Skip links

Share

Miley Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

Posted At: October 4, 2013 8:30 a.m.

by Lexi Holdbrooks

You know that one mortifying nightmare where you are standing stark naked, in public, and everyone is staring? For some reason you left for work or school that day and thought it was absolutely normal that you had no clothes on. Maybe you did it for attention. Maybe you were trying to make a statement. Whatever the reason your subconscious made you naked, most likely it made you very uncomfortable. Well, let’s hope it did.

For Miley Cyrus, this nightmare was a dream come true in her latest music video “Wrecking Ball.” Swinging naked through the air on a giant concrete ball for the whole world to see can only be a dream for a slightly crazed, delusional person . . . right?

Or could it be just another well thought out stunt, meticulously planned to garner more publicity? With her new masculine haircut, obscene “twerking” moves and strange, barely there latex outfits, it seems as if her new alter ego is tarnishing the public’s perception of her. In reality, it is feeding the public’s obsession with her.

In MTV’s documentary Miley: The Movement, Miley said, “You’re always going to make people talk. You may as well make them talk for like two weeks rather than two seconds.”

It appears as if she knows what she is talking about. Her “Wrecking Ball” music video has been talked about for well over two weeks now. It has been viewed 177,883,314 times since its release. The song is ranked as Billboard’s No. 1 Hot 100, and the video drew in 19.3 million viewers worldwide the first day online.

Is Miley just fooling us all? Are these wild, seemingly spontaneous moves actually a strategically planned public relations masterpiece? Not only was her video an INSANE success because of its controversy, nudity and sexuality, her performances on stage have been talked about around family dinner tables, radio shows and social media throughout the world. Whoever you are, you know what Miley, dancing bears and sledge hammers have in common.

“You can watch that performance and think that’s a hot mess,” Miley said of her VMAperformance. “But it’s a strategic hot mess.”

Miley explained to Us Weekly that this total transformation involving foam fingers, twerking and tongues is what she had to do, and we shouldn’t be surprised. In order to shed her previous brand, she had to completely change the public’s opinion and perception of her.

After scanning through Us Weekly’s photographed years of “Miley Cyrus’ Raciest Outfits,”  it seems as if Miley actually tried to quietly transform her image starting in 2008. At 15 years old she posed in a nearly nude photograph for Vanity Fair. After being publicly criticized, Miley apologized to her fans and admitted embarrassment.

She then went on to shock the world with her stripper pole performance at the Teen Choice Awards in 2009. Us Weekly’s photographs show a slow transformation into more racy outfits and dance moves until suddenly you have Miley naked on a wrecking ball. No longer waiting for public approval, Miley chopped her long locks off to create a brand that actually represents the person she is.

Changing a brand can often be confusing and misleading, but Miley has found a way to change her brand from good girl to bad girl effectively and efficiently. She left her Disney character in the dust for a more “sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll” brand. While she is being criticized, mocked and mimicked by drunken college boys and others alike, as of right now she is one of the most talked about women in the world.

That seems like a pretty powerful PR move.

Return to top of page