaping how long the messaging was intended to live.

"There's exclusivity to the content," Dr Grantham said. "His obvious intention was for this to go live and disappear. I've had my word and that's it."

While the posts were quickly screen-recorded and shared elsewhere, she said the temporary nature of the format still carried symbolic weight.

"It told a very specific story — that he wanted to say something once and only once, which I think made it more intriguing."

McPherson said the timing of the posts — just before David Beckham attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — was also likely deliberate.

"I think Brooklyn knew precisely where his father was, and that his father would be ambushed on this."

Days later, David Beckham was asked at the World Economic Forum about parenting in the age of social media, offering an indirect answer that avoided addressing the family dispute head-on.

"Children are allowed to make mistakes, that's how they learn. So that's what I try to teach my kids," he said during a broader discussion on a CNBC panel.

"But you know, you have to sometimes let them make those mistakes as well."

McPherson believes the exchange was carefully managed.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the Beckham team, their PR handlers, worked with CNBC and there was a deal made," she said.

"The deal made was this: David will sit down and do this interview with you, but you have to serve him this opener."

Grantham said David Beckham's oblique approach was deliberate.

"It's a technique where you embed a particular story into an existing narrative, but allow others to make sense of it in the way they wish," she said.

"He obviously wanted to say something, but didn't want to say anything. Given the question he was asked, he handled it reasonably well."

She said carefully chosen language allowed audiences to draw their own conclusions — without the risk that came with explicit engagement.

"He said particular words that allowed people to make connections that maybe didn't explicitly exist."

Both experts said the episode highlighted a generational split in how the Beckham family managed public narratives.

"We've seen the first move out of the gate was throw Brooklyn under the bus," McPherson said.

"We're going to give [his parents] a little bit of leeway here because they became big global brands during the 90s when the tabloid media culture was brutal."

Among the most damaging claims, Brooklyn accused his mother of hijacking his first dance with his wife at their wedding.

"She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone," he said in one of the posts.

"I've never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life."

The family dispute has played out against the backdrop of the Beckham name as a global brand spanning football, fashion, beauty and media — reportedly worth close to $1 billion.

Despite the headlines, Grantham said large, established brands were often far more resilient to this kind of internal dispute than might be expected.

"Bizarrely, they're not heavily affected," she said.

"The bigger the brand, the more likely something like this draws attention rather than destroys it."

Unlike smaller organisations, which can suffer reputational collapse in a matter of hours, she says high-profile brands can absorb controversy.

"Something like this is creating intrigue more than huge negativity," she said.

"There's the memes, the humour, the 'he said, she said'. All of that keeps people engaged."

She points to companies like Samsung — which survived the crisis of exploding phones — as an example of how scale and effective narrative management can blunt reputational damage.

"If you're a big enough brand and you handle the crisis well enough, people continue to engage with the story rather than abandon the brand."

That engagement has taken unexpected forms, with a solo single Victoria Beckham released more than two decades ago briefly topping the UK and Ireland iTunes charts after resurfacing online during the controversy.

While others — including a DJ and social media users — continued to fuel speculation about the feud, the Beckham family itself largely stepped back.

That, Grantham said, may be the most revealing part of the strategy.

"They really haven't done a lot to create any further narrative. They've taken a step back and just allowed the story to live," she said.

For now, Grantham believes that restraint is working.

"If the story became excessively negative, that's where crisis managers would step in and advise them to address it differently. But right now, it's not doing them any damage."

McPherson said the Beckham brand would "100 per cent" survive but argued Sir David and Lady Victoria may need to lean more heavily into their individual identities.

"If they were working with me, I would have said something to the effect of: 'We love our son but like all families, we've made mistakes, and we don't want to cash in on his pain.'

"That's what they need to do. But will they do it? I don't know."

The broader lesson is clear: in modern crises, control doesn't always come from speaking louder — but from knowing when, where and how briefly to speak at all.