Kanye West and the bad publicity theory

In the 2000’s, DecorMyEyes was one of the leading online eyeglasses retailers in the US. Interestingly, it was also one of the worst: frequent shipment delays, wrongful charges, rude customer service… you named it, the company provided it. So how was it so successful, one might ask? Precisely because it was so bad: the website’s many angry customers would routinely lash out on blogs and forums, which Google would pick up on as backlinks, consequently increasing the ranking of the website. A textbook example of the age-old saying — there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Then, a couple of things happened: Google improved its algorithm to analyze the kind of publicity any given website got. In other words, the search engine started qualifying good and bad buzz and ranking websites conversely based on that: nowadays, bad buzz may be enough to get you on the news, but it will definitely not help you get on Google’s coveted first results page, let alone its top 5… The other thing is that that website got shut down and its owner ended up behind bars.

Enter Donald Trump

Trump ushered in an era based on the alternative facts concept promoted by the likes of former Republican majority leader New Gingrich, Fox News and the now quaint-looking Tea Party movement. Indeed, the man masterfully exploited the bad publicity theory to get himself elected to the highest office in the land (dare we say, the world), making outrageous claims agains Mexicans or African-Americans, outright lying about his predecessor’s origins, crowd sizes and election results. He even went as far as effectively encouraging an insurrection, one that could have overthrown the very US democracy he was supposed to preside over and had his own Vice President fearing for his life in the process…

That said, Trump actually did not win his reelection bid — nor did Bolsonaro in Brazil, running on arguably even worse platforms. And he lost to an ageing semi-retired moderate — just like Bolsonaro. Admittedly, tomorrow’s midterms may prove hard for Democrats: trumpism is not gone yet and a 2024 presidential run is highly plausible. But you can already tell which way history is going: while President Obama will remain as pivotal ruler that symbolically (on race) and effectively (on gender equality) changed the game, Trump will mostly be remembered for the scandals, the outrageous claims — and his outright criminal behavior.

Enter Kanye West

Not surprisingly, the one-time Trump supporter has effectively been utilizing the same tactics, claiming outrageous theories, including some that go against his very community, triggering a scorched earth campaign of ever more shocking positions and statements coming our way. For a while, though, it seemed to work: his recent albums were major hits, often helped by scandal, and he recently became a billionaire largely thanks to his fashion line with Adidas which veritably changed the streetware game and was valued at $1.5bn alone. All of that despite (or thanks to?) saying that slavery was a choice.

Things eventually came crashing down, though, in a much more brutal way than when it comes to a former US President: most of West’s business partners have now cut ties with him (including Adidas), not to mention his family, and his supporters have weirdly started to change colors. There simply are limits to what a private citizen, even one who happens to be a remarkable artist, can get away with. Also, sadly, the very fact that West is African-American and that racism is still alive and well likely accelerated that downfall. Finally, his claims arguably being less tactical than Trump’s didn’t help: if one is to argue on the varying degrees of astuteness when it comes to bad publicity-based stunts, blatantly antagonizing African-Americans one week then unleashing an antisemitic rant the other might have proven ill-advised, even by alternative facts standards…

What is currently happening to Kanye West will eventually happen to Trump, Bolsonaro, Putin and all the others. Yes, these names will be in the history books, but for all the wrong reasons. Because there is such a thing as bad publicity, and there is a difference between famous and infamous…