I'm not so sure about that being the principal motive. I think it's actually a way to exert control. I remember discussions with our marketing folks. Pretty eye-opening.

"Communication," in corporations, is really about controlling and shaping the message, and building the brand.

You see these coordinated campaigns, all the time. Usually, they are efforts to control the vocabulary (for example, instead of calling camera flashes "flashes," we try to always refer to them as "speedlights," and get everyone else to use the same language).

Also, you have things like entertainers starting to behave badly, just as their albums and movies are coming out, etc. I'll bet that publicists ask entertainers to time things like divorce announcements, with significant market events.

It's really Machiavellian.