My middle son was naughtier than both of his brothers put together, and unfortunately this meant that he did regularly find himself with a sore bottom.
Right up until he was seven, he went through some dreadful toddler-like temper tantrums. He would throw himself on the ground, scream, flail his limbs about and generally act like a much younger child.
On the whole, the best way to deal with this attention seeking behaviour was to actually just completely ignore it until he got fed up and realised he wasn’t getting a reaction. After a few minutes, he would give up and start behaving normally again. We would then reward his improved behaviour with our attention and praise. However, there were occasions where this simply was not possible – and his tantrums did earn him a smacked bottom.