Blunder or Marketing?
Britney Spears Exploits the Paparazzi
By Daniel Muniz

Britney Spear’s panty-less escapades with socialite Paris Hilton perhaps accomplished pretty much what she sought after. For a while, she was the highest search item for the Yahoo search engine. Other search engines experienced massive number of searches for Britney and her self-exposure. And of course, many wanted to see the vividly clear pictures that the paparazzi took when she went commando while partying at hip nightclubs.

Her exposed bare private parts were the buzz all over Hollywood and among the chattering classes.

But what surprised a lot of people and even Hollywood insiders happened to be the amount of coverage and publicity she actually generated from the major newswires, media outlets, and other news sources. Even conservative and liberal pundits were criticizing her. Conservative columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin created a very funny video spoof of how a woman should properly exit a car without flashing the whole world.
 

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Regardless of her panty-less antics, Britney Spears probably accomplished the unthinkable.

She has had no album, thus no career for two and a half years. Her failed marriage to gold digger and all-around loser Kevin Federline was a sordid tabloid story that kept resurfacing in the press. In addition to her K-Fed woes, the paparazzi kept churning out plenty of tabloid stories like her driving a car with her son at the wheel or pulling into a gas station barefoot as well as plenty of other frivolous items.

Without a doubt, the constant tabloid barrage that saturated the gossip columns was slowly turning her superstar image into white trash which would irrevocably tarnish her value as a money making celebrity. And such a downturn would forever diminish her popularity of a pop singer thus tanking future album sales.

However, sex changes everything.

Sex sells and using nudity, especially from a beautiful starlet, creates an enormous media sensation.
 

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Millions of people wanted to know what Britney Spears looked like naked and the paparazzi provided full frontal nudity. But instead of being photographed in the nude for a centerfold spread of a men’s magazine, Britney was able to give the public something better, voyeurism; a vivid glimpse up her skirt without any panties on.

Now she is the talk of the town.

And instead of being exploited by the paparazzi, Britney turned the tables and exploited them.

She stealthily manipulated their shameful stalking tactics and harnessed their insatiable hunger for sensationalism into a marketing strategy that could pave the way for her eventual comeback. And it didn’t cost her anything except for a little bit of modesty. She has already been photographed in the nude for magazine covers and she has been wearing next to nothing on concert stages so the next step to bare it all wasn’t that big of a leap.

Of course there will always be those who will label her as white trash while depicting her as an airhead but a sexy glamorous pop superstar revealing her sensual side while revealing everything else captured the public’s attention. And that is what she is going to use to promote her celebrity status.

Yes, she will still be mocked and ridiculed but her marketing value has risen exponentially.

Instead of album and concert ticket sales being in the doldrums, exposing herself in a panty-less spectacle sets the stage for a comeback into the entertainment world. And if this sensation was done deliberately as many have speculated, then more than likely it will probably improve the sales of many of her products

Still other product lines may suffer. For instance, associate editor at Forbes magazine, Lea Goldman says:

"It's conceivable that it might hurt sales of her perfume, especially because of the timing of this since we're going into the holiday season. You have mothers going in to buy stocking stuffers and presents for their daughters, and they certainly don't want their daughters projecting that image. This isn't something they want to glorify."

The door will be forever closed for these types of consumers but for the people who want the glitz and the glamour, the sales of her product lines will probably spike because of the notoriety. But as other Hollywood insiders have lamented, what outrageous thing will she have to do in the future in order to jumpstart of a stalled career. She will have to do something truly scandalous to top this one.

However, Britney finally did make a half-hearted apology about going panty-less but it sounded suspiciously like a marketing ploy. Below is an excerpt of her remarks:

I probably did take my new found freedom a little too far. Thank God for Victoria Secrets’ new underwear line. I look forward to a new year, new music, and a new me. I’m just getting started.

Perhaps with new panties from Victoria’s Secret, Britney will at least be wearing a thong or a g-string the next time she flashes the paparazzi.

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