No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Difference between revisions

** Although ''[[One Piece]]'' is more of a subversion. Plenty of people in the West have heard of the series due to its [[Macekre]]-ing by 4Kids, but significantly fewer have actually watched/read it, leading to a strange situation in which [[One Piece]] is staggeringly popular in Japan, moreso than [[Naruto]] and [[Bleach]] ''combined'', but in the West, the reverse is true. This is probably because the ''[[One Piece]]'' dub's particular brand of badness wasn't very interesting — rather than being scandalous or obscene like most of the examples on this list, it did the exact opposite and [[Bowdlerization|censored out]] everything remotely controversial.

* ''[[Elfen Lied]]'''s notorious [[R-Rated Opening]] was one of the ''[[Gorn|many]]'' reasons why it got a lot of attention. It even was unable to air in major markets due to ''many other'' reasons, and it only has one commercial. [[Sleeper Hit|It does not mean]] that it was unable to sell and be adored by fans despite being partially fueled by this.

 

 

** Similarly, fanatics burned copies of the book on which the movie is based outside theaters in Greece. This, of course, required them to purchase a copy.

* ''[[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.

* After ''[[Dark Knight Trilogy|The Dark Knight]]'' wrapped up filming, Heath Ledger, who was cast as antagonist The Joker, tragically died from medication overdose. This ended up causing a surge of additional popularity for the then-upcoming film and, along with an exception performance, ultimately led to him receiving a posthumous Oscar for a role that might have otherwise been consigned to the [[Sci Fi Ghetto]]..

* Parodied in ''[[Matinee]]'', when SF B-movie producer Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) hires two guys to pose as Moral Guardians and picket the opening of his new film.

* ''[[Harry Potter]]''. While a great deal of its fame and popularity is deserved (it's reasonably well-written and interesting), it owes at least some of its success to the [[Moral Guardians]] who can't shut up about how it's corrupting children.

** Also occurs in-story in ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix|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.)

* 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.

** The lawsuit was particularly telling on a number of grounds in and of itself: Fox News did not draw complaints about the portrayals of their anchors (though, to be fair, the book was not yet published at the time), and the suit was for all intents ''laughed out of court'', with the judge essentially telling Fox News that their complaint was entirely baseless. Franken did not miss the opportunity to include that information in the re-publication of his book.

* [[Madonna]] probably wouldn't have sold as well if she didn't constantly piss people off by doing things like setting crosses on fire, making out with a black saint, and masturbating on stage.

* [[ACDC]] owes their rise to accusations of Satanism on account of their songs like "Highway To Hell"

* [[Eminem]]'s enormous popularity was fueled by the amount of people protesting him (especially at the Grammies) constantly. He got hate from both sides of the political spectrum; the bible thumping Christians on the right and from gay rights groups like GLAAD and feminist groups on the left for his supposedly homophobic lyrics and for songs like "Kim" and "Stan" being accused of promoting violence against women, respectively. And he knows it; he said at an awards show that "Every time a critic pans me, I sell more records so I really want to thank you people."

** In an inversion, this is largely considered the reason he got [[Award Snub|snubbed]] of the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2000 (the first time a hardcore rap album was nominated for it) losing to '''[[Steely Dan]]'''. The Academy would have done anything to avoid the controversy of having to actually give him the award in the midst of the protests.

* While not a bad album ''per se'', [[Amy Winehouse]]'s ''Back To Black'' might not have sold so well if it weren't for her highly publicized drug addiction.

* Speaking of Emo, this trope is more or less the point of the [[Fall Out Boy]] song, "I Don't Care." It's chorus contains the line, "I don't care what you think, as long as it's about me."

* The Scorpions album ''Virgin Killer'', infamous for its cover art containing an [[It's Not Porn, It's Art|artistically nude]] [[Refuge in Audacity|10 year old girl]], became one of the biggest pages on Wikipedia the moment the Internet Watch Foundation had it banned.

* ''Timothy'' was deliberately written with [[No Party Like a Donner Party|the most gruesome topic they could think of]] because the record label would not promote whatever song was written. It worked, somewhat.

* Sales of TLC's 1996 album ''CrazySexyCool'' broke records after Left Eye landed in jail for burning down her on-and-off boyfriend's house.

* [[Marilyn Manson]] is the master of this trope. Not so evident anymore since they're [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|not quite as shocking as they once were]], but in their heyday in the mid and late 90's, they received a lot of free advertising from Christian groups protesting their "blasphemous" lyrics. They reached their peak for using this trope after the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado in 1999. Manson's music was blamed for inciting the shooters in the massacre to commit their actions, giving them tons of free publicity from the news media.

*** Manson's considerable decline in shock value was spoofed in [[The Onion]] in [http://www.theonion.com/articles/marilyn-manson-now-going-doortodoor-trying-to-shoc,459/ this 2001 article]..

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

** Similarly, Rebecca Black's "Friday" wouldn't have become such a hit if not for the people linking to the video just to show others how bad it is.

* The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) did this for almost every band that they protested during the 80s, though WASP were the ones that benefited the most, as they're record sales doubled soon after Tipper Gore did her rant about how the band's initials supposedly stood for "We Are Sexual Perverts".

** The PMRC also helped lots of musicians through their successful push to have "Parental Advisory" stickers, nicknamed "Tipper Stickers" on music albums, which helped let people know exactly which albums were cool and had the [[Forbidden Fruit]].

** John Lennon's off-the-record quote that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus" sparked even louder outrage, especially among the Bible Belt. His clarification and apology did little to appease the extreme fundamentalists.

* Most fans of [[For Lovers Only]] know Joe Jonas' "Just In Love" because of accusations of plagiarism in the clip. It's likely that the accusations helped people from both fandoms find the other, even if it was through hatred.

* [[Alice Cooper]] who invented "shock rock" and shot his album sales through the roof with his violent stage shows that consisted of "executing" himself on stage and other crazy antics.

** During a 1969 concert in Toronto, [[Alice Cooper]] picked up a chicken someone had thrown onstage and tossed it back into the audience, thinking since the bird had wings, it would fly. Instead, it plummeted into the audience, who promptly tore it to shreds. This story quickly mutated into a rumor that he'd actually bitten the head of the chicken himself. Cooper received a phone call from [[Frank Zappa]] asking if he'd done so. When he replied that he hadn't, Zappa said, "Well, don't tell anybody you didn't do it!"

* 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

 

 

== Radio ==

 

 

** ''[[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.

** ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]'' received tons of complaints before its release for the belief it that it had the player take on the role of a bully or that it was even a Columbine simulator. While this turned out to not be true, Rockstar didn't do much to dispel the rumors. After the game came out, and it turned out and it turned out the Moral Guardians had overreacted, as the game has no killing, no guns, and no blood, they decided the needed something else to complain about, so they got angry [[Ho Yay|the game's option of kissing other boys]]. ''Bully'' wasn't a breakthrough but enjoyed relative success because of this.

* Nintendo's unveiling of the [[Wii]]'s name caused a lot of fuss and low jokes all over the internet, but it sure made people aware of the system easily. Even the press representative joked about it. [[Zero Punctuation|Yahtzee]] would later point out that "we soon forgot that Nintendo named a console after a bodily fluid".

* ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' forums now have a new unwritten rule: "Stop making threads about [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."

* Inversion: Majesco exploited the frenzy surrounding PETA's [[Darker and Edgier]] ''[[Cooking Mama]]'' rip-off by issuing a [[Take That]] message to them supposedly written by Mama herself... which is also a completely not thinly-veiled press release for ''Cooking Mama World Kitchen'', which (obviously for the series) is completely clean unlike that madness of a Flash game that the [[Animal Wrongs Group|animal rights group]] just unleashed.

* 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.

* 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>

* Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, of ''[[Penny Arcade]]'', have more or less made their business on proving this notion wrong. There is such a thing as bad publicity, and Gabe & Tycho know exactly how to dish it out.

*** Speaking of ''On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness,'' advertisements for the first episode proudly featured quotes from a particularly loathsome troll who denounced the game, along with Penny Arcade in general.

** 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.

* Durward Kirby, co-star of ''[[Candid Camera]]'' in the early 1960s, once threatened to sue [[Jay Ward]] Inc for parodying his name in ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' (with a [[Nice Hat]] called the "Kirward Derby"). Ward's response? "Please sue us, we love the publicity." Kirby dropped it because his case wasn't strong enough.

* ''[[Code Monkeys]]'' In-universe. The episode, "The Story of 420", pokes fun at this happening with video games. First Lady Nancy Reagan forces Game-a-Vision to put [[Content Warnings|warning labels]] on all of their games stating "Playing this game increases the likelihood that you will engage in drug use and deviant sex". While Larrity objects at first, he's then extremely happy as the labels cause their game sales to skyrocket to the point where Reagan then has to reverse the move and ban them from having the labels on their games.

 

 

* From a letter by painter Thomas Buchanan Read: "The small beer poets and ginger pop painters have always been industrious in abusing me into notice, and I am indebted to them, but shall not pay them back in kind, it being far more generous to let them remain in their [[Take That|well-earned obscurity]]."

* Subverted by painter [[Salvador Dali]], who once said: "What matters is that people talk about me, even if it's good!"

** It's more likely he ended up giving [[Taylor Swift]] more publicity. Although she was already popular and successful, quite a few people admitted afterward that they hadn't known who she was until after the incident.

* [[Poe's Law|Ray Comfort]]'s claim that the banana is undeniable proof of God's creation of the universe has been thoroughly crushed, both for [[Did Not Do the Research|the fact that modern bananas are a result of human cultivation]] and the [[Accidental Innuendo]]. He's since made the claim that his public humiliation has only served to let more people know about the Gospel... and that he knew that bananas were cultivated by humans all along. [[Sarcasm Mode|Suuuuure you did]].

* It's a common practice for companies - usually ones who can't even hope to pony up the cash to land an ad slot - to submit a racy/morally offensive/questionable ad to the [[Super Bowl]], causing them to get rejected - and thus landing them the publicity that comes with getting rejected from the largest stage of the commercial world. The abovementioned Ashley Madison has pulled this stunt.

* [[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.

** 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]]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]].).

* In politics, this is known as "shifting the [[wikipedia:Overton window|Overton Window]]". Political positions that are "unthinkable" become more accepted by being discussed in the media.