Good Press, Bad Press and a Little XS

I attended a grand opening of a new club venue located in Plainview, NY called XS. They caught some heat in the press for having advertisements adorned with a well endowed, barely dressed woman. Part of the uproar was that the venue is connected to an OTB outlet operated by NYS. I am guessing the state was happy to have a well respected and well known entrepreneur take over the venue to help drive traffic to the OTB, but not so happy about the risque advertising.

I have been to many venues like this and it was no more or less over the top than any club I have had the pleasure of visiting. So, was it good for the venue that there was some controversy about the way they chose to promote it? Of course it was good! They got a quarter page dedicated to them in the regions top publication, Newsday. It's not like it was a controversy over unpaid wages, poor treatment of animals or some other deplorable act....it was a picture that some people did not like.

If this was a contrived plan by their ad folks....kudos to them. It certainly garnered attention. Not every businesses can use this tactic as it would not be appropriate for a law firm to post potentially inappropriate pictures to get people interested in them. This was a night club that is supposed to promote fun and well, XS. It seems to have hit the mark.

Good press for some may be bad press for others. In this case I think it served their opening night crowd of over 1,000 pretty well. Choose your battles wisely and make sure your business is the kind that can stand the heat or even want the heat of major exposure.