Forbidden PR

Author: Ksenia Ratushnaya

The recent blocking of the MDK public page and the wave of media publications surrounding this news made me think about other successful examples of promotion thanks to the ban: Pussy Riot, castrati singers, cartoons about power and, of course, Barbra Streisand .

On June 27, VKontakte technical support banned almost three million members of the MDK public page. Within a couple of hours, this story was discussed by RIA Novosti, Forbes and Dozhd. Even readers of the Kommersant newspaper suddenly learned about the existence of a brave new world in social networks. The refuge of the banned public was " Eaglet ", a spin-off of MDK, which instantly gained 60 thousand new readers.

were written about the reasons for the decision of the VKontakte administration Despite the initial threat of suspension of activities for 1-2 months, two days later the offending public was unbanned, and at least a hundred articles .

Streisand effect

Society's reaction to the ban is sometimes called the Barbra Streisand effect . When the singer demanded that a photograph of her house, which accidentally appeared on one of the 12 thousand images of the California coast, be removed from the website pictipia.com, and a fine of $50 million be collected from the photographer, a day later the Associated Press and half of the news publications in the world had this photo.

Another famous example is Pussy Riot. For a short time, angry townspeople had bright female politicians - and they were immediately taken away. In this case, the blow was skillfully delivered to a barely formed, and therefore nervous and sensitive audience.

In 2007, Ang Lee's film Lust, known for its explicit erotic scenes, was shown in China in an uncensored and uncut form only in Hong Kong. Thousands of Chinese made special trips to Hong Kong to see it.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Emperor Nicholas II banned cartoons depicting him, Alexandra Feodorovna and Rasputin. A lot of indecent pictures, developing the theme of the close connection between the royal couple and their friend, immediately flooded the city.

In 17th and 18th century Italy, castration of boys who were training to become opera singers was extremely popular. In castrati, the vocal cords did not experience changes characteristic of puberty. As the teenager grew, his voice acquired special flexibility and a wide range, including a soprano unattainable for ordinary men. They could sing in one breath fragments of a length that was inaccessible to any adult, mature singer, and therefore received the most lucrative contracts.

Anyone found to be involved in such operations was excommunicated and civilly prosecuted. Despite the ban, thousands of boys who showed at least minimal singing ability were subjected to this procedure. They usually came from poor families - so their parents hoped to provide them with a luxurious life as opera singers, the fame of the best of whom was at least equal in scale to the fame of Marilyn Monroe. The famous castrato singer Farinelli could receive a colossal sum of 3 thousand pounds a year for those times, not counting gifts, jewelry and boxes.

The ban on castration only spurred heated discussion of the method among the poor and created the feeling that such restrictions allowed aristocrats to limit the number of lucky people receiving all earthly goods. In 1780, there were officially more than 200 castrati in Rome alone.

Pattern

Distancing ourselves from the intentional or accidental castration of the actions of MDK and Pussy Riot, the fact is that after a ban, any phenomenon in the shortest possible time becomes known beyond the audience already aware of it. For Pussy Riot, this is the world's liberal and music media: Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, was called the best music producer in Russia. For MDK, these are journalists who treat public pages on VKontakte with some contempt and do not consider them their competitors, despite the enormous traffic. In fact, PR people are usually paid for informing a new target audience about a brand.

The ban works so well that sometimes it seems as if every major brand manager is a click away from launching a similar story. For example, for media managers, temporarily closing the media as a protest against censorship is another opportunity to lose a little quick money from advertising views, but gain impressive media coverage and the respect of readers.

These tools only work if there is a loyal audience (or when violating the ban has visible benefits). Many people try to put videos on YouTube with the inviting title “forbidden to be shown,” but the results are mostly disastrous . In political Russia, this technique is most often used by Eduard Limonov, whose every action, according to the script, must certainly end in prison, thereby turning the politician into the discussed freethinking poet. However, these cases are mostly discussed by those people who continuously monitor Limonov’s activities.

The second important condition, although optional, is that the case must be on par with similar situations and show the existence of a certain trend. The story immediately gains depth and creates more questions for discussion. Before MDK, other large public sites were closed in a similar way: For Men, Institute of Evil Geniuses, Kotany.

Condition number three: the ban must end immediately after the media dust settles. Preferably every other day. Some people manage in less time, while others, like Pussy Riot, have to wait two years. If a viral campaign gets your company published in the New Yorker and the Huffington Post, but the business goes under because of the ban, what do you get?

An awkward situation.

We are waiting for the fan base and take off,
Ksenia Ratushnaya,
Irony Production,
Especially for TJournal

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