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Quotes / No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

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    Film 

Commodore Norrington: You are, without doubt, the worst pirate I've ever heard of.
Captain Jack Sparrow: ...But you have heard of me.

    Literature 

Mrs Mason: In the other cinema there is a dreadful thing called Our Painted Daughters. How they allow such filth onto the screen...
Narrator: Mrs. Mason accepted a glass of a rather young red wine to accompany her salad and continued her condemnation, with the result that the entire company resolved to see Our Painted Daughters at the earliest opportunity. Even Dot, who was a self-confessed Good Girl, found herself interested.

What good is an obscenity trial except to popularize literature?"

    Live-Action TV 

"Controversy means viewers. Women will find a way to watch this. Maybe just because they don't want to get left out."
Don, Mad Men

"I really don't need you [the winning plaintiff] to approve of me. 10 million people approve of me. There are a lot of people who watch that don't approve of me. I don't care as long as they watch."
Judge Judy, Judge Judy

Brent: I can't believe you didn't say anything.
Hank: About what? The hoe thing? What's the problem?
Lacey: Oh... Hank, in large urban centres, some women are willing to exchange money for, uh...
Hank: I know, I know, I get it. Ho, big dirty ho, crack ho, I'm there. But the way I see it, when we build this thing, it's gonna cause a huge stink in the media. And not just locally, nationally. Internationally. Then we just sit back, and wait for the tourist dollars to roll in.

    Music 

"I don't care what you think, as long as it's about me."
Fall Out Boy, "I Don't Care"

"Polarize the people, controversy is the game.
It don't matter if they hate you if they all say your name."
Ren, "Money Game Part 2"

"I don't even want to say nothing.
Everybody gon' say something.
I'd be worried if they said nothing."
Kanye West, "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1"

    Theatre 
Angelica Schuyler: Burr, you disgust me.
Aaron Burr: Ah, so you've discussed me!
Hamilton, "The Schuyler Sisters"

"What a way to run a business
Spare me these unending trials
Half your cast disappears
But the crowd still cheers
Opera!
To hell with Gluck and Handel
It's a scandal that'll pack 'em in the aisles!"

    Video Games 

"Groovy boss, eh? Wow! Any publicity's good publicity, as they say!"

You are escorted from the publisher's office and questioned by constables. Your work gives nine hundred readers nightmares and closes four schools. Women scream and faint as you pass in the street. Sales are excellent.
Fallen London, after writing a particularly gruesome penny dreadful.

    Web Animation 

"It doesn't matter that the design's shit and that the story's inane because Hatred isn't an entity in itself. It's the latest incarnation of THE Game that always appears when concerns about video game content enter the popular discourse. It was called Postal last time. We live in an age where mass communication has counterintuitively turned all attempts at verbal debate into a basketball game where the teams are on different courts, and stand around a basket racking up meaningless points and throwing shit over the dividing wall."

"Acclaim's terrible ideas collectively feel like a test of the old adage that there's 'no such thing as bad publicity;' they were certainly getting the headlines and exposure they wanted, but I think the lesson to be learned by the marketers of video games today [...] is that it only works if the product is good. Maybe a bad PR stunt could ultimately push a good game into the exposure it deserves, but Acclaim weren't making good games; they were making rushed-out, innovation-less plop, and their headline-grabbing shenanigans that would've made them seem like endearing, cheeky pranksters in the name of a quality product were simply turning a bunch of rushed-out, innovation-less plop peddlers into insane rushed-out, innovation-less plop peddlers."
Zero Punctuation on Acclaim Entertainment's bad marketing stunts

    Web Original 

"The more you hate it, the stronger it gets."

"We know the drill:
1. Ann Coulter writes a book.
2. Ann Coulter says something incredibly stupid.
3. Ann Coulter becomes a best seller."
Mo Rocca

"This message has been brought to you by Tim Buckley, who reminds you that the more you complain and link to his site, the more traffic he receives.

Suckers!"

"Sacha Baron Cohen’s movie Borat was, to say the least, not very flattering to the nation of Kazakhstan: the title character, presented as a cultural emissary from the Central Asian country, is misogynistic, anti-semitic, and generally pretty racist. And yet, after the film was released in 2006, Hotels.com said that requests for information about the country’s accommodations increased by 300 percent."

"In May of 2004, I gave a warning about a game called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I made it perfectly clear: DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME. But, from what I understand... people played it. They didn't listen."

"I once worked at the ad agency that created the "Wanta Fanta" jingle for Fanta soda, as sung by the Fantanas, a fake girl-group assembled specifically to sing about Fanta. (If you don't remember the jingle, I will spare you the link.) ...And that jingle was ANGUISH. No one outside that building liked those ads. But that didn't matter, because people paid attention to them, and that was victory enough. Most people fast-forward ads or ignore them, and so anytime people give your ad the time of day, you treat it like you made the fucking Godfather."
Drew Magary, "Why Nationwide Loves Its Dead Kid Ad"

"Russian paratroopers could be seizing control of Washington and I bet if you turned on our local radio they’d be debating how much more motivated the ‘Skins will be once the Soviets (we will always live in the 80’s here cause that’s the last time the team was any good) have seized power and President Putin can watch in person. Our “play by play man/voice of the Redskins/mouth of Sauron” Larry Michael will do his best Kent Brockman impersonation on welcoming our new overlords so fast, you’ll never see someone pick up the Russian language quicker."

"The media is unanimous in its opposition to this movement, but the movement uses that not as a liability but as an asset. Look at the recent controversies over tall tales told by anchormen like NBCs Brian Williams and Fox's Bill O'Reilly to see just how poor the public image of the news media is these days. No "anti-vaxxer" gives a shit what the media talking heads think of them. Things have gotten so that Google has floated the idea of ranking websites by "truthfulness"...That will surely backfire. The people who gravitate towards unconventional scientific ideas generally rely more on social media and reflexively distrust authority. They'll automatically skip the top results and head for the back pages."
Christopher Loring Knowles, "The Power of Unreason"

Damn, even Marky Mark in Fear is like "Take it easy Juice, you're coming off a little crazy." But the thing that's making me crawl into the fetal position is that Pimp Mama Kris is probably back at Kastle Kardashian weighing out the pros and cons as we speak. "Pro: Publicity. Con: It’s O.J. Simpson. Pro: Attention. Con: Still O.J. Simpson. Hmmm... this is a tough one."

The folks at 3D Realms are going to be happy we're printing this. They'll say that it's simply a testament to the character's popularity, and after all this time, that people are STILL so concerned with the next Duke Nukem title. They may well be right. But there's a line — let's call it the "Daikatana Line" — where the general public opinion goes from amused to frustrated. We've crossed that line, I think, and the only way to recover from it is for the game to deliver an absolutely unheralded and unparalleled gaming experience. It has to make Half-Life 2note  look outdated.

"Call it the Donald Trump method: In a system that gives the public infinite options for their attention, all that matters is that people are talking about you. The negative tone of the conversation means nothing, because for every one person who was genuinely outraged, the retweets of said outrage alerted a much larger group that IHOP has burgers now. Then the brand can backtrack and/or apologize and get a second round of publicity for free."

    Web Video 

Jay: "Ah saw dis WWE t-shit dat says 'CENA SUCKS'. Ah bought it. Ah gave 'im mah twenny dollars! That'll show 'em!"
V1: [guffaws] You fucking SUCKERS!
OOC: Genius, though.
V1: It's a brilliant marketing ploy. 'Cause it worked!
Jay: The level of ignorance to buy a Cena t-shirt to hate on Cena—to give Cena money—I can't fathom the ignorance.
OSW Review Ep. 39

"Prepare for a film the media said was too dangerous for you to see, which made audiences way more excited than regular marketing ever could have, cruising its way to a billion dollars on a fifty-five million budget because it got hyped like a cinematic fear toxin that would turn you into The Joker, even though it ended up being a mumblecore Scorsese-riff about the world's saddest clown."

"It's just sometimes, marketing takes over projects, and a lot of marketers don't care. Their job is to get people interested, and even if it turns out to be over lies, well, that's more publicity for the project!"
Scott The Woz, "False Advertising", discussing the phenomenon in the gaming industry

"Now, these sorts of videos are just hitting the outrage point. They're so ridiculous that people get outraged and annoyed by them, and so they comment on them; they dislike them; they might even send it to someone going 'this is so ridiculous', and all of that negative interaction is still fuel for the fire of the algorithms."

Vector: You have to help us get more attention [on Twitter], Shadow! If we don't get more customers fast, we're gonna miss rent, and then we'll get evicted!
Shadow: It's simple. Watch this.
(Shadow karate-chops the keyboard and tweets "sonic adventure 2 was mid tbh" on the Chaotix's Twitter account)
Vector: That sure is a hot take… but how is it going to help us?
Charmy: Look, it's already got four hundred quote retweets!
Shadow: Being popular on Twitter isn't about charm or wit. It's about being as inflammatory as possible!
Espio: But won't that hurt our reputation?
Shadow: There are plenty of weirdos who will worship you for being a contrarian.
Charmy: Wow, you're so cool!

"Clyde then goes to sulk in his room watching his favorite YouTuber, Logan LeDouche, who of course devotes a good portion of his video to advertising Cred to his child audience. Quick side-note: I noticed that nowadays, South Park almost never uses the real name of celebrities they make fun of, and I wonder why that is; I always liked that they would just straight-up call them out in the old episodes and now they always do, like, these weird parody names for some reason. But this fake commercial from Logan Paul is hilarious because it's just a great way to make fun of the way he advertises this stuff, but surely Logan wouldn't think that this parody pointing out his unethical business practices would actually be a good advertisement for Prime…

"…Is what I would've said if he hadn't already used the South Park parody to legitimately advertise Prime. Yes, he made a one-to-one recreation of this fake ad and posted it on his Twitter. You know, what really makes me upset about this is just the absolute shamelessness in it. The gall to take something that is clearly criticizing you for a relatively serious issue— and lean into it to further promote the same unethical business practices— just cements the total lack of moral compass that this guy has. He knows that by leaning into the joke and embracing the parody, he's basically saying, "Look, kids! I'm self-aware about my scummy unethical business practices! Isn't that funny? I sure do have a sense of humor! Now go buy my drink," and all the kids who don't understand they're being manipulated think, "Wow, props to him, he really knows how to take a joke! You know, he doesn't seem like such a bad guy after all! Maybe I will try his drink!" And that's exactly what he knew would happen the entire time.

"But he's not cool, he doesn't deserve props for taking the joke, he's just doing what he knows is best for business. If it were better for business to throw a fit and get all mad about it he would've done it, because he's a sociopath who lacks any form of emotional response. His feelings are entirely fabricated around whatever will make him the most money. He's a businessman, through and through. And I can say what I want about this guy, but I can't deny that he knows how to market."

    Western Animation 

Will: Do Ralph and his boys know they've created a monster here?
Frank: No, they don't have a clue?
Will: Frank?
Frank: Yes, Will?
Will: We've got ONE HECK OF A SHOW HERE!!!
Rocko's Modern Life, "Wacky Delly"

Sideshow Mel: They say any publicity is good publicity.
Krusty the Clown: You, sir, are an idiot!

    Real Life 

"Censorship is advertising paid by the government."

"I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it."

"There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary."
Brendan Behan (We beg to differ.)

"In other words, I drew a weird, confusing cartoon that no one got and that wasn't funny, and went on to even greater fame and fortune. I love this country."
The Far Side Gary Larson, about "Cow Tools"

"The big news for the past two days is the mass suicide in Guyana of a cult led by somebody named Jim Jones. It's costing the U.S. government $8 million to remove all the bodies and bring them back. They'd put cyanide in grape-flavored Kool-Aid. Just think, if they'd used Campbell's Soup, I'd be on every news show, everyone would be asking me about it. But Kool-Aid was always a hippie thing."

"You know, we first started doing Bullshit!—I say with a great deal of shame, that I pitched it a little cynical. I pitched it with the idea that 'Well, even if people hate us and we get hate mail, you'll still get attention'. Which I now find repulsive. But I did that."

"I think if we just remain deeply tasteful and just put deeply tasteful people on the cover, it would be a rather boring magazine! Nobody would talk about us. It’s very important that people do talk about us."
Anna Wintour on her Kanye West-Kim Kardashian Vogue cover shoot

"I take my inclusion on the banned book list as a massive compliment."

"There's critics on both sides of the aisle: it was the greatest thing I ever did, and it was the crappiest thing I ever did. But I honestly do believe that had we not done that that night, that ECW would've been relegated to being known as an independent company, a tiny little thing, instead of a company that left this massive legacy that we now see is bearing its fruit."
Shane Douglas on the famous worked shoot where he seceded from the NWA (Forever Hardcore: The Documentary)

"He ate his own shoe, they said. He pulled Joaquin Phoenix out of a car wreck before vanishing. He was shot by a sniper during a televised interview. He jumped into a cactus. He directed Klaus Kinski from behind the camera with a loaded gun. Not all of these are accurate, but when I first heard them, I figured if the films were half as interesting as the man, then I had to see them."
Stuart Millard on Werner Herzog, Smoke and Mirrors & Steven Seagal

"We are complete press sluts. It is our obligation. We would be worthless if we were just polite and didn't make any waves."
Ingrid Newkirk, founder of PETA.

"Some people love it"
screenshots of several five-star reviews
"Some people... don't"
disgusted quote from a negative review
"But no one can stop talking about [beat] mother!"

"...this is classic rage-farming: eliciting outrage to boost engagement and support. As @MollyJongFast has put it, it's 'the product of a perfect storm of fuckery, an unholy mélange of algorithms and anxiety'. They are baiting you to retweet and react angrily to them.
Twitter's algorithms (and those of social media more generally) spread content if people are interacting with it. If you're retweeting it, you're boosting it to all of your followers, as well as to any random individuals who might come across it.
Anger is one of the most powerful motivating emotions. Research on the Chinese platform Weibo has shown users share content that elicits disgust and anger more often than content that content that elicits positive emotions. Social media algorithms amplify human psychology.
If rage-farmers make you angry enough to retweet them, they're winning. To avoid this, don't 'like' or retweet what they're saying. That will just boost it algorithmically and spread it further.
If you must quote it, screenshot it, don't retweet. Ideally, don't quote it at all but just describe it in the most general terms, as I'm doing here. Don't name the individuals making the claims. Rage-farmers are looking for the oxygen of publicity. Don't provide them with it."
ChrisO_wiki, on why far-right trolls were suddenly denying the existence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Twitter

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