"there is no such thing as bad publicity"

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

The 1958 quote below is not really the same aa the quote in question, I first
heard the exact phrase "there is no such thing as bad publicity" from the
mouth of STanley Fish in the later 1980s, though I can't prove it with any
written cite.

I always assumed that Stanley made up the phrase himself. Her certainly
believed it.

In a message dated 1/24/2001 1:22:29 PM, gd2 at IS2.NYU.EDU writes:

<< At 12:49 PM 1/24/2001 EST, George Thompson wrote:
>"...there is no such thing as bad publicity."  Martha
>Hailey DuBose, Women of Mystery. . . , NY, 2000/2001, p. 426....
>
>        How early can this be dated?
>

A quick scroll through the 291 occurrences of "publicity" in OED2 reveals
one example of this saying, not an especially early one I suppose, but
perhaps of interest. It's part of the entry for knock v.:

1958 Spectator 12 Dec. 865/1 On the last page he protests about `the growing
tendency in some newspapers today to write only "knocking" stories about
stars as big as Tommy'. But..almost any publicity is good publicity: you can
knock around the clock and the moon-faced masses will only hear applause.



Greg Downing, at greg.downing at nyu.edu or gd2 at is2.nyu.edu >>