Pelumi King

The release of celebrities’ sex tapes has always been a common commodity particularly in the entertainment industry and social media has been one of the prevalent vehicles of that helps these tapes go viral.  The constant and frequent release of these sex tapes and nude pictures, which are meant to be private, has brought about these begging questions: are the sex tapes intentionally released as a form of cheap publicity stunts or an unfortunate circumstance? Unfortunate circumstance in the sense that they (the affected parties) did not give in to cheap blackmail, or it was leaked to the public by an insider.  The two sides will be critically examined.

PUBLICITY STUNT?

It is a well-known fact that the release of a celebrity’s sex tape gives such celebrity extra publicity or make the celebrity one of the most talked-about artistes the next few hours, days, weeks, or even month after the release. He or she will probably be the most talked-about artiste, particularly in the few weeks after it. While noting that this publicity can break a career, particularly, such celebrity’s mental health; the publicity, most often, with the right PR and management turns out to be advantageous for the celebrity involved.

Citing Oxlade as an example, one can say the release of the sex tape was quite advantageous for him given the society he finds him in. Oxlade was barely criticized for the release of the sex tape on social media, instead, he was praised for “a job well done” as could be seen in a video where Unilag students praised him for his “good sex skills”. The first released sex tape of Oxlade has garnered over 2million views on various social media platforms within hours after its release. It did over 100,000 views in just over 2 hours. The views on his sex tape exceeded the views of his recently released video on the cover of the Baddest boy on YouTube and Twitter combined. The views Oxlade got on these videos was very unprecedented.

The leaked sex tapes and nude pictures also gave Oxlade more visibility, Oxlade can be described as an upcoming artiste, being that he is not known by many. Going through the trend list, many people mistook him for the footballer, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain till they were able to figure out he is one of the artistes in Nigeria. People were finally able to attach a name to the face.

The viral of his sex tapes and nude pictures inadvertently transmits to more views on his music videos, more visibility, more streams and more followers on his social media handle, and more engagement of his posts. His apology message on Twitter garnered over a thousand comments in just an hour. It remains to be seen whether it was a publicity stunt by Oxlade’s management, but it has now become a fact that celebrities use their sex tapes and nudes to drive up streams of their music, get more visibility and engagements amongst other things. It is also becoming a very potent tool in this age; the only bad publicity is no publicity.

UNFORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCE?

This involves everything else. Sex tapes may be released after threats of blackmail to the victims. This was seen in Tiwa Savage’s case. Tiwa Savage before the release of her sex tape had told the media that someone was threatening to release her sex tape to the public, if she does not meet his demands. She reiterated that she will not in any way meet his demands and give in to cheap blackmail. A few weeks after the interview, Tiwa’s sex tape was released to the public. This can be said to be an unfortunate circumstance, a blackmailer getting hold of her private video to get some funds out of her.

It could also have been released or leaked after a betrayal from a friend or family or an innocent mistake. Oxlade hinted as much in his apology post when he said “betrayals are very real”.  It could also have been an innocent mistake. Cross, a reality star “mistakenly” posted his nude video on Snapchat. He is certainly not the first celebrity to have done so.

The leakage of celebrities’ sex tapes or nudes can either be down to these two factors. Celebrities have intentionally released theirs to promote themselves, music, and maybe upcoming album while some have had theirs released based on unfortunate circumstances. Oxlade and Tiwa’s tape can be down to either of these two factors, although, it points mostly to be as a result of unfortunate circumstances, particularly in Tiwa Savage’s case.