Terry Jones has a tiny church in Florida. If he offends people in his church, they can leave and no one will care or listen to them. He has a much greater chance of increasing his membership by generating major controversy through hating on a religion most Americans don’t care for in the first place. In a world where publicity counts more than integrity, Jones is doing the smart thing.
When I noticed everyone commenting on this story, it reminded me of the gum company that bought a piece of used gum by Luis Gonzalez on EBay for $10,000. Why would anyone spend that much on something worth so little? Because it was so outrageous and no one had ever done it before so it got a lot of publicity for a company. This article, on the subject, suggests that the $10,000 spent on the worthless gum was worth $500,000 in advertising because of the free publicity that went along with it. How is this any different than what Jones is doing this weekend? He will be forever famous because of this stunt. He will get an infinite number of hits on his website and if he writes a book, he will be able to sell it to more people. It’s a win-win situation, really.
There will be copycats, as well, won’t there? But they can’t do the same thing or no one will care.
Ivan Goddard 