Controversy always excites people as it's human nature to give an ear to all the controversial news,Ask any one about the controversy he can give you all the facts and figures about it,ask the same person any national news he wouldn’t be able to speak as much, Marketers have many a times used controversial marketing to communicate,the key benefits of controversial marketing is that
1. You need not pay much to promote
2. Bad news or rumors spread faster than good news
Controversy, if planned right is an effective low cost marketing tool that gives your product excellent media coverage,If you can manage the media well and do not mind the extra dose of adverse publicity in the short term.
In India one person who uses this effectively is Mahesh Bhatt, before launching any movie he builds up controversy and floats in the media, the controversy he uses on the Actor ,most of the time Emraan hashmi or the actress or the steamy scenes which get free publicity by the media, I remember the movie Kalyug, which the director first planned to name the movie as Blue Picture which was called back and renamed as Kalyug, I watched the movie and the movie was a clean film and similarly the movie Paap was promoted and hyped due to controversial name,
The key in controversy marketing lies in being able to predict the danger point, and thereby controlling the outcome of the controversy – kind of letting the car run downhill in neutral, but knowing when to brake and halt before the momentum gets the better of the vehicle.
