OK published their tribute to Jade Goody, that sad, ill-educated and exploited product of the ghastly Big Brother machine, in the week before her death, apparently quoting her "last words". Will this latest nonsense affect OK adversely or will sales, just as when Jade died, simply rocket through the roof? As the magazine is on the shelves and being purchased .. let's face it Emma, you must have seen the cover, yet you still purchased it .. I suspect the latter, because most people (including his fans) simply don't and won't vote with their feet, and I don't see that an on-line petition will achieve its being removed from the shelves. If anything these things give more publicity, and may even help sales imo, and the magazine will simply laugh all the way to the bank.
Personally if OK, Hello etc each started sending me a free copy every week they'd go straight from my mailbox to the bin with all the other unsolicited junk that gets delivered. Like Andrew, were it a petition to get rid of all the celebrity magazines and tabloids I too would be tempted to sign it, but would probably resist as it wouldn't achieve anything.
Michael Jackson's lifestyle has caused controversy for the last quarter century, and sadly now he's died the media machine will ensure it continues because it sells and makes them money, simple as that, and that it happened in the run up to the O2 concerts only fuels the machine. The media handling and exploitation of his death must be thoroughly unpleasant for many of his family, but not unexpected I suspect as it was a pattern for so much of his life. I felt sorry for his children when he was alive, and feel sorry for them now .. not because of the cover of a trashy magazine, but because their future will no doubt be the subject of continuing controversy and media exploitation. Jackson will not be allowed to "Rest in Peace" as long as people buy and read what will continue to be written about him, but those unfortunate children should be allowed to live and grow up in it .. sadly I suspect they will have significant wealth but little else to give them a stable grounding.
Caryl
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