Is Any Publicity Good Publicity?

Publicity is the act of attracting the media attention and gaining visibility with the public. Publicity has an intense power to promote a brand or company. Publicity is so much more powerful than advertising or sales promotion, or even other forms of public relations, because publicity is highly credible (Belch, 2012, p586). Publicity usually takes great measures to insure their objectivity and promote the fact that they are not influenced by advertisers or other outside sources.

But, is any publicity good publicity? In the Advertising And Promotion by George E. Belch and Michael A. Belch, chapter 17, it mentioned, “ Publicity can make or break a product or even a company”(Belch, 2012, p586). At this point, it represents the power of publicity is intense, also represent there are both of positive and negative side of publicity. Publicity offer the advantages of substantial credibility, news value, significant word-of-mouth, and perception of endorsement by media. At the same time, publicity has negative impact of lack of control, timing and accuracy.

As I mentioned the power of publicity at the beginning of the article, people might think only positive publicity can improve the sale of companies. In the Advertising And Promotion by George E. Belch and Michael A. Belch, chapter 17, there are two different examples about the response to negative publicity. First one is a good example by Tree Top’s. This company’s problems began when major news media reported the chemical Alar, which is used to regulate the growth of apples. This chemical Alar might cause cancer in children. This report is a negative influence for Tree Top’s, because they sale for apple juicy. Therefore, Tree Top’s use this negative report to created doubt about the safety of their products, and informed consumers that Alar was not used in their products. The second example is about Martha Stewart. When she was convicted by the Securities and Exchange Commission of insider trader, the negative publicity had severe consequences for her company. However, while still in jail, Stewart cultivated a softer image than her past reputation as a harsh taskmaster, by befriending inmates and dispensing tips for better prison food.  Upon her release, her image helps her to promote herself, and many advertisers returned. In this case, Stewart uses the negative publicity to recreate a new image of her, and makes her successful.

 In conclusion, either good or bad publicity is managed like any other promotional tools. Because publicity is more powerful than other forms of public relations, either positive or negative publicity can give consumers strong impression of products or companies. Therefore, I agree with the saying that “any publicity is good publicity.”

Citation:

Belch, G., & Belch, M. (2011). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective. (9th ed.). McGraw Hill Education.