CHARLIE HEBDO AND THE NEW MARKETING STRATEGY TO PROMOTE FLEDGING PUBLICATIONS.
…GET
THEIR COUNTRY AND MOST OF THE WESTERN WORLD TO SUPPORT THEM TO GO FOR THE
KILLING AT THE SALES, EVEN IF IT MEANS SACRIFICING SOME OF THEIR OWN STAFF AND
A FEW OTHERS – AND FRANCE BANNING THE BURQAS TO RESTRICT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.
By
Mansor Puteh
Look who’s
laughing all the way to the bank…
The three
police officers who were gunned down by the attackers at Charlie Hebdo were
given a state funeral and given the Legion of Honor.
Yet, the
cartoonists who had also died in the incident for which the attack had been
launched causing the police officers to be killed, have not been given similar
state funerals or Legion of Honor. They deserve to get them more than the
police officers, because they were the reasons for the attack to take place, in
the first place.
Maybe
the French government will organize a much grander state funeral for the
cartoonists, they who died to fight the cause of the freedom of speech and expression,
although they did not realize that they had promoted hatred for which the
French government has not dared to introduce – the law allowing any French man
or woman to hate anyone with impunity and to legalize terrorism as yet another
means for anyone in France to express themselves without fear of favor.
How to
turn a fledging satirical magazine not read by many into an international
sensation and get the whole of a country to go crazy and some others in the
world to support them not knowing what they were doing?
Here’s
how. And this may very well be what Charlie Hebdo might be doing. But what they
had managed to get was beyond their wildest imagination, if not for the attack
on Hyper Cacher that saw four French-Jews killed.
Nothing
can be more spectacular than that.
In the
end it should come to this: Has the Charlie Hebdo found an ingenious way to
promote its magazine to a worldwide audience and readers?
Their
only strategy which may be weird is to publish some caricatures of the Prophet
and cause some uproar from some in their own Arab or Muslim community and
create a blast! (No pun intended.)
So from
selling fifty thousand copies per issue and in French, Charlie Hebdo is selling
up to three million in some languages including Arabic.
They had tried to publish caricatures of Jesus Christ which caused the Church in
And
still Charlie Hebdo did not make it.
They knew they could not use or misuse the religious icons of other beliefs, until they hit the jackpot – publish some on the Prophet, and following in the controversy first created by some Danish cartoonists who had also done so, and had faced some brickbacks from the locals.
And pow!
Charlie Hebdo is in the front-page of world media and on prime-time television,
thanks or no thanks to some of their more ardent readers.
Now
Charlie Hebdo is making the killing at the vendors and their newly-found
supporters and readers will definitely want to grab a copy of their latest edition.
Unfortunately,
they did not make any attempt to truly say that the caricature is the Prophet
other than to say that he is ‘Muhammad’. They are scared.
The truth
is that they are going to make tons of money from everybody who have been taken
on a ride, the wrong ride to help them become a famous publication as well as
one of the most successful in France .
They
managed to do this at the expense of the death of some of their top
cartoonists.
The new line of cartoonists and editors and owners of the magazine will also become fabulously wealthy as a result of what happened in January, 2015.
They are
dead; and they are not able to gain much or anything at all. Most likely their
spouses and children can see and feel some benefit from their deeds.
Yet, France and the
magazine have not yet bothered to highlight who they are because they fear further
persecution from the negative supporters of the magazine.
And what
the other magazines in France
and Europe and also America
can do now to help sell their magazines?
Publish
some other caricatures of the Prophet and let the whole scenario be repeated.
Only such
caricatures of the Prophet can help these magazines who are desperate enough to
want to sell their wares and earn a lot more than they could do otherwise.
This may
be the most advanced and also unusual marketing strategy that Charlie Hebdo had
created for themselves which can be used by other magazines.
Unfortunately,
none of the international television news networks that had given the incident
wide coverage has dared to show the cover design of the latest issue of Charlie
Hebdo as much as the national newspapers of France and other countries that had
shown their undivided support for the magazine.
One
wishes to see if Charlie Hebdo would go on to print tee-shirts and postcards
bearing the design of the cover design of this issue, and see who amongst their
supporters in France are willing to buy and wear them, and mostly if they
travel abroad to any Arab country.
If
Charlie Hebdo does not dare to do this and if their supporters too do not dare
create tee-shirts with such designs, and to wear them in France and everywhere
in the world, then one can say that they are scared.
The slogan they proudly carry during the marches, ‘Not Afraid!’ rings hollow. They are afraid.
In fact,
till now none of those in Charlie Hebdo has not worn such tee-shirts and to
denounce or make fun of the Prophet. Why?
Because
they know they cannot do that without getting the wrong sort of attention.
In fact,
too, none in the march of unity in Paris
last Sunday had done so. They are that scared!
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