No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"''The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.''"|'''[[Oscar Wilde]]'''}}

Also, on the Internet, it is usually the never live it down-ed (usually bad) aspects of a product that undergoes discussion and [[Memetic Mutation]], and thus [[Viral Marketing|extra advertising]].

Whether or not the author of the work ''purposely'' made it controversial in order to invoke this phenomenon varies. A work is [[Rated "M" for Money]] when this ''is'' done intentionally. However, this can backfire if relied on too much. While the [[Moral Guardians]] are a great way to bring attention to a work, it still has to be genuinely good. If it isn't, then controversy or no controversy, critics are still going to pan it, and the people who spend money on it are going to let others know that it's not worth it. Books, DVD's, or video games can still be returned, ticket refunds can still be given partway through a movie or show, radios can still be turned off, etc.

This trope isn't just limited to Moral Guardians. Hatedoms have had this happen. As mentioned with the Control Alt Delete theorem later on the page, because people can be ''so'' [[Foe Yay]] about works they claim to hate, people often find out about it from the [[Hatedom]] or [[Hate Dumb]] and either experience [[Critical Backlash]] or even if they don't like it...''still'' gave it sales or views. Similar to how people find out about something from the Fandom or [[Fan Dumb]].

Compare [[Attention Whore]], [[Forbidden Fruit]], [[Rated "M" for Money]], [[Avoid the Dreaded G Rating]], [[Sex Sells]], [[Overshadowed by Controversy]]. [[Content Warnings]] can be both a cause ''and effect'' of this. For when this happens but without the Moral Guardians, see [[Streisand Effect]]. See [[Bile Fascination]] for when the same thing happens due to rumors of the bad ''quality'' of a work. When there is an ostensible moral against something that looks appealing anyway, then it's [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]].

[[Wikipedia]] has an article on this philosophy, going by the French phrase [[wikipedia:Succ%C3%A8sSuccès de scandale|succés de scandale]] (success from scandal).

* Although it was nearly cancelled for it, the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime first gained popularity internationally after the infamous seizure-inducing episode, ''[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EP038 Computer Soldier Porygon]''. There were a lot of downsides though--thethough—the Japanese studio had to hack up any sequence of Pikachu's electricity from previous episodes, which was sold for the international release, thus making a lot of the action sequences get extremely choppy. The Japanese show toned down special effects from that point forward and banned the episode, as well as effectively banning Porygon from ever appearing again in the show ([[Mis BlamedMisblamed|despite the whole incident technically being the fault of Ash's Pikachu...]]). Several American TV affiliates also refused to carry the show initially, though they quickly reversed their position when it took off. So while it got a lot of free press, the show still suffered for the backlash early on.

* ''[[Kodomo no Jikan]]'' might not have gotten so much media attention if Seven Seas Entertainment had not publicly announced that it would cease distributing it in the USA because of its questionable [[Lolicon]] content.

{{quote| ''"So, in summary, I drew a really weird, obtuse cartoon that no one understood and wasn't funny and therefore I went on to even greater success and recognition. Yeah- I like this country."'' - ''(Gary Larson'', The Prehistory of The Far Side'')''}}

* In ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)|Preacher]]'', Arseface's manager puts out increasingly offensive statements that he attributes to Arseface in order to get Arseface's single higher in the charts, leading to angry protests and demands to "Ban The Arse" while pushing up sales further and further. Eventually, he bugs out with all the money, leaving Arseface penniless.

* King Features fired Bobby London as the artist on the ''[[Popeye]]'' comic strip (which were reprinted in paperback as "Mondo Popeye") after they rejected a storyline in which Olive tries to return a Cabbage Patch Bluto, equating it as a metaphor on abortion.

* An issue of ''[[Life With Archie: The Married Life]]'' fell under controversy from news outlets and parent groups, for depicting the wedding of Archie's [[StraightInvisible Gayto Gaydar]] friend, Kevin Keller. It went on to sell out at several retailers.

* ''[[The Passion of the Christ]]'' was a huge hit for three reasons. 1. The result of its promotion by conservative churches and their youth groups. Many of them even bought large lots of tickets and sent busloads of the faithful to theaters. 2. Because the media couldn't shut up over the controversy of the film's ultra-violence. 3. The additional boost of publicity given after a number of Mel Gibson's anti-semitic rants. And 4. The trope being [[Invoked Trope|invoked]] in France. Mel Gibson persuaded local newspapers to print an article about how the film was "too hot for France!" despite the fact that French cinemas had been very interested in carrying the film since its announcement.

** In France, some fanatics [http://www.ina.fr/art-et-culture/cinema/video/CAC89012114/explosion-cinema-st-michel.fr.html BURNED''burned DOWNdown'' a theater]. Thirteen people were wounded, and a lot of French extremely shocked.

* ''[[Basic Instinct]]'': People were protesting in the streets because Sharon Stone uncrosses her legs. It is really the only reason why the film is known (along with complaints about stereotyping bisexuals as [[Depraved Bisexual|depraved]]), and the so-called controversy helped it along.

* ''[[Showgirls]]'' is about as well known for the scandal surrounding its NC-17 rating as it is for being a critical and box-office disaster. In a slight inversion of this trope, no major studio has attempted a mass release of an NC-17 film since [[Box Office Bomb|its epic flop]], and itsit's taken numerous DVD releases for the film to show a profit, regardless of the cult success.

* ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'', as with the book below, had tons of this. People actually protested outside theaters, even though the Vatican themselves never officially commented on it. The movie made out well. Then came ''[[Angels and& Demons]]'', the prequel. The Vatican had learned their lesson, and beyond quietly refusing the film makers any access to their sites, kept a tighter leash on the priests who did complain the first time. It still went on to make well over its production budget, but nowhere near the scale as the first with the controversy.

* The 74 films on the [[Video Nasties]] list. Nobody save [[Quentin Tarantino]] would know these obscure, ultra-low budget independent Italian and American grindhouse horror films existed were it not for Mary Whitehouse's (totally false) allegations that these were despicable, immoral, [[Gorn|Gorntastic]]tastic shlockfests responsible for the corruption of Britain's children and the BBFC's subsequent banning of them.

* Averted, in part, with ''[[Brokeback Mountain]]'' -- at—at one point the studio actually ''complained'' that Christian groups ''weren't'' protesting the film.

* At some point, some people started going to see [[Avatar (film)|Avatar]] just to see the "[[Hype Backlash|"overrated"]]" film people kept complaining about.

* Had it not been for his [[Loophole Abuse]] with German law and his antics (criticising other directors such as [[Michael Bay]] and [[Eli Roth]] as being "Retards" and boxing matches) making himself one of the most hated people in the history of film, director [[Uwe Boll]] probably would have been forgotten by the end of the year had people not had such a [[Bile Fascination]] with his movies.

* [[Michael Bay]] is one of the most ''hated'' people on the internet, even on this very wiki people had to prevent pages for his movies from being excessively vandalized and slandered. Hasn't hurt his popularity.

** ''[[Holy Blood, Holy Grail]]'', a "non-fiction" book basedfrom onthe similar1970s which provided [[Dan Brown]] with most of the ideas for ''The Da Vinci Code'', got a lot of publicity and sales when the authors sued [[Dan Brown]] for plagiarism, even though they lost the case.

*** Of course, they lost because they claimed their book was non-fiction, because you can't plagiarize facts. If they had claimed they made the whole thing up, they likely would have won.

** Also occurs in-story in ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and Thethe Order of Thethe Phoenix (novel)|TheHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'' with Umbridge's ban of Harry's ''Quibbler'' interview. As Hermione [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]], "If there was one thing she could have done to ensure everyone would read [his] article it was banning it." (This is almost certainly a deliberate in-joke by Rowling, who had heard ''a lot'' of this sort of argument after the first four volumes.)

* ''Mein Kampf'', [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s famous screed, is banned in Germany. Despite this, it still makes the bestsellers list there almost every year. Note that the book itself cannot make it to the bestseller list, given that it wasn't openly sold in its entirety in Germany for nearly 60 years now. The Bavarian state has the copyright for that book that will expire in 2015 (70 years after Hitler's death) and tightly controls reprinting and selling of uncommented or complete copies in Germany. The only openly available prints outside of the Internet are either old, commented or cut.

* Al Franken wrote a book called "[[Anvilicious|Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right]]". [[Fox News]], which has a well-known and long-running grudge with Franken, immediately sued for use of the "Fair and Balanced" tagline, in an attempt to prevent the book from being published. As a result, a lot of people bought the book just to see what all the hubbub was about.

* Chilean writer [[Isabel Allende]] once sayssaid something to the effect of (paraphrasing) "My books have been banned by several [[Moral Guardians|parent associations and Christian groups]], and thanks to them, their sales have increased."

{{quote| "I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak... Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God."}}

* [[The Oprah Winfrey Show|Oprah]] praised the book ''A Million Little Pieces'' by James Frey and gave it her bookclub sticker. Then came the reveal that the author had made up a good portion of the book, which he was selling as a non-fiction memoir. The publicity his book got from having Oprah rake him over the coals was amazing, and sales still went on, because everyone wanted to know what pissed off Oprah. The writer may never be able to sell another book, but he probably won't need to.

** Actually, Frey hasdecided ato seconddirectly bookgo cominginto outYoung Adult fiction, and, under the [[Pseudonym]] Pittacus Lore, published a novel called ''[[I Am Number Four]]''. With a film adaptation that was made ataround the same time of the release of the book.

* Most of the works on this listpage have aroused a lot of controversy, but how many have provoked national leaders to call for the execution of the writer? Ask [[Salman Rushdie]], author of ''The Satanic Verses''. After the book's publication, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a ''fatwa'' calling on all Muslims to kill Rushdie and his publishers. The book's Japanese translator was killed, the Italian, Norwegian and Turkish translators were attacked, and Rushdie himself had to be put under police protection. Most people would never have heard of the book if not for the ''fatwa''.

* [[Older Than TelevisionRadio]] example: The novella ''[[The Great God Pan]]'' published in 1890 (and again in 1894) by Arthur Machen, was decried by the Victorian era press for its immoral and sexual content (for example, a character's "seizures" are actually revealed to be orgasmic convulsions). It went on to become a best-seller of the time period.

* Another [[Older than Radio]] example: [[Mark Twain]] once wrote to his editor: "Apparently, the Concord library has condemned [[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Huck]] as 'trash and only suitable for the slums.' This will sell us another five thousand copies for sure!"

* ''[[Johnny Got His Gun]]'', a rather famous anti-war novel, endured this. Published in the mid-30s1930s, it was pulled from publication when America entered World War II; Dalton Trumbo infamously reported people who wrote to him, desperately hoping he had spare copies that he might be willing to part with, to the FBI for "hindering the war effort", as the novel was embraced by the US Isolationist movement in the early years of the war (while Trumbo was anti-war, he hated the Nazis and thought that they needed to be stopped). Trumbo's own legal problems due to his left wing views only added to the book's mystique; it was brought back into print and adapted into a movie by Trumbo during the height of the Vietnam War. But the movie flopped, and the novel itself largely faded into view until [[Metallica]] bought the rights to the movie version and re-edited it to create the video for "One" (which was about the novel), their first music video ever. This revived interest in the novel and the movie, though in a bit of irony, Metallica sat on the movie rights for nearly two decades, adding to its infamy due to the fact that many fans considered "One" to be the preferred version of "Johnny Got His Gun", due to the film being seen as being too longwinded for its own good.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

** "They're even coming from [[Useful Notes/Poland|Gdansk]] to see the film."

** This trope can be seen in action during the episode, where the attention of passers -by is drawn by the protest and they subsequently go in to watch the film.

* ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' used negative reviews in billboard ads, generally criticizing it for being excessively sleazy, all accompanied by [[Fetish Fuel]] stills.

** Unsurprisingly the stills are more raceyracy than anything in the show.

* ''[[Police, Camera, Action!]]'': the series returned after a 5-year [[Hiatus]], and the media hype over the drink-drive incident died down. It's still in production now. It seems this show has become a [[Karma Houdini]], which is a rare feat.

* ''[[Deadliest Warrior]]''. For the uninitiated, the show takes two armies/warrior cultures/real life commanders/crime syndicates, tests the weapons to decide which would win in a fight. They seem to love this trope. Matchups fitting the trope include Mafia vs. Yakuza, SS vs. Viet Cong (Yeah, [[Godwin's Law|THAT''that'']] SS), IRA vs Taliban (actually BANNED''banned'' in Britain), Somali Pirate vs. Medellin Cartel, and arguably Jesse James vs. Al Capone.

* [[In-Universe]]. An episode of ''[[Law and Order|Law & Order]]'', based on the Puff Daddy/Jennifer Lopez shooting incident, sees a rapper put on trial for a murder he knows his movie star girlfriend committed. Why did he keep quiet all through his trial? Because his CD sales were going into orbit.

** ''[[Jersey Shore]]'' owesowed most of its success to this. Despite some advertisers actually taking away their ads and Abercrombie even asking The Situation ''not'' to wear their clothes, the show is stillkept growing strong. This iswas especially true about SnookiSnookie, who iswas often called ugly and over-tanned but still got a book deal recently{{when}}.

* More recently, ''[[The X Factor]]'' fell into this territory - [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338376/X-Factor-2010-sleaze-Ofcom-act-Christina-Aguilera-Rihanna-lewd-scenes.html as this link proves]. Despite an ongoing Ofcom investigation and pressure from the [[Moral Guardians]], it's not stopped the publicity hype machine and [[Bile Fascination]].

* Pop stars that are hugely popular among teen and tween girls, particularly in recent years{{when}}, have received lots of free publicity both from criticisms for their highly sexual images being inappropriate for their fan base, and from their obsessive [[Hate Dumb|Hate Dumbs]]s.

* After Destiny's Child changed members and [[BeyonceBeyoncé]] developed a Hatedom, they rose in popularity and ''Survivor'' outsold their previous efforts. Matthew Knowles even says "There's no such thing as bad publicity" in her Driven special.

* [[Lady Gaga]]'s sales skyrocketed after Fred Phelps called for a boycott of her, as well as attacks from other less extreme homophobes.

* [[Emo]] was gaining some popularity among teenagers in Mexico. Then, some people in Queretaro decided to "recover" the "plazaPlaza de armasArmas" where they were known to spend time... [[Torches and Pitchforks|with violence]]. This sparked a huge scandal, causing the number of teenage emos... to double, since now, everybody and their mother knew what emo was.

* Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young".

{{quote| "When I wrote 'Only the Good Die Young', the point of the song wasn't so much anti-Catholic as pro-lust", Joel told Performing Songwriter magazine. "The minute they banned it, the album started shooting up the charts."}}

** They likely also gained notoriety five years earlerearlier with [[Making a Spectacle of Yourself|Lisa's eyewear]], where the [[Refuge in Audacity|left eye]] [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|being covered up]] [[Stealth Cigarette Commercial|with a condom]] to promote AIDS awareness.

* ''Relax'' by [[Frankie Goes to Hollywood]] initially peaked at number 6 in the singles chart. It was subsequently banned by the BBC (and its videos didn't fare much better) shortly after its release and hit number one on five consecutive occasions. Even the Beeb itself has poked fun at this in more recent broadcasts.

* [[Justin Bieber]] owes a good portion to his popularity to his obsessive [[Hatedom]] and [[Hate Dumb]].

* [[Michael Jackson]], in [[The Eighties]], deliberately cultivated bizarre publicity for himself by becoming a [[Reclusive Artist]] and offering made-up stories to the tabloid press that claimed he 1) regularly slept in a hyperbaric chamber in order to live to 150 and 2) wanted to buy the skeletal remains of Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man". This and [[The Tyson Zone]] applying to his real life by that point (this ''was'' the era of Bubbles the chimp, etc.) encouraged further wacky stories to circulate. Jackson, for his part, painted himself as a helpless victim of the tabloid press -- butpress—but it all kept him in the public eye. The public perception of him as a first-class weirdo turned on him in [[The Nineties]], especially after he was first accused of child molestation.

* The original cover for [[The Beatles]] 1966 U.S. album "Yesterday... And Today" featured the group posing in butcher aprons with cuts of bloodied meat and dismembered baby dolls. They affected the photo in protest of how Capitol records was distributing their songs in America. After a backlash of initial protest, the boys made a second cover, posing quietly around a steamer trunk. Some album sleeves with the "butcher" cover that had not left the press shop yet had the new cover photo pasted over.

* [[Britney Spears]],. sheShe has run the gauntlet on bad press, hyper visual controversies, media over exposure, [[Moral Guardians]] getting moody with her, image issues, negative backlash after she became more then a recyclable pop princess and became a sexual being and strong woman. None of these issues have stopped her from flourishing and outliving certain members of her contemporaries who have not shone so brightly, or had as many issues, controversies and general negativity aimed at them... and some of them quit.

* Though completely unintentional, Jennifer Hudson got a ton of publicity from her mother, brother, and nephew being murdered. It made her into a huge [[The Woobie|Woobie]] and most likely has contributed to her success

* [[Howard Stern]]'s career could be considered a [[Trope Codifier|Trope Definer]] for this trope. Stern's shock material has continuously had [[Moral Guardians]] up in arms, and as such, they've only continuously ensured that his endeavors continue to have high publicity by their very public and direct attempts to censor him.

** ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' on the other hand, encountered mix results of this. By the time it came out the series' [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|shock value had gone down]], but got a huge new boost after the discovery of the "Hot Coffee" sex mini game mod. While the game did get tons of publicity for this, it also led to a huge recall of the game which ended up costing Rockstar tens of millions of dollars.

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' was helped by [[Fox News]] airing a long segment on the sex scenes, in which they included the trailer for the game.

** In a subversion, it would appear that the opposite happened to the [[Play StationPlayStation 3]], which was initially the worst selling of the big three consoles. It took a while to claw back the ground it lost to the Wii and the [[Xbox 360]] after a series of embarrassing media gaffes (The [[Giant Enemy Crab]], "[[Ridge Racer|Riiiiiiiidge Raaaaaacer!!!]]", the (scrapped) boomerang controller, and Ken Kutagari's claim that people would pay any price for a Playstation because it's a Playstation, among the more memorable), combined with a lack of decent games on launch and an outrageous price.

* ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' forums now have a new unwritten rule: "Stop making threads about [https://web.archive.org/web/20090804013804/http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/new-game-enemy-takes-a-solid-day-to-defeat/1238418 Pandemonium Warden] (which takes [[Did Not Do the Research|at least a full day to beat]]) when it shows up in a new news outlet."

* The downloadable [[PlayPlayStation Station3]] 3 game ''[[Fat Princess]]'' is about soldiers from red and blue teams rescuing their princess, who is being held in the enemy team's castle. The enemy team, for their part, can feed said princess cake to make her harder to carry. A blogger ranted about it, and was trolled (the definition of a troll including anyone who disagreed with her at all). The trolled post currently has '''over a thousand''' comments. The end result is that several blogs made fun of the initial blogger, and several others linked her in support. The blog got a lot of new readers, and several gamers vowed to buy several extra copies of the game just to piss the blogger off. In other words, ''both'' sides of the debate benefited.

* Similar to the ''[[Cooking Mama]]'' example above, Edmund McMillen, the creator of ''[[Meat Boy]]'', ''intentionally'' made sockpuppet accounts on the PETA forums to endorse his game. Eventually, [http://features.peta.org/super-meat-boy-parody/ Super Tofu Boy] was made, creating one of the best publicity stunts for a game that would have otherwise slipped past the mainstream gaming radar.

* In Brazil, when the government prohibited the selling of ''Everlast'', ''[[Counter-Strike]]'', and ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City]]'' on any shop or their availability in Lan Houses Country-wide for their unquestionable violence, the demand of those games almost ''doubled''.

* Several people discovered ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'' after it was [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/awful-links/awful-link-3631.php featured] in [[Something Awful|Something Awful's]] Awful Link Of The Day, even despite them showing possibly the most atypical strip in the archives .<ref>not only is the strip in question a guest strip drawn by Lothar's girlfriend, but as the authors themselves said, the comic "doesn't do bedroom scenes"</ref>.

** Plus, look at any time they've butted heads with someone. They just walk away and succeed without help. One of the (most recentlynotorious instances of this was beingagainst Gamestop, over Penny Arcade's positively appalling claim that someone OTHER''other'' than Gamestop would be selling ''On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness''! The nerve!). They just walk away and succeed without help.

** When people still paid any attention to him, Jack Thompson did this for the PA guys time and time again. The biggest was undoubtedly when Thompson sent out a press release to any media camp that would listen and the WA state governor that he had requested the Seattle police to look into harassment charges (made especially funny when he claimed a $10,000 check given to charity in his name was assault of some kind), as well as a list of other petty things. ''He forgot to send anything to the police''. There was back-and-forth between Thompson and PA (mainly headed by Gabe for the most part), with Thompson constantly [[Playing the Victim Card|crying out he was the victim]], and nobody believing him. PA came out on top, and Thompson only brought his douchebaggery ways to the attention of the Florida State Bar, which ultimately decided they didn't need his membership any more.

** [http://www.penny-arcade.com/resources/just-wow1.html Paul Christoforo] very firmly believes in this trope. After being a complete prick to a customer and Mike, [[Smug Snake|only backing down and apologizing after figuring out who Mike is]], he seems to think{{when}} that he's going to spin a career out of this. [http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nxpqo/i_am_paul_christoforo_ama/ And that's just the tip of the iceberg]...

* ''[[Something*Positive]]'': Discussed and Lampshaded in this [[Something Positive]] [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20140109050010/http://somethingpositive.net/sp08312004.shtml this strip].

** Setting themselves up to make out from their most recent{{when}} endeavor, with their abortion episode that got banned from being shown on Fox.

* Arguably, ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' would never have found its popularity with older fans, particularly on the internet, had it not been for these [https://web.archive.org/web/20110704172049/http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/the-end-of-the-creator-driven-era.html two] [http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/12/09/my-little-homophobic-racist-smarts-shaming-pony/ articles]. Both articles decry the show for various reasons, which prompted the /co/ board on 4chan to see if really was so bad, causing it to take off in online popularity.

* [[Batman Gambit|Probably the reason]] for [[Kanye West]]'s shenanigans at the 2009 VMAs. [[Attention Whore|He just wanted attention]].

** It's far more likely that he did it because he was drunk and really did think that Beyonce's video was better --— all of his actions after the fact support that more than the Attention Whore theory since he'sd locked himself in his studio and haswas only been seen sporadically sincefor several months after the incident.

* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20090117122742/http://nocussing.com/ No Cussing Club] had a lot of publicity, but because of all the hatemail and Anonymous attacks, it got ''even more''. Now the founder boasts [[Determinator|not giving up]] despite being the most cyberbullied kid in the world. He even released a book and a DVD about it.

* [[Karma Houdini|Lulz]][[GIFT|sect]]. Even if half the world wants their asses in a basket right now, their hacking has put them on the map.

* [[Animal Wrongs Group|PETA]]. If they're not trying to turn children against their parents with nightmarish pamplets depicting parents happily disemboweling animals or throwing the corpses of euthanized animals on the doorstep of businesses, they're posing nude on the street or writing a will dedicating their bodies to be barbecued in a public venue. Infamy just means the message is getting out there! Really! Even though, if you described half of these shock stunts to a neutral party unfamiliar with them, they'd have ''no bloody idea'' what message that's supposed to be.

** PETA themselves has caused this, though, with their attacks against ''[[Cooking Mama]]'', ''[[Meat Boy|Super Meat Boy]]'' and ''[[Super Mario 3D Land]]'', boosting the games' popularity. Majesco and Edmund McMillen turned PETA's attacks to their commercial advantages with a [[Take That]] statement and a [[Troll|trollingtroll]]ing [[Batman Gambit]] respectively as stated above, while Nintendo simply issued a response saying that PETA [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|overanalyzed]] the Tanooki Suit<ref>if you want to know, the actual statement is: "Mario often takes the appearance of certain animals and objects in his games. These have included [[Super Mario Bros 3|a frog]], [[New Super Mario Bros. Wii|a penguin]], [[Super Mario World (video game)|a balloon]] and even [[Super Mario 64|a metallic version of himself]]. These lighthearted and whimsical transformations give Mario different abilities and make his games fun to play. '''The different forms Mario takes make no statement beyond the games themselves'''."</ref> (if only because they didn't need bad publicity per se, [[Cash Cow Franchise|Mario being Mario]].).

* This is the reason you do not feed the [[Troll|trollstroll]]s, ever.

* In April 2012, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM<ref>No, not like the [[Fun with Acronyms|sound of eating something yummy]]</ref>) began a boycott of Starbucks for its company statement affirming approval of same-sex marriage, the main issue NOM opposes. [http://instinctmagazine.com/blogs/blog/nom-s-boycott-is-already-impacting-starbucks?directory=100011 It seems to have backfired]{{Dead link}}. This was parodied by a ''[[Huffington Post]]'' article [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-wooledge/microsoft-apple-unite-to-_b_1394821.html in which Microsoft and Apple request a similar boycott].

* The UK courts have recently ordered major Internet Service Providers to block access to the file sharing search engine The Pirate Bay by May 30th30, 2012. Soon after the first ISP implemented the block it was reported that The Pirate Bay had actually seen the number of visits increase by several million. Many of these extra visitors are assumed to be people who hadn't heard about the site until it was reported in the news, while some others are visitors who are just trying to circumvent the block.

[[Category:No Such Thing as Bad Publicity{{PAGENAME}}]]