{"id":49377,"date":"2013-11-22T10:57:17","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T09:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=49377"},"modified":"2013-11-22T10:57:17","modified_gmt":"2013-11-22T10:57:17","slug":"celebrity-pr-the-shock-factor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/celebrity-pr-the-shock-factor\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrity PR: The Shock Factor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Miley

Miley Cyrus via @MileyOfficial<\/p><\/div>\n

The international media attention around the twerking Miley Cyrus was far from wearing thin when she \u2018sparked\u2019 fresh controversy by smoking a joint<\/a> on stage at Amsterdam\u2019s Ziggo Dome during the Europe MTV video music awards on 10 November. Headlines grabbed it, parents opposed it, MTV USA censored it and the Dutch authorities are still investigating it. But her publicists were far from drawing up a crisis management plan. In fact the \u2018Official Miley Team\u2019<\/a> on Twitter were all exclamation marks as they uploaded a 3-second Gif of her smoking the rollup, real-time.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n

Miley won the biggest category of the night, VIDEO OF THE YEAR! #MileyEMAs<\/a> http:\/\/t.co\/q4wQtFZKI2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Official Miley Team (@MileyOfficial) November 11, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which brings us to the question: Was Miley\u2019s move as spontaneous as it was made out to be? (\u2018I couldn’t fit this award in my bag, but I did find this.\u2019)<\/p>\n

Or was it a pre-meditated publicity stunt orchestrated by her PR team to maintain the hype surrounding the artist as she promotes the upcoming \u2018Bangerz\u2019 world tour?<\/p>\n

Her publicist declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Miley claims, it was an unplanned move to drive fans \u2018super wild<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n

Media reports sum it up in two letters: PR<\/p>\n

But whatever the motive, this incident, and others that have contributed in Miley\u2019s ascent (or should we say descent?) from Disney\u2019s sweetheart to the \u2018shock-pop princess\u2019 throws light on the shock-inducing nature of the music industry, as it is today.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s wearing a raw-meat dress on the red carpet, or barely-a-dress-at-all, a provocative tweet or controversial statement \u2013 most artists today rely on a lot more than their musical talent to secure fame, and fortune.<\/p>\n

Putting the current celebrity media landscape in perspective, Sam Delaney, popular journalist, TV presenter and former editor of Heat magazine was quoted<\/a> saying: \u2018The celebrity media field is super-competitive and there are signs that the public is suffering from fame fatigue. Readers are becoming desensitised by the blanket coverage.\u2019<\/p>\n

He explained how shows like The X Factor has played a pivotal role in increasing celebrity journalism, yet the 360 degree media coverage has failed to translate all the noise created to actual sales.\u00a0 As a result, \u2018both the celebrities and the journalists are\u00a0becoming more desperate,\u2019 undoubtedly putting the image management company behind the scenes in a tight, and rather desperate spot too.<\/p>\n

\u2018Controversial and shocking stunts get celebrities instant media coverage and attention,\u2019 said Toni Tambourine, head of press at Listen-Up, a music PR agency that manages the likes of Avicii, Martin Garrix and David Guetta among other leading DJs and music producers. Tambourine explained that while Listen-Up prefers to focus on talent and client credibility, outrageousness has indeed become part and parcel of the strategy used by PR managers to \u2018get people talking.\u2019<\/p>\n

Getting people to talk, tweet, comment and blog is undeniably the entire idea, and is in fact critical to maintaining a competitive edge in the already overcrowded world of digital media.<\/p>\n

To be sure, controversy and scandal is no stranger to the music industry for how else would sex, drugs and rock ‘n\u2019 roll define an entire era? But just as sex and drugs defined the rock ‘n\u2019 roll era, so does sensationalism and voyeurism in music showbiz reflect the digital age of the music business today.<\/p>\n

An article that appeared in the NPR News<\/a> hits the nail on the head: \u2018Pop musicians have always played with shock value, and Internet videos give them a new way to deploy it.\u2019<\/p>\n

And deploying it on a multitude of platforms is exactly what PR managers attempt to do. However, as artists increasingly take to social networking sites, managing online reputation and drawing the fine line between shocking audiences and putting them off, is becoming more challenging.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the celebrity PR\u2019s role is getting increasingly fragmented as it extends into new areas of management. \u00a0Caroline Citrin, founder of showbiz, fashion and celebrity diary and contacts service, The Media Eye<\/a> said: \u2018earlier celebrities had one manager that decided communication and managed their client\u2019s public image. Now, a popular celebrity would have an entire team which would include a manager, a commercial manager, an agent, a live agent (for live appearances), a publicist, a lawyer, a stylist and a booker. ‘Further, a growing number of brand associations and celebrity endorsements have made \u2018controlling\u2019 the public image of celebrities in tune with brand policies a daunting task for PR teams behind the scenes. \u00a0\u2018It may come across as a spontaneous night out at a party but most celebrity managers decide what events their acts attend. Management companies will want to ensure that the talent attending an event or launch is of a similar calibre to their own act at least, and many talent managers now steer their acts away from any celebrities with what they perceive as negative values or attributes.’<\/p>\n

But despite the increased involvement demanded of celebrity PR managers today, social media networks such as Twitter and Instagram etc. often take the controls off their hands.<\/p>\n

\u2018After a good night out when hungover or with their mates, celebrities post something completely unregulated by the PR team and take control of their own reputation\/image.\u2019<\/p>\n

So how does the PR team deal with a post gone awry the morning after?\u00a0\u2018You just have to make the shock-element work for you and eliminate it when it doesn\u2019t,’ said Listen Up\u2019s Toni. \u2018When there is false coverage (which there is a lot of), we take action for it to be removed or limit distribution. But if there are reports which aid publicity for the client \u2013 you let it be, shocking or not.\u2019<\/p>\n


<\/em>Going forward in the digital age, it will be interesting to see the extent celebrity PR managers go to support and promote their acts. Or will it come to a point, where as\u00a0the album title of alternative rock band Jane\u2019s Addicton goes: Nothing\u2019s Shocking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The international media attention around the twerking Miley Cyrus was far from wearing thin when she \u2018sparked\u2019 fresh controversy by smoking a joint on stage at Amsterdam\u2019s Ziggo Dome during the Europe MTV video music …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":49467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,7272,82,3531,3643,4708,4949,5166,5336,5741],"tags":[104,1511,1595,4525,5395,5396,5397,5400],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}