Publicity stunt

For the Gucci Mane song, see Publicity Stunt (song).
Publicity stunt in Salt Lake City, 1910: "Little Hip" the elephant, advertising newspaper and theater.
Austin A40 Sports, c. 1951. To promote the A40 Sports, Leonard Lord, Chairman of Austin, bet Alan Hess of the company's publicity department that he could not drive round the world in 30 days in the car. In 1951, an A40 Sports driven by Hess[1] achieved the round-the-world feat in 21 days rather than the planned 30 (with assistance of a KLM cargo plane) – though the stunt had no eventual impact on sales.[2]
In 2013 in several large German cities, Planet Earth Account Community Enterprise (PEACE) organized events where money was distributed to the public via a balloon.[3]

In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs.[4] Such events are frequently utilized by advertisers and celebrities, many of whom are athletes and politicians. Stunts employing humour and pranks have been regularly used by protest movements to promote their ideas and campaigns as well as challenge opponents.[5]

Organizations sometimes seek publicity by staging newsworthy events that attract media coverage. They can be in the form of groundbreakings, world record attempts, dedications, press conferences, or organized protests. By staging and managing these types of events, the organizations attempt to gain some form of control over what is reported in the media. Successful publicity stunts have news value, offer photo, video, and sound bite opportunities, and are arranged primarily for media coverage.[6]

It can be difficult for organizations to design successful publicity stunts that highlight the message instead of burying it. The importance of publicity stunts is for generating news interest and awareness for the concept, product, or service being marketed.[7]

  1. ^ "Austin A40 Sports". Austin Memories. Archived from the original on 2009-01-05.
  2. ^ "Motoring Memories: Austin A40 Sports, 1951–1953". Canadian Driver, June 15, 2007, Bill Vance.
  3. ^ "Money rain over Frankfurt am Main". www.cna.org. Archived from the original on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2015-01-01.
  4. ^ "Advertising". The Balance Careers. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  5. ^ Sorensen, Majken Jul (2021-11-03). "Humorous Political Stunts: Nonviolent Public Challenges to Power". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  6. ^ Cutlip, Scott; Center, Allen; Broom, Glen (1985). Effective Public Relations. Englewood Cliffs, new Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 8–9. ISBN 0-13-245077-1.
  7. ^ Horton, James. "Publicity Stunts What Are They? Why Do Them?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2008-10-15.