50 Cent touted his feud with Kanye West to sell more albums in a dramatically declining environment for sales. No need to get appalled though, exploiting sensationalism is nothing new. Just ask the Beatles who enjoyed the hype of the ongoing conspiracy theory “Paul is Dead”.

In November 1966 it’s rumored (website detailing 358 clues) that Paul McCartney drove off in a rage after fighting through a song that wasn’t going the way he wanted. Not long after it’s said that he crashed his car so badly that it burst into a fire and eventually exploded, leaving few witnesses. The wreck was said to have knocked all Paul’s teeth out, burned his hair off and broke his fingers (preventing him from exiting the car). Once the Austin Healey exploded Paul was decapitated. Rumor or truth?

This eventually led to the growth of a massive urban legend that the remaining three Beatles replaced Paul with a look-a-like and left clues to tell the story without ever admitting it. A great example of that is the Beatles album “Yesterday and Today” which shows “Paul” sitting in the middle with two decapitated dolls pointing to his head. Harrison is in the background holding a doll head that has no hair and no teeth. However, there is a false set of teeth on McCartney’s arm. Coincidence or playing into the hype to help sell albums? It certainly didn’t hurt!

Before you roll your eyes at 50 Cent for using boxing-like hype to promote the sales of albums don’t forget that musicians have been doing this for a long time, whether you believe the “Paul is Dead” conspiracy or not.

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Just about everyone has some kind of curiousity about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO’s). Every now and then the news buzzes about the most recent UFO sighting and then goes away nearly as fast. Most recently, the UFO video on YouTube has exploded with popularity and immediately deflated after the true origin was linked back to a film maker.

But our fascination goes deeper than a news headline. Most noteably is the constant conspiracy theory surrounding Area 51, a military site with as much mystery as the whereabouts of Michael Jackson’s nose. Roswell, New Mexico thrives off of UFO tourism swarming to the area after a Air Force press release mistakenly identified a balloon as flying saucer. The Roswell Chamber of Commerce website even incorporates the alien theme.

So how do you market the concept of life on other planets? Less is probably more as it encourages a certain amount of mystery and allure that a cover up is only moments away. Then again, being direct doesn’t hurt either. “E.T.”, the movie, is dedicated to an alien visiting earth and is the fourth highest grossing film in U.S. history. It doesn’t stand alone either, with top-grossing films like “War of the Worlds” and “Independence Day” bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Get creative, don’t hold anything back
2. Relate the topic to a fear we already have (like making a movie about crop circles)
3. Decide if you want to make money or not
   1. If you don’t then put your “amateur video” in a spot that will be found and give very little information – chuckle at night on your broke-down couch
   2. If you do, hire a big time actor like Will Smith, Mel Gibson or Sigourney Weaver to play the lead in your soon-to-be-created movie script – chuckle at night on your fancy Italian Leather couch

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