If you’ve been a follower of the showbiz industry in the country, the very mention of a publicity stunt will draw a hiss from your lips.

Why? It really is an annoyance, especially if it’s something that piqued your interest or left you in a state of shock.

You might have followed that incident diligently, wondering why your favorite celeb would engage in such an act.

Only for you to realize it is just to generate hype for an upcoming show, song, movie, or album.

Of course, such a realization will draw an aah followed by a tssswww.

But to think of it, it worked. It drew your attention, whetted your lips, and made you consume everything hook, line, and sinker, but ended up leaving a bitter aftertaste.

So, for the sake of innocent consumers like us, it should be done away with, right?

No, contrary to what one may think, “using publicity stunts can be a risky but potentially rewarding strategy for celebrities and public figures looking to promote themselves or their products,” George Quaye said in an interview with GhanaWeb’s Isaac Dadzie.

However, there may be downsides. “While publicity stunts can generate a lot of buzz in the short term, their impact may be fleeting and not lead to sustained interest or engagement.

“Publicity stunts can also backfire if they are seen as inauthentic or exploitative, leading to negative publicity and damage to the celebrity’s reputation,” he continued.

So the issue is how they can be done in a way not to annoy the public. It boils down to one thing: planning.

“Anything negative people want to react to, people run after it, people want to know more about it. That is one of the ways we can also use to sell products. But if we don't plan it well, that is where we lose the people.

“Most of the people that come out to say whatever they did was a publicity stunt, they actually did not even plan it. Most of the time it's not planned; it's just by accident. And in the way of recovering from the accident, they just make us believe that it's a publicity stunt.

“But truly most of them that I've investigated, they are not. And those that are really planned to be a stunt, they really don't sell well,” said entertainment pundit Ola Michael.

“We make it too obvious. One of the bad sides of it is when you come out later and say it's a publicity stunt, it makes people lose faith in you.

“So our way of planning it is what has made it useless. So if we plan it well, it works,” he added.

So, a properly planned stunt can generate hype. Take, for example, musician King Promise’s recent ‘marriage/music video’ or the time when actor LilWin announced he was going to announce the political party he aligned with, only for it to end up being a music video.

Or Medikal announcing on X that he would tell his ‘Story’ amid his marital issues, only for the story to be a song.

Publicity stunts don't have to involve breaking someone's windscreen like Akuapem Poloo did, or going on a barrage of insults with someone.

It could be a simple cryptic tweet, an ambiguous message, something that leaves people scratching their heads, something that won't affect the sensitivity of anyone; then leave it to the tabloids to spread the news far and wide.

Rounding off with George Quaye, “a well-executed publicity stunt has the potential to go viral on social media, reaching millions of people and generating valuable publicity."

ID/BB

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