I was watching this dispute take place recently where a person was getting a lot of publicity through means that are considered as non admirable. The thing was that they were claiming they didn’t do it as a competitor did to try and make them look bad. Think of it like scenario where someone else pays a telemarketer to phone everyone in the city to pitch your products or services where everyone hates that tactic. Therefore, everyone starts to dislike you for it. Like in this case, the competitor was purposely doing this to give them a bad reputation apparently.
When you think about this too it is a real problem especially in the online world. The only thing you can really do I say to react to it really fast such as posting your own response about it. That way you can kind of control the situation and at the same time you can turn all that extra publicity as a positive positive.