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 France to sue them few times, but failed.

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.

France believes in the freedom of expression and speech yet they ban Arab and Muslim women from wearing the burqa. But their own definition of this law is vague and counterproductive as well not universally accepted.

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!