Miley Cyrus’ now infamous performance at the VMAs was featured, in one form or another, in just about every newspaper, website, television station, dinner table, water cooler and aboriginal encampment across the United States — nay, the world. And every last one condemned her for being distasteful, at best. Her performance was almost universally reviled.
Now, with 20/20 hindsight, we at Dumb Things will agree. Miley’s performance was distasteful — distasteful like a FOX!
Take a look at Youtube. What do you see surrounding Miley’s video? An advertisement for her new album which, just by happenstance, drops less than a month after her shameful display of hyper-sexuality at the Video Music Awards.
Taken in context, Miss Cyrus’ VMA performance, during which she was seen to twerk and grind ad nauseum was pure, unadulterated, orchestrated genius.
Think about it: Miley and her handlers knew exactly what they were doing, using the VMAs as the perfect venue for Cyrus to pull her best Lady Gaga impression. “Let’s create the most sexually suggestive, morally repugnant performance we can,” they must have said, “and then launch the album a few weeks later.”
And, you know what? It worked. Miley became the talk of the nation (keeping in mind the quote commonly attributed to Brendan Behan, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”).
That’s earned media, in the parlance of public relations. Millions and millions of dollars worth of free publicity, not to mention water-cooler- and dinner-table-talk, all expertly timed to happen just before her latest album release.
You, media hawks, you, culture vultures — you have been handled.
What we have here is a three-step chess play, designed to set the stage, hook you and then reel you in.
First, came that video of Miley Twerking in a frog costume. That baits the hook.
Then the VMA performance, which causes the fish to bite (you being the fish). Then all the ads for Miley’s upcoming album start popping up and, before you know it, you’ve downloaded it from iTunes, watched it on Youtube, and find yourself gasping for breath in a bucket half-filled with seawater.
Move #4 may be a return to her pop-country roots, which folks will buy, too, and willfully spread the word on how Miley “grew up.”
Distasteful? Sure. Repugnant? No doubt. Amoral? Certainly. But dumb? No way, and completely orchestrated.
Dumb Things of the Week 