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All publicity is good publicity: a mantra for a seemingly endless parade of good-girl-going-on-diva pop stars. Take the career of Miley Cyrus as an example. The former Disney star enjoyed early success under the alias of the sweetheart Hannah Montana, but what a change in her public image has gone through in previous years. So what happened? Has she lost her mind? Is she going through some growing pains and feels the need to rebel? Or is this all a carefully planned PR campaign that is based on successful models from the past?
To understand how the public relations decisions made by Miley Cyrus, and how that has got her to this point, there is one question which everyone asks that must first be answered: “Who cares about Miley Cyrus?” The answer may surprise you; we all care about Miley Cyrus. We all care for her not because of her music, well actually some do (millions do, to be exact), but we care because it is ‘Grade A’ entertainment. Think of it as a massive reality television show spanning all media at once, and this is all done to sell a couple of CDs. As a result this is one exciting train wreck to watch, but is it really a train wreck? Or, an orchestrated story line?
It is common place for pop stars to have PR firms, like Brown & Cohen, managing their images. It’s a part of the industry. In the beginning the public relations machine was driven by Disney. Hannah Montana was the latest Disney star. She grew up in the shadow of Britney Spears. Miley’s initial fan base was secured during the four-season lifespan of the Hannah Montana TV show. A good-natured show with songs to sing-a-long to. She enjoyed much success as its star, branding everything from Hannah Montana lunch boxes to Hannah Montana video games. But nearing the end show, Miley Cyrus was learning a few public relations lessons, as she was one of the worst celebrity influences.
The next chapter after the Hannah Montana saga built up Miley Cyrus’ own image as she tried to move away from her Disney image as well as getting out from under daddy’s shadow. In the beginning, other than the odd public relations slip up, Miley seemed to be handling her stardom in the same way as other celebrities: an unflattering photo here, a rude comment there, and the odd snapshot gracing the cover of a tabloid in your friendly neighbourhood grocery store aisle. Lately, Miley has been on a rampage through seemingly every entertainment news media out there. In what seems like a Battle of the Pop Princesses, Miss Cyrus is up against the likes of Lady Gaga and the past antics of Madonna and Britney Spears. Looking back at these wildly successful pop stars, they too underwent a transformation early in their careers that shot them right to the top of the charts. Coincidence? Not very likely…
To compete with the other pop divas for music business supremacy: she made twerking a household name as she grinded herself up against Robin Thicke. On a first glance it seemed like Miley was simply looking for attention, but with a quick Google search it makes the whole scenario seem planned. The incident with Robin Thicke occurred on August 25th, 2013, which so happens to be the same day that Miley’s single “Wrecking Ball” was released in anticipation for her latest album. What better way to generate buzz about your latest product than to have you face on every news website on this green earth.
To follow up that stunt, the music video for “Wrecking Ball” suggests she’s nude, and has her swinging around provocatively on (quite fittingly) a wrecking ball. As of today the official video has been watched over 475 million times, which only goes to show that people in fact do care about what Miley Cyrus does. And that people actually do listen to her music. But the best part is that a lot of this was done using the mass media to fuel her publicity. She got a lot of her exposure in media and she never had to pay for it. News media, magazines, websites and even this blog spread the gospel of Miley Cyrus free of charge. In turn this free publicity creates interest in her, which in many cases result in people buying her music.