POSITION PAPER 4

 Publicity Stunts:

Worth it or a Waste of Time?

    As someone who is very interested in pop culture and entertainment, publicity stunts are not uncommon for me to hear about or read about. Oftentimes, there is a clear divide between publicity stunts. Sometimes you can clearly see when someone or a group of people are faking something for the sake of attention and raves. However, other times it may be hard to tell if something is real or fake until after the stunt has been revealed. When I think of publicity stunts, I think of four major categories in which publicity stunts are most often created. Those categories are relationships (often between A-list celebrities), tragedies, and celebrity feuds. In most of these categories, there are main stories that come to my mind at first thought, so I thought it would be interesting if I looked in detail at these publicity stunts and see how they benefit or harm people in terms of publicity and media.

1. Relationships

    When it comes to publicity stunts, perhaps the most popular type is a fake relationship, usually between 2 A-list celebrities. There are a few ways that you can usually tell when a relationship is a publicity stunt. Some of the biggest ways you can spot a fake couple, or at least be suspicious of one, include: they have a big project coming up together (or they just finished a big project) and if one celebrity is hot and the other is cooling off. Many of the most popular or well known publicity stunt relationships happen either right before the celebrities involved create a project together or right after. Many times this happens between two musicians who are looking to promote their new song together or between two actors who are looking to promote their new tv/film project.

    I want to give an honorable mention to a certain type of relationship that often has fans speculating on whether or not it is real or fake. This relationship comes when there is a common person between the two celebrities, perhaps a common enemy. One example of this is Shawn Mendes and Hailey Baldwin (now Bieber). Many fans are certain that this relationship was a PR stunt because of how short it was and because of who Hailey was engaged to only a few weeks after her and Shawn called it quits. Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber have had a tiny bit of "drama" back and forth, starting when Justin said he had no clue who Shawn was in an interview. Shortly after that, Shawn and Hailey made an appearance together at the Met Gala. Quickly after that appearance, Hailey was back with Justin and they were engaged to be married. While Mendes and Baldwin never confirmed their relationship, it seems that there was no real substance to it and it may have been all for show.

2. Tragedies

    This category of publicity stunts is pretty odd at first glance because many people may think, "Why in the world would someone use tragedy or disaster as a publicity stunt?" Living in today's world where technology seems to  be everywhere, people will do almost anything for views or likes or publicity. Personally, the place where I see most of the tragedy publicity stunts is on platforms like YouTube. Many times, you will see youtubers and content creators post tragic "clickbait" videos to get views. Sometimes it is small things like family channels faking their child being sad for views. However, other times there are creators who induce anxiety and stress in their viewers in order to gain likes.

    There are two examples of the tragedy publicity stunt that show the two sides to the category. The first is from a YouTuber named Trevor Jacob who faked a plane crash for views. In November, Trevor uploaded a video of him abandoning his plane mid flight by parachuting for a publicity stunt. Fortunately, Trevor has since then been banned from flying because of operating the aircraft in a careless manner. This is an example of someone putting themselves and others in danger by creating a "tragedy" for views. The second example is when Logan Paul posted a video in 2017 showing a dead body in a Japanese suicide forest. The forest is infamous for people going there to end their lives, and Paul showed a body on camera in his video. This is an example of the opposite end of the tragedy spectrum. Instead of him putting himself in danger, he exploited the horrible reality of suicide and triggered many people while doing so. It is clear that these types of stunts, whether initially intentional or not, bring views and "popularity", but is this type of popularity worth it?

3. Celebrity Feuds

    The last type of publicity stunt that I want to talk about, and maybe one of the most entertaining types, is celebrity feuds. Often known as "beef", these feuds usually happen over something small and, for lack of a better word, dumb. There are some celebrities that seem to always have beef with everyone. Kanye West, for example, has had famous feuds with Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, Drake, and more. Some feuds may only last a short amount of time, like Ariana Grande and Piers Morgan. Some of these feuds, however, seem to be never ending. These longer fights often bring speculation that the beef is a publicity stunt.

An example of a long term celebrity feud that many people believe to at least partly be a publicity stunt is between the Kardashians and Blac Chyna. Since the break up of Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian, there has been huge bouts of drama  between Chyna and the Kardashian family. The latest update has been a lawsuit of Black Chyna suing the family and claiming that they schemed to cancel her reality show. However, people are speculating that this claim, and the whole drama in general, could be one big publicity stunt. If it is a publicity stunt, both entities are doing a fantastic job at keeping their names consistently in the public's mind and mouths.

    Overall, publicity stunts can do a lot to either damage a celebrity's name or boost their image greatly. I think the end result all depends on who it is, what the stunt it, and how it is executed.