Britney Spears's fall from grace has unintentionally been successful PR campaign
Only a year ago, Hot Britney Spears was the toast of the entertainment world after dumping her husband and making a triumphant appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman" looking fit and happy just a few weeks post-partum.
What a difference a year makes.
In the months that followed her sassy surprise visit to Letterman, the pop star began partying hard with Paris Hilton, was frequently photographed without wearing underwear, angrily shaved her head in apparent defiance of her mother and struggled with alleged drug and alcohol problems that resulted in her losing custody of her two baby boys to a man most assumed was the deadbeat parent of the ill-fated union.
But observers say Spears's stunning fall from grace has unintentionally been one of the most successful public relations campaigns in entertainment history as the Louisiana-born musician has become a household name the world over.
"Everyone's talking about her, everyone has an opinion, 'Gimme More' is being downloaded by millions of people - she's huge," Elaine Lui, a correspondent for CTV's "ETalk," said Tuesday in an interview from Vancouver. "It's been the mother of train wreck PR campaigns."
Seth Feller, president of the Toronto-based Word of Mouth PR, agrees.
"The kind of coverage that she's been getting over the past year is more than anything I've ever seen for any artist ever," Feller said.
The brisk sales of Spears's single, "Gimme More," seem to be proving the veracity of that old PR adage "there's no such thing as bad publicity." The song is the first single from her upcoming album "Blackout," slated for release on Oct. 30, and has been an iTunes darling since August.
The infectious dance song was still No. 1 on the Canadian iTunes website on Tuesday and No. 3 on the U.S. iTunes list.
But no high-powered PR agent is orchestrating this wildly successful public relations blitz. Spears currently has no representation after being dropped by her latest agent a few weeks ago - she's apparently ensuring she stays in the public eye all on her own.
The dawning of every day brings more sordid Britney news: on Monday night, for example, she was booked for an August accident in which she rammed into a parked car and then left the scene of the accident. Almost every day, a sea of paparazzi photograph her doing everything from filling up her gas tank to dropping by Starbucks and emerging from pricey hotels late at night, prompting many to wonder why she doesn't just stay home and avoid the melee.
But Spears is said by those closest to her to be stubbornly defiant and resistant to advice. She also apparently courts the shutterbugs who hound her - on Monday, for example, she was offered the chance to leave the L.A. county jail via a backdoor, but chose to wade back into the paparazzi throngs with a smile on her face.
Feller says that sort of behaviour is going to backfire.
"The fact that she's been literally taking the media for a walk every time she goes out somewhere has hurt the hell out of her," Feller said. "She's very much approaching the tipping point. The train eventually does stop, the wreck eventually does happen, and people are rapidly losing patience and sympathy."
Although Spears's inexplicably bizarre behaviour has come at a terrible price, Lui says, people continue to care about her.
"It's achieved a financial goal - obviously she's out there, she's got recognition, her music is selling, but at what cost? Losing her kids, losing her mind, losing her hair," Lui says.
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