The hoax threat made to Emma Watson is the most high-profile of countless recent examples undermining the claim that there’s no such thing as improper publicity. Where does this belief come from,and is there ever any truth to it?It recently emerged that the threats made to Emma Watson about releasing (non-existent) nude photos of her, in response to her UN speech, or were in fact a hoax. The spoof threats were attributed to a PR company called Rantic.com,which was itself revealed to be a hoax. The point of it all seems to be to generate web traffic. It would assume a better person than me to untangle the complex knot of soulless cynicism and unethical manipulations that this yarn has become. Im just a common or garden neuroscientist. But one thing this does reveal is that, in our interconnected, and online society,the belief that “all publicity is obliging publicity” or “there’s no such thing as improper publicity” is alive and well. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com