Spirit landing, publicity stunt?

Spirit landing was successful, fantastic. It carries lot of cameras that
will keep the public busy for a while, enjoying the images from Mars.
Stereoscopic, 3D etc...
I heard another rover will land on Jan 25th on the other side of Mars.
I was thinking, if this first landing is more of a publicity stunt. Looking
at the images, terrain very flat, like a dessert, so there was less risk
dropping the rover. Safer. But the second mission is more riskier, more
important, for some reason. If it fails, we still have the first to keep the
public satisfied.

Julius