Good products -- whether it's a person, like an actor, or a widget you buy off the shelf -- don't need any publicity. You only need to pump up the bad products, to cover their defects. Or so this myth goes.
Every myth has a kernel of truth. Or something vaguely resembling the truth, what Stephen Colbert would call "truthiness."
The tiny kernel of truthiness in this myth is the idea this: When bad things happen, it's smart to have a public relations person who knows how to handle the mess.
That part is completely true. People tend to react badly to bad news and scandals. They might clam up and run from the press -- or give long, rambling press conferences that are TMI, as the governor of South Carolina did after reporters figured out he wasn't hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Dealing with the press when you're announcing good news is easy. Think about the public relations director for a state lottery. Joe Smith won $5 million dollars! That's fun. That's happy. It's not gut-wrenching. Nobody is going to stay up all night worried about what to do. You tell the world.
Bad news is hard to handle. You have to do it right.
Where this myth is completely wrong, and devoid of truth, is in the idea that you can make up for defects in a widget, or a person, with publicity.
A professional won't try to cover up a scandal, because they know a cover-up is worse. Hiding evidence from the press, or lying about it, is a stupid thing. The press will dig deeper. The public will be more disgusted when they eventually find out.
Cover-ups are a mistake.
Even if what you're doing is innocent -- puffing up a bad product while ignoring your good products -- that's an odd and unproductive strategy.
You want people to know about your best product. You should be proud of it, and making it the centerpiece of any publicity or marketing campaign.
Saving PR only for bad products means will trust what you say if you finally decide to do publicity on your good products. In their head, they'll have made the link: whatever these people try to pump up is garbage, so if they're pumping this widget up, it's also garbage.
If you already to publicity on all your products, but expect a little PR to gloss over whatever's wrong with the worst one, that's simply not realistic.
Don't buy into this myth. It can only hurt your credibility with the press and public. Honesty is still the best policy.