Last week I asked a question on my facebook page and I also asked several experts if negative publicity helps or hurts a business.
The opinion was divided to a large extent.
In my humble opinion, I do believe negative publicity helps a business. Lot of movie stars seem to thrive on negative publicity. Several others have intentionally orchestrated negativity publicity to get into the limelight although many won’t admit it.
But there’s one word of caution here, if your business has a lousy product 
that no one wants or the business uses unethical means and abuses the customer’s trust then no amount of publicity positive or negative will help.
Why does negative publicity work?
I hate to say this but as a society people love to see people fight, love to see a super star fall apart whether it’s a Michael Jackson or Britney Spears. Our society gets it’s thrills from seeing successful people fall apart. Donald Trump came into the public eye when he was close to a $ 10 billion bankruptcy and in the middle of a dirty divorce.
Britney Spears stays in the limelight for all the wrong reasons and who can forget the Great Micheal Jackson from court cases to financial troubles.
I am NOT saying they are intentionally orchestrating negative publicity, it might be unintentional. But the point I am making is negative publicity is giving them media attention and they are getting visibility for themselves. How they use this visibility is an entirely different ball game altogether.
Let me know what you think about negative publicity by writing your comments in the comments section below.
Vinil Ramdev is an entrepreneur, business coach and author of several ebooks. He is also founder of StartupGrowthExpert.com
Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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