In 2019, are viral publicity stunts fake news?
Studies have shown that staged publicity stunts can be the quickest way to generate interest around a product or brand, but is it worth potentially sacrificing your reputation? David Sawicki looks at the pros and cons.
Fake news is not a new concept and, contrary to popular belief, certainly not one that was coined around the most recent US Presidential election.
In fact, the proliferation of false information through media outlets is a time-honoured practice stretching back into ancient history. One of its earliest recorded uses was as a political tool in the first century by Augustus, the first Roman emperor, who slandered his political opposition in a brutal whisper campaign – a vicious manoeuvre that proved deadly.
Similarly, viral PR stunts – and more specifically the method of ‘seeding’ a story in a non-transparent way so that its association with your brand or company appears purely organic, is a very old concept. Granted, we are talking about mere decades rather than the century-spanning epic history of fake news.
