Wonders of Bad Publicity

| June 3, 2009 | 14 Comments

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We’ve seen or heard about a lot of bad publicity of many brands every now and then. Sometimes it becomes responsible for the decline of some of the biggest brands, but we have also seen brands grow because of their negative publicity, somewhat like politicians and a few celebrities.

How many people remember the incident and myths at the time of Titanic being launched in Pakistan? The movie was the talk of the town, and as everywhere else, was a big success. And then we all started hearing rumours about some group going around and infecting people with aids through stabbing them with infected syringes. I mean, GOD, it was hilarious when we think about it now. Infecting people with AIDS? Yeah right!

I even recall the name of one of the groups being the “ChHadda Group” or something, who used to go in peoples houses after mid-night and do what not.

It was like everyone was talking and talking about it, but I didn’t even see any actual case being reported. Do let me know if someone knows more about it.

Coming back to the topic of today, does bad publicity helps a brand to build up on its brand equity? Ufone, Tetley and Lipton are some of the brands who have benefitted from bad publicity as far as I remember.

Is it fair to close a particular news channel and blame it on the government or cable operators for it. Its all about how you make the news and is there something wrong that you have been doing? No one remembers that? Do they?

Tags: Advertising, aids, bad, bad publicity, brand, brand equity, Brands, cable operators, chadda group, decline, few celebrities, geo news, Group, incident, injection, lipton, lot, Marketing, mid night, myths, negative, negative publicity, news, opinion, pakistan, people, publicity, something, syringes, tetley, time, Titanic

Category: Other Stuff

About the Author (Author Profile)

Observer by nature and outright blunt and outspoken.Bad habit in a society that we live in but dont care!!!yea a szabist grad and did my mba from there as well :P !

  • http://zainad.blogspot.com Zaira Rahman

    Yes yes everybody has heard stories of this Chadda Group…I remember the stuff that they used to put these infected syringes in cinema seats to infect the cine goers.

    But how did the Chadda Group thing started and was there really such a group? I couldn’t find any pics of this chadda group on the net.

    I really don’t enjoy this negative publicity done by brands…be it Zong, Ufone or anybody else.

  • Fz

    CHADAA group:profile
    used to commit crimes wearing CHADDAS aka shorts LOLZ……THEY also were seen to apply grease on them so dat ppl cannot catch them slippery…cats :P !!!!Then their was the infamous hathora group….they used to operate by striking their victims with a Hathora (Hammer).The big question is why are we attracted towards the negative rather then the positive….human nature!

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahtaarik/ Sarah Taarik

    @ Crazy people carrying crazy syringes and infecting people with AIDS:
    i remember a friend of mine told me a story (melodramatic one) that this one incident happened inside a local cinema theater of which, the cinema houses faced a lot of loss. I wonder if it was true or not…but it was sure scary (as i was kinda young that time :P ) and hilarious now and then.

  • http://zainad.blogspot.com Zaira Rahman

    I don’t think it was real…just rumours – very creative mindboggling ideas…and the local touch in the brand names was also so on the spot :)

    Very strong recall I must say whether these groups existed or not.

  • Fz

    The good thing is for all the fazool news and things we have the time for….teh groups from chadda to hathora…too the real corrola gang,the guy who used to harasss girls in defence and clifton in a white corrolla…he got caught some myths come true some are just not true…zaira,sara be aware of such people :P …

  • http://zainad.blogspot.com Zaira Rahman

    Seriously some Corrola Gang too existed? And none of them ever got caught? :o

    And she is Sarah.

  • Umer Tanveer

    the white corolla story isn’t a myth, it really happened. For clarification, you guys can check out Dawn and Jang websites.
    @ zaira rehman: And none of them ever got caught?… I don’t think people who commit the most gruesome of acts get caught. In case you don’t have an idea who I am pointing to… its our beloved politicians who cover our TV screens from prime time till midnight.

  • Shayan Ahmed

    the white corolla grp is apparently some relatives of influential politician and they go around picking up (kidnapping) girls in defense and clifton…..i think its pretty real….

    lol at chadda group!!! i remember it too. they wer notorious in the late 90s…..urban legend i guess hehe but funny

  • Shayan Ahmed

    but there’s a difference between bad publicity and negative publicity…

  • Fz

    Urban legends,myths,hypocritical people(READ POLITICIANS),and people with wisdom.Throw them in the trash coz we marketers thrive on creating news coz we luv want our products to be in the spotlight.Every product,brand manager,company wants their 15mins of fame.How do they get it,its a thought in itself.How do we differentiate bad publicity and negative publicity.Bad publicity is when u dont intend to do something negative but the whole idea,target market and concept is flawed.When it is implemented it falls down as a house of cards would do if u try to make it infront of the window.Bad publicity is when u dont do things the right way,when u dont know what ur end result of a particular activity would be.Negative publicity is intended to canablise,throw cheap shots at some entity.The whole activity is from the start is bringing some1 or soemthing down.

  • http://www.saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    That is very true guys .. I agree to the fact that negative spreads faster .. but its not the negative actually.. its something unusual or something that leads to fear that spreads faster … thats purely my opinion.

  • http://www.saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    Yes Sarah! Funny and Scary! … Imagine how easy it is to create crazy stuff and spread it. Its even easier nowadays.

  • http://www.saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    LOL. Very True Umer. This is the sad part, yet we can’t do anything about it. And yes I agree that the corolla story is true. I remember hearing about it on the TV.

  • Zeeshan Ahmed

    Don’t know about the others, but the hathora group story was real, happened in the eighties. They were rumored to be Shia death squads funded by Iranian splinter groups, in the on-going sunni-shia shenanigans. Shia death squads were abundant in the Iraq conflict, when the brief and deadly civil war broke between sunnis and shias, entire families were bludgeoned to death.

    There were rumors that the ring leader was caught and confessed to Iranian backing, but no confirmation of that. However, there were countless real cases of large families being slaughtered, mostly happened at night and in poorer localities. Very sad.

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