Bad PR is, Good PR - Our Brains Just Can't Tell The Difference

When it gets to the bottom line, bad news seriously works just as well as good news. Maybe even better.

It makes you lose the remaining faith in humanity, but the effect that lousy publicity leads to favorable results for the object of the negative headlines can be observed over and over again, across many aspects of life, like business, politics, and entertainment.

Examples? Donald Trump’s whole election campaign was an entire chain of PR disasters, each big enough to end a typical political career. The Donald started out as an underdog and became president.

Still not convinced? Look at R. Kelly’s airplay on Spotify, YouTube, and iTunes. Since the general public rediscovered through a TV documentary, that the slimy-smooth R&B singer is a sexual predator with a preference for underage girls, his Spotify plays surged 16%. A similar thing happened when Spotify announced last year May to ban R. Kelly from their play-lists. People just searched for songs.

The human brain apparently has a hard time to differentiate between good and bad. I am no exception. Since I heard of the R. Kelly docu (I haven’t watched and have no intention to do so), my sub-conscience decides to play “Ignition - The Remix in a loop, luckily half of the time in the hilarious David Chappelle version. Not all humor ages that well.