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The 15 Boldest Publicity Stunts in Music History

In the last few months, Daft Punk made a commercial that upstaged Phoenix at Coachella, Kanye made cityscapes his canvas, and Jay-Z announced he would debut an album via app. But artists have been manipulating the press to promote albums ever since Elvis joined the Army. So, nodding to the reality that virtually every musical artist is trying to play Don Draper these days, we decided to look back at the history of gimmicks, hooks, stunts, ploys, and marketing capers. Some were more successful than others — but, hey, we’re obviously still talking about them. Here’s a short reminder that “McLaren” meant something to us before Yeezy drove one.