At the 2013 VMA’s (I think you know where this is going), our favourite Disney star Miley Cyrus performed a provocative dance to her song “We Can’t Stop.” In this video (CAUTION: Video contains explicitly terrible content), Miley is seen “twerking” on celebrity Robin Thicke, sticking her tongue out perhaps a few too many times, as well as performing some sexually alarming acts with a foam finger. All this begs the question: what’s the point?

In this article, Cyrus explains that the performance was expressing her new image, and that she wanted to “make history” like some other pop icons through history such as Britney Spears and Madonna. While this might sound reasonable, I am not quick to assume that these reasons were her only motive. While the public image of Miley Cyrus may not be positive, Cyrus has got the world talking about her. This idea of potentially benefiting form negative marketing is an issue where many people find themselves unsure if the method is in fact effective, or disastrous.

In this NY Times article, the idea of companies launching large campaigns to “push the envelope,” and gain huge followings on social media is discussed. While it can’t be argued that any publicity is good publicity, I think there exists a large grey area in what is right and wrong (or perhaps effective and ineffective) in advertising, and many companies are unsure of these limits.

With the exponential growth of social media in the past half decade, people are communicating more than ever, and have access to any content right at their fingertips. It is this ease of widespread advertising that makes marketers drool; hoping their next ad will be the next viral trend.

Perhaps this was Miley’s intention all along. It is clear to see that our little Disney princess is all grown up and has radically changed her image. Many critics claim Miley is foolish for so negatively portraying herself on the global stage – I disagree. While “making history” is a nice excuse, and potentially part of Cyrus’s reasoning for going through with the performance, I think Miley had ulterior motives that were much larger. Was this her plan all along? Have her and her publicist been mapping out the events that have unfolded in the past months? I think it’s likely.