****** UPDATE: Monday February 22, 2010
I had an interesting conversation with Mr. Cheban & Mr. Huck in this order…
Read for yourselves. It was unsolicited, as I never contacted them directly, until I replied to a person who tweeted me including Mr. Cheban and Mr. Huck into my tweet.
Also, I’d like to mention some things since this is apparently now a topic of conversation: I know the show is for entertainment, but I don’t appreciate how it makes my industry, my degree and the field I work in look to people on the ‘outside.’ Nor do I appreciate how it makes women in public relations appear to be nothing more than far lesser versions of poor Samantha Jones-types from ‘Sex & the City’ with the brains of a Karen Smith from ‘Mean Girls.’
xx.
******
>>>>> Original post continued below…… <<<<<
Image Belongs to SugarFactory.
You need ‘experience’ to pass out bottles of water, short black mini-skirts topped off with neon pink jackets, the keen ability to know not to put mustard in your boss’ sandwich and 4-inch stilettos to work in public relations…that is according to the ghastly new E! reality television show SPINdustry produced by Kim Kardashian.
The show is supposedly a ‘documentary’ of the celebrity public relations industry a la Command PR.
It’s more a like a mockumenatry, gah.
On August 31 of 2009 I blogged about this little show stopper when I heard it was “in the works.” I guess I was right it was going to make us all look bad, who knew?
I don’t know what’s worse — watching a new “one week” associate get Jonathan Cheban’s sandwich order wrong (oh and we get to see a grown man throw a tantrum like my 3-year baby cousin over how much he hates mustard before throwing it on the table), blurt out how she adores the Spice Girls in the middle of Cheban’s pitch to Mel B (aka Scary Spice) or this same said associate admitting on national television that she used to be a huge party animal and woke up one morning with her two front teeth missing. But yeaaa, those partyiiing dayyys are ovvver…
Where the heck did Cheban find this chick from?
Oh, but it gets even better.
Let’s move on to Simon Huck, Command PR’s vice-president, spraying his cupcake and the table around his cupcake with Windex. I am not even going to try to understand that one. But at least we know what they are inhaling…
On that note, let’s talk about Lauren, the “omg! I’m a VIP waitress from Miami” who is just dying to work for Jonathan … after meeting him at a couple of events because she “can get the work done.” She makes phone calls, is over excited, claims to have a double Bachelor’s (really?) and apparently would rather ‘coordinate’ the Sugar Factory event, rather than actually put it together … aka roll out the carpet, put up the signage etc. like the other girls. In other words blondie just wants to stand there and look pretty. I have no other way to say it.
And let’s not even get started on one of Cheban’s associates who has been with him for over a year — apparently, she can’t do math very well because according to this shining beacon of intelligence, her ‘experience’ told her to give the paparazzi bottles of water while they waited for Mel B to arrive to the event Command PR hosted, but also she’s never been without her four-month old puppy …
Image via WeHeartIt.com
These jokers aren’t public relations and guess what — they admit it.
According to Media Bistro, there is no true client representation in Command PR and they focus on “celebrity branding” — i.e.) partnering a celebrity with brand. A prime example of this is Mel B in the first episode being partnered with Sugar Factory’s couture lollipops.
I must be of a different breed, but I seriously don’t get it.
I fail to see how a young woman who has no reason for being famous other than her father and a sex tape is so cool.
She’s so cool, in fact, that she’s considered business savvy and so business savvy that companies actually want to pay her $10,000 USD for tweeting about their products. I also fail to see how her and her folks over at Command PR represent the PR industry well, let alone understand what it really is.
And if that wasn’t enough — which of course it isn’t — need I even remind you that “SPIN” is a four-letter, bad, bad, bad word in public relations. But I suppose only people who went to school for public relations or know what they are doing would know that.
It’s practically in every Introduction to Public Relations textbook.
In case someone over at E! missed it — “SPIN” is synonymous with propaganda, Barnum and Bailey of the early 1900s and straight, asymmetrical one-way communication. In other words, that term is associated with with circus clowns exploiting the bearded lady, prodigal child with a sixth finger and the fire-breathing man from the far East.
It’s not public relations. But, yes, admittedly, it’s how the industry started, but not what it is or has grown into.
In fact, if anyone bothered to open a textbook or heaven-forbid a dictionary, they’d soon be aware of the fact that public relations is about two-way, symmetrical communication between a brand and it’s target audience. Of course, there are other facets inside of this, but that’s the major one.
Big difference.
Seven minutes in and I was unamused by this monstrosity of a television production as I was before it aired; 30 minutes later and the feeling was the same.
PRSA? President Obama? Someone? Anyone — please save my industry from parts of itself.
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Sasha Muradali runs the ‘Little Pink Book’ . She holds a B.S. in Public Relations from the University of Florida with a minor in Dance (’07) and an M.A. in International Administration from the University of Miami (’08). She loves Twitter and all things social media, so you should find her @SashaHalima or get a copy of the ‘Little Pink Book’ delivered to your Kindle.
Copyright © 2009-2010 Sasha H. Muradali. All Rights Reserved.
