Bruno, Eminem stunt part of dress rehearsal
Angry Eminem -- a powerful selling tool.
Just as I (and many others) suspected, the Eminem, Bruno stunt that ended with the rapper angrily storming of the stage was planned and rehearsed, right down to bleeping out Eminem’s profanity.
Andy Samberg’s head writer for the MTV Movie Awards, Scott Aukerman, admitted in a blog that “the Bruno/Eminem incident was staged. That’s all anyone wants to talk about, so let’s get it out of the way. They rehearsed it at dress and yes, it went as far as it did on the live show then.”
The blog post was taken down quicker than you can get online payday loans, but not before the Los Angeles Times, Prefixmag.com and several other media sources got a hold of it.
All for the sake of publicity
So, why would the MTV Movie Awards choose to air something as shocking as Sacha Baron Cohen, dressed as Austrian fashionista Bruno, sticking his bare rear end in Eminem’s face?
For the money, of course! The Eminem/Bruno stunt and Eminem’s angry storm-off afterward have drawn massive amounts of hype. As Aukerman wrote in his blog post before it was pulled, “it’s all anyone wants to talk about.”
The fact that the post was pulled only further proves that MTV planned to surround the incident with an air of mystery that would keep audiences seeking the answers. Consequently, Eminem’s latest album and Sacha Baron Cohen’s upcoming movie “Bruno,” will also get plenty of attention, which will translate to plenty of dollars and music stores and box offices across the country.
Why an angry Eminem?
Many people were indeed convinced by Eminem’s angry tantrum, and they may be wondering why he would stage such a hissy fit.
The answer is simple: Angry Eminem sells. His whole career has been based on shock value and controversy. The more anger-filled his albums are, the more copies he sells.
A little controversy for Cohen
Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t blameless when it comes to building a career on controversy, either. His 2006 film, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” was highly criticized for being offensive.
It was also very well-attended. The film, which featured an abundance of footage of Cohen’s bare bum, grossed $262 million at the box office.
I used to really enjoy listening to Eminem. It could be because I was a lot younger at the time, but I seriously think he made better music before than he does now. Then again, I can’t really say much because I haven’t actually heard his new album.
It isn’t surprising. This is actually an instance of what’s called “guerrilla marketing.” What happens is that a brand, company, person, whatever – the party or parties looking to get the public to buy stuff – pulls an outrageous stunt in order to attract attention. Once the attention has been attracted almost all of the work has been done, and since the brand is on people’s minds due to the “buzz” or publicity, they start buying it. In this case they’re going to start buying Eminem albums and going to see the Bruno movie. One of the biggest examples was the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, when they put LED signs on traffic lights around Boston. Granted, it spooked a lot of people, and there were serious consequences, but as a result it got HUGE press, and the movie ended up doing very well for a cartoon. As long as the public doesn’t catch on that they’re being manipulated by the incident it’s going to mean a lot of sales.