Often, I would see bands in their facebook pages using obscenities or offensive material in their marketing. For example, profanity is pretty popular with local bands these days. I would see a lot of them use the F word a lot. They would also say stuff like, “Come out to this show, bitches”, and all that. You get the idea. I would even see some bands put up dirty jokes as a way to entertain their fans. Some bands would even make offensive photos for their flyers and stuff. Is using obscenities a good idea for your promotional material? Does this always help draw people to your shows or help get you new fans?
It all depends.
Keep in mind that this kind of marketing is not for everybody. If you want more respect and better opportunities with your music, the key to that is to make your marketing and promotional material, family friendly as possible. If you keep using obscenities in your promotion, then you’ll probably be stuck playing over 21 shows and you could get rejected by family friendly events. Sometimes you can turn venues off, and they might refuse to book you by how you put yourself out there.
Some music fans out there may even get the wrong idea about your band. They’ll look at the way your promote yourself and they’ll say something like, “Who the hell are these guys? I don’t want to support these hacks.” I believe that bands & artists that uses obscene stuff in your promotional material, I’m going to think that you’re the type of band who think they’re so cool. It’s gonna make you think you’re better than everyone. I understand that bands do this to entertain their fans but keep in mind, this kind of marketing isn’t for everyone.
If you want a wider audience and more respect, change the way you promote yourself. Bands do this ’cause they believe it’s okay to be themselves and act how they want to in local music, but in a way, you can’t always. It’s about being careful of how you put yourself out there.
Kev
K'Brocking 
Obscene words are cool in the right context. However, sometimes the context is actually taken out of context and then people get misunderstood. While it may not be a bad idea for a band to incorporate swearing words into their marketing paradigm, it may be a bad idea for them not to too. The industry is changing and so are people. Studies have shown that more people swear nowadays, so you have to cater to that type of crowd.
Good response! Like I said it all depends. It all depends on the type of crowd and fanbase. If you have a fanbase of mostly young people or metalheads, they are the right type of crowd to do obscene stuff, I guess.
Kev
Thanks! I agree with you. If you’re looking to market your music to fans who swear, as a band, or an artist, you have to swear too. Onstage, offstage or both. And most people who swear also smoke and drink beer, so you can do your marketing of lighters and those foam rubber beer holder things – whatever they’re called. So, if you know your audience, you can capitalize on the popularity of swearing. with more people swearing and listening to loud head banging music and band who swears a lot is almost gauranteed a shot at being famous. James from Metalicca swears so do Lars and Kurt. It’s fun to swear too! but bands are smart to swear or not depending on the type of crowds they want. And girls who swear are usually hotter than girls who don’t. Just a thoughts.