[QUOTE='[Sound_Nin];808888'][COLOR=Navy][FONT=Book Antiqua]This is a good example to start from.
Yes, the media gave quite a bit of attention to the "Civil Rights movement". That much is certain, can be presented in fact.
However, when the media gets into things, it causes a certain problem. It emphasises certain things and belittles others, sometimes giving certain events no coverage and in fact even creating facts.
So unless you were there, there isn't much you can possibly know for certain. Yes, there is always some truth.
This could get into History as a whole, and the fact that [I]history is written by the victor.[/I] And as such, news is reported in a flattering or unflattering light, according to the majorly accepted thought.
If someone or something is considered "bad" to the government of said country, or the majority of such a nation, it is stigmatized to no end, and facts are made up to support this. The same can be said of things considered "good".
So how could we know if something ever even happened? Eyewitnesses only get you so far, in terms of forced confession and motives (by which I mean the "witness" has something to gain). Written proof is the best bet, but not even that is certain. Physical proof in general. But when you start thinking this way, it never ends. There is very rarely a way to find truth, when you get down to basics. That is, if you weren't there and saw things for yourself. Excuse me if this comes out completely paranoid, I hope you can at least see my point. ;)
I could even go so far as to say that the media is basically spoonfeeding our entire generation, and generations before and after us, what "they" want us to think. This may sound crazy, but if you've ever said something was wrong, and then stopped to wonder: [I]"why[/I] do I think it's wrong?" then you know what I mean. Basically, no one's questioning these things. It really makes you think.
So to wrap this up, my opinion is this: publicity itself is neither good nor bad. It is simply the people who report it, who are biased with their own beliefs, that can make it into something bad.
Actually, this conversation could cover the media in general, and even history itself.
[U][B]EDIT:[/B][/U]
Okay, so this is dealing with marketing. I can't bring myself to get rid of the long monologue I went into above, so I'll just keep going in a different direction! Yay! (...my fingers are tired...)
My opinion on publicity related to marketing is as follows:
As long as there's no exaggeration, no outright lies about the product, like saying "if you take this vitamin supplement or such and such you will live forever" (obviously I don't mean quite as blatant as that, but you get the idea) then there is very little problem with publicity.
In fact, in this instance, publicity is completely instrumental to the company or individual selling the product, and without it, it would be less well-known and will bring in MUCH less profit.
Yesss. If someone wants me to delete that long-winded conspiracy theory up there, feel free to tell me and I'll delete it. :]
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Actually, what you said above is really good. Thanks. ^^