Sacha Baron Cohen: King of the Publicity Stunt

For our PR class, we were asked to look up and do some research on a successful publicity stunt. I immediately thought of Sacha Baron Cohen.

Better known, as his most popular characters Ali G, Borat and Bruno, Baron Cohen is essentially a master at generating publicity for his characters by doing ridiculous things and staging outrageous interviews. While promoting his most recent major movie, Bruno, Baron Cohen staged a number of hilarious publicity stunts.

The premise of the character is simple, Bruno is a fashion designer from Austria who plays up every stereotype of a gay male fashion designer possibly. The character is intentionally way over the top, just as all of his characters are. In this way, what better publicity stunt could there be than to crash an actual fashion show? Thankfully, Baron Cohen felt the same way and did exactly that.

Baron Cohen managed to get onto the runway at a high class fashion show in Milan and walk down the runway wearing a black cloak that had velcro on it which he stuck a bunch of handbags and boots to. He was of course pulled down by security and arrested but not before he had made his point and generated tons of publicity for his movie.

It worked for a bunch of reasons. First off, it was hilarious. Secondly, it poked fun at the industry that he was parodying in his movie and did it in a way that made the public almost take his side against the fashion industry which is percieved as elitist by many.

Interestingly, the event may not have had that major an effect because it fit perfectly with Baron Cohen's reputation. People almost expect him to do these things now and were surely waiting for this to happen. In this way, the event may not have been as shocking as it could have been as people were saying "oh he's doing it again" and all that good stuff.

The point is, Sacha Baron Cohen is hilarious and perfect for this assignment because he's made his living as a walking publicity stunt basically. Keep up the good work Sacha. VERY NICE!