Publicity stunt
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The media itself often stages stunts for movies and television shows. This image is of a publicity stunt for the series Corner Gas, where CTV paid for 400 tanks of gas for area commuters. Stars of the then-newly popular series, including Brent Butt (shown), pumped the gas at the event. |
A
publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the
public's attention to the promoters or their causes. Publicity stunts can be professionally organised or set up by amateurs.
Amateur stunts can be trivial or deadly serious. Among the trivial are students occupying a university building to highlight grievances, politicians progressively releasing leaked material to boost their profiles, software companies challenging
hackers, etc. Serious publicity stunts include
terrorist attacks,
strikes,
mass demonstrations,
hijacks,
kidnappings,
hunger strikes,
suicides, and
murders.
This also makes clear that many publicity stunts try to exploit
succès de scandale mechanisms for attracting attention.
Many people would maintain that attempts to raise awareness of serious causes are not "stunts". That depends on the point of view of the observer. The toppling of
Saddam Hussein statues in front of the media in
Iraq was a publicity stunt but the motives behind the show were serious to those who planned the events.
One way of perhaps drawing a distinction might be to label as stunts, events specifically designed to attract publicity. Events designed to gain an objective and which incidentally attract publicity can be exempted from the term. For instance, if an
animal rights enthusiast were to rescue a
dancing bear in
India and that action became known through a report on a court case, that would not be a publicity stunt. If however, the activist arranged for the press to cover the rescue, it would be a publicity stunt.
The media itself often stages stunts for movies and television shows. The photo of a man at a gas station was a publicity stunt for the series
Corner Gas, where
CTV paid for 400 tanks of gas for area commuters.
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