| rdfs:comment | - As the saying goes, there's "no such thing as bad publicity". The reasoning is that even if people are trying to raise a big stink about how some work is immoral, incorrect, offensive, or corrupting the youth of the world, they're just giving it attention, increasing how well-known it is, arousing people's natural curiosity as to why this so offensive, and making the work into Forbidden Fruit. Also, on the Internet, it is usually the never live it down-ed (usually bad) aspects of a product that undergoes discussion and Memetic Mutation, and thus extra advertising.
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| abstract | - As the saying goes, there's "no such thing as bad publicity". The reasoning is that even if people are trying to raise a big stink about how some work is immoral, incorrect, offensive, or corrupting the youth of the world, they're just giving it attention, increasing how well-known it is, arousing people's natural curiosity as to why this so offensive, and making the work into Forbidden Fruit. In real life, there is such a thing as bad publicity: For example, if it turns out a car model or another product has a flaw that endangers the lives of everyone who uses them, and this is highly publicized, the amount of people buying it is going to steeply drop. A little Never Live It Down can severely devastate anyone's entire life.... Forever. This trope refers to a something that gains popularity because Moral Guardians draw attention to it. Strangely, the Moral Guardians never seem to learn from the fact that they're doing a good job of making their objects of hate more popular, thus, Free Advertising. Also, on the Internet, it is usually the never live it down-ed (usually bad) aspects of a product that undergoes discussion and Memetic Mutation, and thus extra advertising. Whether or not the author of the work purposely made it controversial in order to invoke this phenomenon varies. A work is Rated "M" for Money when this is done intentionally. However, this can backfire if relied on too much. While the Moral Guardians are a great way to bring attention to a work, it still has to be genuinely good. If it isn't, then controversy or no controversy, critics are still going to pan it, and the people who spend money on it are going to let others know that it's not worth it. Books, DVD's, or video games can still be returned, ticket refunds can still be given partway through a movie or show, radios can still be turned off, etc. The creator and works also tend to suffer from Seinfeld Is Unfunny. No matter how shocking the creator or works are at first, eventually time will wear away at the shock value, and it just becomes routine and expected. Even Moral Guardians will eventually get bored attacking the same thing over and over. "Oh, look, (insert creator here) has released another extremely offensive and totally controversial (insert media type here). How shocking." This trope isn't just limited to Moral Guardians. Hatedoms have had this happen. As mentioned with the Control Alt Delete theorem later on the page, because people can be so Foe Yay about works they claim to hate, people often find out about it from the Hatedom or Hate Dumb and either experience Critical Backlash or even if they don't like it...still gave it sales or views. Similar to how people find out about something from the Fandom or Fan Dumb. Compare Attention Whore, Forbidden Fruit, Rated "M" for Money, Sex Sells, Overshadowed by Controversy. Content Warnings can be both a cause and effect of this. For when this happens but without the Moral Guardians, see Streisand Effect. See Bile Fascination for when the same thing happens due to rumors of the bad quality of a work. When there is an ostensible moral against something that looks appealing anyway, then it's Do Not Do This Cool Thing. A form of Attack Backfire. In some cases, it may also be a Sleeper Hit. Wikipedia has an article on this philosophy, going by the French phrase [[wikipedia:Succ%C3%A8s de scandale|succés de scandale]] (success from scandal). Examples of No Such Thing as Bad Publicity include:
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