Betsy Mylius
Miley’s performance at the VMAs spiked controversy everywhere even before she stepped off the stage. Yet her team was prepared and released a mini documentary titled “Miley: The Movement” to bring viewers into the mind and world of the scandalous star.
This documentary uses the elaboration likelihood model in PR to get their point across. Other than Miley herself, they use interviews with many other celebrities such as Brittany Spears to explain Miley’s behavior and her movement. It uses the Central Route by extensive interviews explaining how Miley acts the way she does in life and in her performances.
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Miley Cyrus, Miley: The Movement, Full Episodes
Miley uses the documentary to show audiences that what she does is planned out. Every step is planned ahead of time. She did not just jump onto the VMA stage and start twerking on Robin Thicke without rehearsing extensively first. Then again, how much practice does that take? Miley then goes on to explain that this is not the first time that anyone has been shocked in the industry before, “Madonna’s done it. Brittany’s done it. Every VMA’s performance, everyone that performs. That’s what you’re looking for, you’re wanting to make history. Me and Robin, the whole time said, you know we’re going to make history right now.”
This is Public Relations for it illustrates to the audience who Miley is and her behavior whether she is on stage in a giant teddy bear or upset because she did not get to show up on the red carpet in a cop car. I believe that overall Miley’s Public Relations team was extremely successful with this mini Documentary. They reached the demographic of fans they wished to by strategically having the documentary air on MTV. Plus they did not shy away from showing some of the darker sides of her such as her freak out right before getting on the red carpet. Although I do have to say that chapter is not titled properly with “Miley Keeps Cool Under Pressure, Walks The VMA Red Carpet.” Quite the opposite in my opinion.
Overall, the main point of the documentary is that Miley isn’t changing, but she is growing up and becoming herself. Yes people change, but they should as they get older. Which is more terrifying; a twerking twenty-year-old pock star or Disney’s Hannah Montana getting older but stuck in her tweens?