Real or Publicity Stunt?

Kanye’s foolish actions during the VMA is still sparking debate days later. Apparently, he’s pulled off the biggest stunt and fooled us all with the fake tears and tired apologies. The President of the United States was even overheard calling him a jacka** (very low of ABC for releasing that by the way). But there is at least one person that he did not fool: my friend G.

G believes that the whole scene where Kanye embarrassed the teenage girl during her big moment was all a stunt to get us all talking and keep him/them relevant. And, she does have pretty good evidence to support her theory but there are some pretty farfetched claims as well. Take G’s email response for instance:

“Kanye's whole image is to be a jerk. That is nothing new. Remember - he only needs like 1,000 fans or some rude comment he made. His new girlfriend throws cigarettes at the paparazzi. Its all cinema, good cinema, but still cinema. You're oversimplifying it, its not about record sales, its about publicity. Now kanye can demand money for interviews. Beyonce comes out looking good. they are on the cover of magazines and no one is paying attention to any one else. Everyone is talking about them. I'm very suspicious. An event that big has lots of cameras. How did they manage to get a camera on beyonce so quick? Even if they didn't stop Kanye from going on stage, the speech was long enough, why didn't they pull him off stage? MTV yanked all the footage from you tube - the only place you can go to see the incident is mtv.com. I understand why you guys are falling for it, its a juicy story, you want to believe it. Coming from someone who watched wrestling for years, I can tell when an event is staged.”

Now some of this definitely smacks of conspiracy theory rubbish. I mean does wrestling, which should be the very definition of really bad acting, really prepare anyone to judge the authenticity of someone’s actions? I too watched wrestling into my early teenage years so does that qualify me to recognize what’s real and what’s fake? But then again, I cut that cord much sooner than G did:)

Still, she has some valid point (and I don’t know the validity of all her facts, just going under the assumption that they are true): why did MTV yank all other footage everywhere but on their site? Are they trying to drive traffic to their site by capitalizing on what is their biggest stunt to date? This is something they are known for so it seems plausible. In an earlier email, I opined that if Kanye did what he did in order to boost record sales then he failed in a major way. I stopped buying cds a long time ago but from what I’ve been reading and hearing, he’s not very popular right now. But again, G did state that the ‘jerk’ bit was his approach and she later added that it’s his way of capturing our attention. And it’s true; we’re all talking about him.

To the question about the camera capturing Beyonce’s reaction shot, I answered that it is their job to know where the stars are at all time so it’s not at all suspicious to me that they would find her right away once her name was mentioned. But when I stopped to consider G’s viewpoint, I remembered that I questioned the fact that Beyonce and Taylor were both wearing red dresses (to signify girl power?) later in the show when Beyonce got to display what a gracious diva she is. Coincidence? And when G pointed out that the whole drama was wrapped up by the end of the show, it all seemed a bit too convenient. Suddenly, G doesn’t sound so crazy anymore.

So were we all fooled? Did Kanye pull off the biggest stunt to date? Were Beyonce and Taylor complicit in it? Were the people at MTV just up to their old tricks, trying to spice up an otherwise dull show? I mean, it’s no secret that viewership for award shows in general has been down in recent years. But we are all taking about this one and most likely following the latest tidbits about the surrounding drama. Are we so culpable that we would believe what is presented to us without going beyond the surface? It’s definitely something to think about.