“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

— Oscar Wilde

“There’s no such thing as bad press, dude. Just ask Charles Manson.”

— Dave, Code Monkeys

“In other words, I drew a weird, confusing cartoon that no one got and that wasn’t funny, and went on to even greater fame and fortune. I love this country.”

Gary Larson, about “Cow Tools”

As the saying goes, there’s “no such thing as bad press”. The reasoning is that even if people are trying to raise a big stink about how some work is immoral, incorrect, offensive, or corrupting the youth of the world, they’re still giving it attention and increasing how well-known it is.

Technically, there is such a thing as bad press: For example, if it turns out a car model or another product has a flaw that endangers the lives of everyone who uses them, and this is highly publicized, the amount of people buying it is going to steeply drop.