Drawing attention to the wrong thing

A painting has been in the news recently.

Gina Reinhart, one of Australia’s wealthiest people, has petitioned the National Gallery of Australia to have the work removed.

Perversely, her request has generated so much media attention that many more people have seen the Vincent Namatjira painting than would have otherwise.

Barbra Streisand knows this all too well.

In 2003 she took legal action to remove an aerial image of her property from the twelve thousand other properties on Pictopia’s website.

Within a month of her lawsuit 500,000 people had viewed the picture.

Known as the “Streisand Effect”, people become curious about what is being concealed or suppressed.

That’s why trying to silence employees or quash negative reviews can backfire. 

People are attracted to the stoush, particularly when it pits an individual against an institution.

Before attempting to shut something down, consider whether the prosaic route of transparency is more sensible.

Oh, and know how to attract the right kind of attention.

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Image via: Image by Thomas Schoene from Pixabay.