Sometimes when it comes to publicity, bad PR can be just as effective as good PR for raising your profile.
Now that’s not to suggest that you go around cursing the competition left-right-and-centre, nor do you expose intimate company secrets that could damage your reputation indefinitely, but sometimes, a little bad can be a little good.
Imagine what goes on at a meeting deep inside the the bowels of infamous graffiti artist Banksy’s PR agency. Bristol loves their home-grown terror, who has a celebrity fan-base that includes Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Christina Aguilera to name just a few.
His politicized and often controversial ‘art’ is now worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Surely this is a little ironic considering he regularly commits ‘crime’ on the streets of Britain? Yet, people find him edgy, compelling and current.
The same comparisons (although decidedly more legal) could be drawn from the tomfoolery and regional stereotyping that occurs in the reality TV docu-soaps of The Only Way Is Essex and their monikers.
Somehow, through a blur of scripting and reality, the cast have turned themselves into celebrities with the national press baying for their attention whilst sending teens wild with naked ambition in the process.
For them, all it takes is a Tweet from Amy Childs to become online news. No matter what the rest of Essex thinks of their home-grown sprogs. Again, the media has stood up and took notice.
The greatest thing about these examples is how to handle the controversial PR fallout after their (once negative) profile hits the roof.
In America, teeny-bopper Rebecca Black became one of the most talked about characters on the internet when her parents funded her $2000 ‘Friday’ YouTube video.
Although scoring over three million hits, the video was universally lampooned. But Black’s lucky PR agency had the gusto to ride with the joke and now Rebecca is starring in music videos alongside established acts like Katy Perry and on prime-time American talk shows.
The ability to capitalize on what is potentially a PR disaster and turn it into PR dream is what defines the best from the rest in the world of showbiz.