Succès de scandale  

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Succès de scandale is French for "success by scandal", i.e. when (part of) a success derives from a scandal.

It might seem contradictory that any kind of success might follow from scandal: but scandal attracts attention, and this attention (whether gossip or bad press or any other kind) is sometimes the beginning of notoriety and/or other successes. Today, the often used cynical phrase "no such thing as bad publicity" is indicative of the extent to which "success by scandal" is a part of modern culture.

The archetypal example of succes de scandale in art is Stravinsky's ballet Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) , which premiered in 1913 by the Ballets Russes. In the high days of the Belle Epoque, the public attending this premiere was so scandalised by the brutal sounds produced by the orchestra and the evocation of a blood sacrifice on stage that a riot broke out. A shower of bad press and criticism followed, but Stravinsky kept aloof, as if he knew that overnight he had become the most famous composer of the 20th century. He would never have to return to scandalous music again; he moved to chamber music and the neoclassical style for the next few years, nothing that could upset large audiences. From what he said years later — the Sacre du Printemps had eventually been turned into a Disney classic — he appeared certain that none were better than him at exploiting a scandal for success.

Belle Epoque

Belle Epoque Paris appears to have had exactly the right climate for succès de scandale.

No such thing as bad publicity

This would not be the last time that Comstockery fanned the success it wanted to fence: "I expect it will be the making of me" said Mae West to the press in 1927, under arrest after the Society for the Suppression of Vice had manoeuvred to get her play titled Sex re-censored by the Police Department Play Jury — a few years later, over forty, her sex symbol status paid off: her 1935 film contract made her the highest paid woman till that day.

Later in the 20th century several more succès de scandale examples would show what a powerful instrument scandal can be for turning a publicity campaign into a success, to the point it can make any other publicity agent's trick redundant. One of the most notorious examples of that was the late 20th century publicity campaign by Benetton. It scored at least two major scandals: one regarding the controversial photographs (e.g. of people dying of AIDS) that were used to promote colourful Italian clothing; the second scandal went maybe even deeper, while the brain behind the campaign, the photographer Oliviero Toscani wiped the floor with the world of publicity at large: absolutely no other publicity device than photos unrelated to the brand that was promoted had been used to reach soaring high sales for that brand: Toscani had scorned every rule of the book. And this feat probably made Toscani the most famous publicity photographer ever.

Due to more widespread use of the Internet, recently celebrity sex tapes have found widespread distribution. However, in many cases, these tapes have served to cause an increase in popularity of those featured, most notably in the case of Paris Hilton, whose tape was discovered shortly before her reality show debuted.

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Succès de scandale" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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