Stossel: Deconstructing Hype

— -- These days, you can't look or go anywhere without seeing billboards, television, radio and other sources bombarding us with hype about all aspects of our life and culture.

Every year, Cannes, France rolls out the red carpets and, for two weeks, plays host to Hollywood's stars. People who are not famous visit the city during the course of its fabled film festival to try to get famous. "People come here for no other purpose than to attract attention," says movie critic Roger Ebert who has attended the festival for the past 25 years.

And the attention-grabbing fest works for everyone. The paparazzi are so hungry for pictures they might sell to some newspaper or movie magazine, they'll take your picture even if you're not a movie star, if you just look like you might be.

Still, with 1,000 movies for sale at Cannes, how do you get people to pay attention to yours?

One way is to go to the beach and set yourself on fire. ABCNEWS' cameras captured a woman doing just that. And while no one was quite sure why she was doing it, dozens of photographers and camera crews turned up to take pictures.

It turned out she was hyping a new action film. She wasn't in the film, and there was no scene in the film of anyone catching fire, but the purpose of her appearance was to get media attention and she certainly caught it.

Building an Athlete's Image

What makes an athlete really famous? Skill at the sport helps, but is not enough. Just consider Brian "the Boz" Bosworth's career.

In the '80s, he was number 44, a college player from Oklahoma who started attracting more then the usual amount of attention. The press called him "a bad-boy with a buzz cut." And although he was a good football player, other players were as good. Still, when the Seattle Seahawks signed him, they paid Bosworth more than those other players.

Bosworth figured out that to make it really big, he had to do more than just play football well. "I needed to transform myself — kind of like the "Incredible Hulk" did when he got all pissed off," he says. "I needed to turn green."