It’s a myth that all publicity is good publicity. Just ask Harvey Weinstein, or, in a very different context, Sir Richard Branson. Back in the days of Virgin everything, nearly 20 years ago, Sir Richard was doing so well with Virgin Cola in Britain that he used a Sherman tank to crush three tonnes of Coca-Cola cans in Times Square, New York. The bigger brand failed to get the message and lost no time driving the upstart out of business in America.
Sir Richard has since dabbled in space tourism, which not long ago seemed hard to top as a way of generating free publicity even though no actual space tourists have yet flown in his livery. Yet he has been topped now, comprehensively, by