50 Cent Billboard Controversy a PR Coup
From the Los Angeles Times:
Paramount Pictures has begun removing billboards promoting 50 Cent's upcoming film "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " near schools after community activists complained that the signs promoted gun violence.
The billboards for the semiautobiographical film show the rap star -- whose real name is Curtis Jackson -- with his back to the viewer, holding a gun in one hand and a microphone in the other. The film, which opens Nov. 9, tells the story of a gangster drug dealer who abandons crime to become a musician.
But both message and the messenger were unwelcome when the billboards went up too close to area schools...
Paramount was mum on the subject Friday, but one studio official, who asked not to be named, said: "We reevaluated those signs. Some of them came down Wednesday, some on Thursday and some [Friday]."
Asked how many of the signs were coming down, he said, "We're not going into specifics."
50 Cent says he welcomes the controversy. Reports Reuters:
"I do appreciate it," the rapper told Reuters in an interview on Friday. "They are talking about it on media outlets I didn't have plans to market the movie to. They are helping me out."
He's right; it will help the film. The old saw that there's no such thing as bad publicity is nowhere truer than in the hip-hop world. For context, read Seandra Sims' piece, "Hip-Hop: Publicity Stuntin' 101?"
I wonder, in fact: Could any revelation about 50 Cent actually hurt his earning capacity? I came up with only two possible career-killers.
He'd be done if it came out that --
1. He lied about being a drug dealer and street thug, and had actually been an honest, hard-working, law-abiding citizen before he became a rapper.
2. He's gay.
Other than that, he's got nothing to worry about but continuing to churn out product.
posted by Scott Baradell at
9:24 AM
2 Comments:
I agree,there really is not much that could hurt 50 Cent's reputation other than the two things you listed. His identity is a product of what and where he came from. The whole rapper "gangster, thug" image will always be an issue with parents and its influence on young children. This ad is portraying the real world choices that 50 Cent was faced with. I guess the only way this message would be socially acceptable is if it were one of those "the more you know" ads on tv.
By
Jami, at 10/30/2005
I guess so. My problem is the suggestion that these were the only choices 50 cent had. There are many impoverished people who never turn to crime, and I wish those people received a little of the acclaim. This idea that black kids in the inner city have to choose between the professions of "jock, rapper or drug dealer" is part of an incredibly unhealthy cycle that is exploited by music conglomerates and mocked by the minstrel-show-style mimicry of white suburban kids. I'm with Spike Lee and Bill Cosby on this one.
By
sbaradell, at 10/30/2005
Post a Comment
<< Home