How to Silence Kanye? Ignore Him
by Its hotly debated that Kanye West’s actions at the MTV Video Music Awards were the result of a publicity stunt. So deny his obnoxious flame oxygen by ignoring him.
I’m sure we’ve all seen R&B star Kanye West’s outrageous outburst at the MTV Video Awards, stealing the limelight from rightful winner Taylor Swift, declaring that Beyonce’s video entitled “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” was the “best video of all time.”
For a man that wears blinds in his sunglasses, its hard to take him seriously as an arbiter of taste. That aside, its hard to believe such a self-important blowhard has had his celebrity jump tenfold overnight due to bad behavior (well, maybe it isn’t that hard to believe.) What irritates many on Twitter and Facebook is that he was allowed to get away with it; that it may have been a pre-planned publicity stunt (which MTV has never shied from setting up in the past.). If it was, then it was the most cost effective publicity campaign in all entertainment history.
Although many may be incensed that Kanye “performed” such a ludicrous act on stage, seemingly everyone is talking about him. Its almost like a publicist’s dream; not only fans of his music and the genre are talking about him, people of all persuasions: metalheads, indie kids, punk rockers, pop fans, roots, folk, reggae: you name it – fans of any kind of music are talking about him. Celebrities are talking about him; journalists are writing about him (myself included); He’s currently (Sept. 15, 2009) the 2nd most popular trending topic on Twitter; President Obama called him a “jackass” (albeit off-the-record) and Google Trends (as of Sept. 15, 2009) had him at No. 7 So what can be done to derail him?
Seemingly nothing. And you would be exactly right.
By talking about him, it gives him free publicity and actually helps his notoriety rather than hindering it. As a consequence of his ridiculous actions, he may win fans that he would never have otherwise reached with his music as the intial “shock” of what he did eventually fades away. If attention is like the oxygen that feeds his fire, then starving him of it will truly punish him. If other celebrities and even the President of the United States weighs speaks his name, it only serves his initial purpose further; to gain even more recognition, albeit through negative means.
There’s nothing more irritating than someone who interrupts while you are talking; but doing it on stage in front of the whole world means that they’ll never forget and never cease to remark “How dare he!” But the best way to punish bad behavior is to never reward it with extra attention.
Image via Wikipedia
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