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Selects: How Publicists Work · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, everyone. We're going to jump back in podcast time
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to September fifteenth, twenty fifteen, for this week's selection, How
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Publicists Work. We've never had a publicist, you know why,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: because nobody cares that much about us. So it's really
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: not a job that would get a lot of billable hours,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: if you know what I mean. But anyway, it's a
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: pretty fascinating, weird job. And we heard from a few publicists,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I believe when we recorded this, so maybe we'll hear
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: from some again. How publicists, publicists, publicists work. Welcome to
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clarks, Charlte
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry so Stuff you should know.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: This is it? That sounded like you're introducing the final
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: episode my voice?
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: This is it feels like it's the final episode.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: You won't be able to talk anymore.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: No, I'm getting there.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: That's not true. You don't know that. How's it going?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: It's going pretty well? Man? How about with you?
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I think both of us had a bit of a
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: dark time researching this article. Why well, because and we're
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: going to get well, we're going to get flack. That's
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a teaser from publicists, because what I learned is that
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: publicists are professional liars.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I would say that depends on the circumstance.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Well, what do you mean, Well, you're saying there are
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: publicists who don't lie.
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  Speaker 2: No, I'm saying it depends on whether the publicist is
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: going to the media or the media is coming to
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: the publicist, depending on the circumstance.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: What I am saying is, no matter what who you
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: work for, if you are a publicist, then a percentage
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of your job will be lying.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Right, Okay, depending on the circumstance.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so Billy lie about something good.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Billy ray Cyrus is like, I am going to donate
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: a bunch of time and money to a local homeless shelter.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't have to lie about that.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: The publicist gets on the horn starts letting everybody know
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: you guys should come cover this. Billy ray Cyrus goes
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: and does that, and everything's good. Then on the way home,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Billy ray Cyrus decides to celebrate by drinking a bucket
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: of tequila and runs his car into a whatever.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: The publicist then starts getting calls and says.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: He didn't drink a bucket of tequila.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: That wasn't even him.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: That's overstated. What really happened was this.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: So the circumstances depend on the whether the publicist is
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: fibbing or not.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm not saying that all publicists do is lie.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: But I'm saying if you work as a publicist, part
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of your job is to cover tracks and to lie. Gotcha,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: and you know that. Don't hate the publicist, Hate the system,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: is what I say.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're definitely a part of a larger system.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a larger system which includes all of us who
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: digest news.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, especially say like entertainment news. Yeah, that kind of thing.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: There's like a there's a whole. There's two from my understanding,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: there's two routes a person can take as a celebrity.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: You can either just go off and be a normal person,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: and depending on your level, you might have paparazzi following
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: her that kind of stuff. There's once you get to
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: a certain level, it doesn't matter what your decision is,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: or you can hire a publicist and feed yourself right
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: into that machine to get as much publicity and as
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: much press as you possibly can.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think any celebrity is going to have
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a publicist, but it's really a matter of your directive
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and your goal. I think some of those people like
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: to be like that, the old adage there's no such
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: thing as bad publicity.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I ran into that that that's more of a
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: PR term, where like so, if you're in a PR
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: you're probably representing a company or an organization or something
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: like that. A publicist is somebody who typically represents a
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: single person, an artist and author, a musician, something like that.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: That's really the only definition I can find for a publicist,
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  Speaker 2: and the job. The goal of the publicist is to
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: help maintain and promote the public image of that person
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  Speaker 2: that they represent.
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  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Bye, having a good relationship with the media.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, that's where it starts.
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  Speaker 2: That's the publicist.
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  Speaker 1: And by the way, that no such thing as bad publicity.
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  Speaker 1: I tried to find the origin of that, and the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: closest thing I could find was P. T. Barnum. But
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's true. I don't think that's verified.
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  Speaker 2: Well then say Mark Twain.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, PT Varnember Mark Twain.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Everybody says, oh it was a Mark Twain saying.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't think that's even true anyway. I think
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: maybe that.
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  Speaker 2: Used to be true, that it was a Mark Twain saying.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: No, that no such thing as bad publicity. I think
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: at one point that may have been sort of true. Yeah,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: these days there's clearly bad publicity. Sure, So you I
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: said the word flak earlier as a teaser. Apparently two
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: flak or a flack is a term originating from Gene Flak,
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  Speaker 1: early movie publicist Hollywood.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And that's with the ck that's right flak to take.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Flack is named after a type of German gun in
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: World War Two, a German anti aircraft gun.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Two different things, but in this case it is a
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: pejorative term for publicists. They don't like it.
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  Speaker 2: A PR flack.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you shouldn't say that to someone that works in PR. No,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: or call them a liar. They don't like that either. Yeah, yeah,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I looked it up. Apparently it means that, like, you
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: can't be trusted, you'll you'll do anything for money. That's
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: what a flack is to them. That's like they One
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: article I read said that's like calling a personal injury
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: attorney an ambulance chaser.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just not a nice term, gotcha.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: So there you have it. So a publicist, like you said,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: works for their client to make them to get their
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: good deeds out and to if they don't have good deeds,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: to spin things to make it look like they do.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Right. You know, here hold this baby lamb. Yeah, oh,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: we take your.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Picture exactly, and then they get photographed later eating euros
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: down the block.
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  Speaker 2: The two events were totally not connected.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: No, So what they do is they pitch ideas to
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the media and they probably have to be good writers themselves,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: because a press release oftentimes is a starting point. But
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: press releases, as we know, can get lost in the
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: shuffle and never see the light of day.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like a huge wasted time.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: It can be. But if you have a good publicist,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: they will be well connected to the media to ensure
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: that that publicity blast is not lost.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Right exactly. So there's direction one, which is from the
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: publicist to the media, and the publicist is going to
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: have all these contacts with different entertainment reporters and business
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: reporters and anybody that could possibly run a story. Yeah,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: anybody that could possibly run a story on their client, Right,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: that's right. And they'll say, Billy Ray is going to
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: donate some money.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Why we pick it on him.
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  Speaker 2: He just seems like the type who would donate a
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: bunch of money to a homeless shelter. Okay, and go
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: down there himself and help out. Great, so Billy Ray's
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: going to be down there. Plus it rolls off the
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: tongue Billy Ray. Sure, so why don't you send one
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: of your cover reporters down and let's get some coverage
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  Speaker 2: for this. And since their friends, since these people have
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: worked together for decades, now this reporter and your publicist,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: the reporter actually might respond and show up, or the
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: editor or the news producer, whoever the contact is. That's great, Like,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: that's you hired a good publicist and now this story
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  Speaker 2: is going to make it out there. That's right, because
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: they didn't just write up a press release with a
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  Speaker 2: bunch of exclamation points in the headline and facts it
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: to every media outlet they can find a zero response.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, so good. A publicist is only as good as
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: their relationships. I think the other way on that street
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  Speaker 1: that you were talking about is from the journalists back
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  Speaker 1: to the publicist. If they hear heard Billy Ray sires
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  Speaker 1: Drenk a bucket a tequila and ran over a prostitute
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  Speaker 1: with his car. They will then get in touch with
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the publicist and then they go buddy, hey, we go
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: back a long way.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Would I lie to you?
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: What I lie to you? Uh So that's how that goes,
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  Speaker 1: and they want they will be more forthcoming with people
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: who have It's a scratch your back, you scratch mind
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: type of scenario.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, like that reporter that actually showed up at the
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  Speaker 2: homeless shelter and covered it and made a nice piece
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  Speaker 2: and everything.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I'll give you the scoop.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: When that guy calls, he's he's going to get the
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: better treatment from the publicist than somebody who ignored the
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: pitch before.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: That's right, a lot of backscratching, a lot of backscratching.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: He's in the machine.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I've seen a lot more women as publicists than men,
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  Speaker 1: and I've always wondered why that's true.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know that that is true. In researching this,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: I saw about an equal amount. I really that as well,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: but it seems like there's an equal amount these days.
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  Speaker 1: It seems like every publicist I've ever known has been
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: a woman. And I just figured it's because women may
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: be more level headed and uh were able to like
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: smooth out a situation. It's some big dumb guy. Yeah,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: but I guess the guys who were publicist aren't big
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  Speaker 1: dumb guys like me. I'd be a bad publicist.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, So what would your response be if somebody
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: called to find out what stupid thing your your client
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: did or why they did some stupid thing.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Let's say, you know what, it's really none of your
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: business or bothers. Bad publicist?
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well that was something I ran across, as you know,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: saying something like my client needs their privacy respected right now?
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Sure would just immediately shut down a relationship that you've
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: cultivated over the years that you have to give as
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: a publicist. You are like, there has to be something
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: that you give, so you better have something that will
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: placate the reporter, but will also is probably not the truth,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: because that reporter will go off and write the truth
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: about your client, and your client will have just gotten
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: horrible publicity because of you. So it's a balancing act.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, or they'll just say let me send you over
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: gift back from Fred Siegel. You like the last one, right,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: But publish may also and it depends people that have
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: a staff of people working for them. Sometimes the lines
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: are blurred on who does what. But a publicist can
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: arrange interview requests and set all that stuff up. If
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: you have like a book tour, or you're a politician,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: or your band with a new album coming out, they
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: might arrange all those interviews, in which case they are
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: prepping two things. They are prepping the interviewer saying you
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: can't ask about the bucket of tequila. If you want
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: this interview, i'll give it to you, but this is
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: off limits all these things. And then, as we've learned,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: when we've had people work with us in publicity, they'll
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: be prepping you on as the interviewee. If they ask this,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: this is how you should probably deal with it.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Don't answer that, Yeah, don't ridge back to what you
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: were saying before.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And my favorite thing ever are videos where celebrities walk
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: out of interviews because the interviewer has asked something they
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: weren't supposed to ask.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Those are great. Yeah, I just sit around watch those
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: all day.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can probably find a pretty good super cut
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: of them.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Probably. So all right, well let's take a break
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and when we come back, we will talk a little
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: bit about the skills you need as a publicist. All right,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: we've mentioned lying, and you know, I joke, but for real,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: if you want to be a publicist, you better have
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: a certain comfort level with stretching the truth and lying. Yeah,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: because you're gonna have to do that. If you're not
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: comfortable with that, you shouldn't go into that line of work. Yeah,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: is that safe to say?
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: I think very.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: You need to be good with people and cultivate those relationships.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: You need to be a good writer.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Well, not only do you have to be a good writer,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: you have to be a good journalist. And a lot
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: of publicists have a background in journalism. Because I kept
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: running into this in this article and another article you sent.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: The number one rule of being a publicist is to
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: think like a journalist. Even better than that is to
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: not only think like a journalist, but be able to
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: write like a journalist too, because as we kind of
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: demonstrated that, the publicist media relationship is a two way street.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: The publicist needs the media to publicize in a flattering
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: manner their client, but the media needs a publicist because
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: they've got deadlines and they need to come up with
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: story ideas, and if something is brought to them, that's great,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: that's good, But that media professional has a reputation to protect.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Be like, you know, Billy Ray Cyrus got off of
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: his couch and mailed a check for five hundred dollars
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: to a local homeless shelter.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, boring.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it came in a pressure release in a
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: fax machine. Yeah, that reporter is not going to have
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: a very good reputation. But if a publicist comes to
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: this reporter with a great headline, creative pitch a good
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: story that's tailored to that reporter, and they're beat and
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: even more than that, tailored to that reporter's audience. Yes,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: there's a good likelihood the reporter will say I'm listening, right,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: and that's just music to a publicist.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Hears sure, just to be listened to.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's when you throw it into fifth gear.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: You can't be afraid of rejection. You've got to be
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: outgoing and you've got to take your licks because a
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: lot of your attempts are going to fail just by
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: nature of the job. So you can't get your feelings
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: all hurt. Yeah, you guess you could, but you don't
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: want to show that because then the journalists will be
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: like geez, Chuck's such a baby.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: You are going to be eating a lot.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I didn't run the story, and he's complaining.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Crying when I saw him choking up in the bathroom.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: While they may get a good laugh out of that,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: probably won't want to work with you as much. You
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: got to be very patient, and you have to be
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: very flexible because if you're working for celebrities, it is
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: a very tough job.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: That's another thing too, So you are your hours are basically.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: All hours whenever you're needed.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Right, So, not only does your publicists frequently also have
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: to do other stuff or people associated with the publicist,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: I have to do things like pick up things for
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: the client system. Yeah.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: In addition to that, like the higher up you go
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: on the food cham which you'll talk about in a minute.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: The more that that client feels a okay with emailing
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: you at three in the morning saying like I need
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: to be reassured about my celebrity status or whatever, yeah,
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: and the publicist needs to respond, you're basically on call
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: all the time. Also, at three in the morning, your
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: client may have done something really horrifically stupid. Yes, and
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: some paparazzi caught it and now words starting to spread
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: and you're fielding calls from reporters at three in the
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: morning to get a statement on what your client did.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean when Twitter came out, I remember thinking
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: at the time, like publicists aren't going to be around
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: anymore because people are doing this themselves.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Well, they've actually figured out ways to use Twitter.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Well, ways to use Twitter, but Twitter is also their
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: biggest security blanket as well. Because of Twitter, more and
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: more celebrities are saying really stupid things that the publicist
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: is then going to have to cover their tracks.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: So they'll take down the tweet and then try and
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: spend that or just you know, the apology is always
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: very funny to me.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Awkward, Well, it's never like.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Did you hear about Chris Carter, the NFL guy. He's
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: a former NFL player wide receiver. Yeah, he is in
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: hot water this week because he spoke. Was hired by
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the NFL to come in and speak to the rookies.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: They often do that for guys that had been in
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: trouble to come in and say, don't do what I did.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: It's scared straight, Yeah, sort of. And he said in
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: his talk to the Rookie Symposium said something about, you know,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: if you get caught with you know, da da da
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: da da, just make sure you have a fall guy
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: on your team, like the guy in the car that's like,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: it's my weed, wowly, And he got in big trouble
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: for that and his apology. His apology was like that
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that's not the kind of advice I would ever give
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: young people. It's like, but that's the advice you exactly
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: gave young people, Like, how can you say that days later?
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: It's just so obvious. It's a forced, insincere apology.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: So he either had a bad publicist, yeah, didn't listen
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: to his publicist, because part of the publicist job is
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: when you're going to make the statement, the public statement,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: the public apology or whatever. Sure, the reasoning behind it,
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: the rationale, the wording of it, just the logic behind
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: the apology is probably going to be crafted by your publicists.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: At least help they're going to help you with it.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: At the very least they're going to want to help
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: you with it because they're probably scared stupid that you're
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: going to make it worse.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Right, And it sounds like there's a lot of crisis
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: management and that is a part of it. But publicists
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: also are just trying to cook up opportunities.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: I think that that's way more the day to day.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure, depending on the client, of course.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: But I remember our former boss Connell was in a
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: band years ago and I read online somewhere that his
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: band was went to Elton John's. Do you remember the story,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: went to Elton John's house and spelled out their band
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: name and fire on his tennis court.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: No.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: I hadn't heard to try and get on his label
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: or something.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to do it, I know.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: And I went and asked him. I was like, dude,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: I can't believe you guys did that, and he went,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: we didn't do that. I was like no, and he
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: was like no, these are publicists made that up. It's
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: like nothing true about it. And he's like, no, they
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: completely fabricated that story. Huh as a publicity stunt that
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: never happened.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Huh. Yeah, So why even go to the trouble of
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: it where you can just release a story that says
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: that you did that.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Isn't that amazing when something like that could so
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: easily be fact checked, like by calling Elton John.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Well, that's the other thing, like I don't have him
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: to call Elton John. You know, I don't know. So
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: I'm curious. I wonder how many media stories are just
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: totally fabricated matter of fact. I'd be you out there
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: in podcasts. Let us know if you know a media
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: story that was just totally fabricated that everybody takes his
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: fact right, we want to hear it. I love stuff
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: I do too, all right. We mentioned earlier that you
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: end up getting the laundry or dry cleaning as a publicist.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: If you're the publicist intern.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's probably what's going to happen. Is you might
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: get asked to go get the laundry, and then you
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: will say, sure, I'll take care of that for you,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: And then you will go down the chain until you
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: find the underling who was trying to be a publicist
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: who still does things like that.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Right. This person may or may not be in college,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: but it's probably college age. That's something that I ran across.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: If you want a career as a publicist, you do
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: not need to spend a single penny on higher education. Now,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: the entire career of publicists begins as a hands on experience. Yeah,
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: you need to be in you need to be literate,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: you need to probably have a knack for writing in
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: a journalistic way sure, and crafting good headlines and by
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: proxy good email subject lines. But you don't if you
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: have that already before college, you don't need to go
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: to college.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: No, Like you can go in major in journalism or
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: communications or PR. But it's not like you get that diploma,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: that PR diploma.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: And you're going to get like some entry level job
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: as a publicist. Now you're still gonna have to work
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: your way out.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: See it says right here, I have a PR degree,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: So where's my job?
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: My advice is to skip college and go straight into
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the workforce as early as you can, if this is
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: what you want to do.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: You know, I feel and I hope that there is
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: becoming a bigger understanding that there are certain fields out there.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: There are careers out there where you don't have to
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: go to college, and there are careers out there where
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: like you should go to a vocational school to learn
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: that trade. Yes, that college is not necessarily this end
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: all be all, that you have to spend money after
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: money after money to get a degree that might even
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: not be used in your field.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: But I mean that didn't need a degree to do
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: what I'm doing. No one ever has to see it, right.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: And this is a perfect example of that, Chuck, Like,
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: to be a publicist, you do not need a degree.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: You need hands on experience. You need basically what amounts
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: to an apprenticeship.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: That's right, Yeah, good way to say it. So go
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: in and get that job in the mailroom or as
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: an assistant or as an intern.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: And it would be great if you still live at
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: your parents' house at this point, because you're going to
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: get paid like next to nothing, yes, and you're going
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: to be doing all the grunt work.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: But if you are, if you go in there with
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: your mindset to I'm going to learn this. I want
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: to learn this and move up, you're going to be
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: in the right environment for that.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Like we said, you might be picking up dry cleaning,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: you're going to be returning a lot of phone calls,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: drafting a lot of probably not so fun press releases.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: That is graduated from the intern.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I'm talking about being like a junior assistant.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Right after you get hired on.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and press releases that aren't like the
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: sexy ones. You know, you're not going to be writing
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: like the press releases for Billy Ray Cyrus. In other words, no,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: those are sexy.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: You'll be writing them for his dog.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, you know sure, Freddy Freddie Cyrus, Freddy Freddy Cyrus.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: You are going to be handling your publicists that you
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: work for, their schedule, their contacts. You're going to be
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: putting together press kits and epk's electronic press kits and
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: blasting those out. Basically all of the nuts and bolts
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: of the job you're going to be doing as a
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: junior staff publicist or an assistant. Not a bad gig.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: If that's what you want to do now, and if
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: you stick to it and you're get at it, you're
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: going to end up being a publicist. Right.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Not only are you getting the experience you need on
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: the job, you're also in a place where you're networking too,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: because that is probably tied for first as far as
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: like thinking like a journalist goes. You need to be
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: a pretty good networker.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: That's right, And you know what, let's take a break.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: We will talk more about networking and some of the
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: skills you still need.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Can I make a confession. Yes, I'm possibly the worst
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: networker on the planet. You didn't have to tell me
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: that I'm really bad at it.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not your bag.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: It isn't Some people are good at networking.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: That's pretty good at it.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: You're good at networking, Yeah, because I enjoy it.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I don't consider it networking sounds like just
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: doing something to serve you in the end. I don't
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: look at it that way. I look at it as
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: like I enjoy making professional colleague, enjoy meeting and and
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: getting to know professional colleagues. Yeah, and then later on
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: if I can hit them up for something, If they
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: hit me up, that's great. But if not, it's just
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: something like gotcha, you know.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: So, So the proper response to somebody when they come
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: and ask you for something, you're like, oh, I saw
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: this coming. Yeah, that's not the way to respond.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Probably not.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to put myself out there a little more.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, why's that just?
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: I think that's a skill that everybody should have. Yeah, right,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: instead of being like a misanthropic recluse, you know.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Put yourself out there. I agree. Well, one of the
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: skills that I don't think we pinpointed was networking without
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: seeming like you're networking, which is sort of the key
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: what I was just talking about.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: And I think maybe that is it too, Like I
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: feel like networking is a task, whereas if I just
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: relaxed and enjoyed it and like just you know, communing
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: with a fellow human being, is that what it's all about.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: That's all it is. That's so scary.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: If I just took it like that, then I'm sure
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: it would be much more relaxing.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I read a blog and I sent it to you,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: and I want to shout them out because they sonic
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: bids s and ic b id S. It's a blog
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: where they did an interview that was pretty insightful.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Actually they did a double interview, a.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Dual interview with Julie Lichtenstein of thirty seven Media and
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Lily Golightly of Golightly Media. And I think they work
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: with bands and musical artists mainly. But it was super
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: insightful and they said just some little tidbits here, like
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: I was always curious how they get paid, and I
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: think if you're a publicist for a person and like
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: you were on retainer, then you just get a salary
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: or if you're a part of a firm that just
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: works with that person. But you can also just be
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: hired for a campaign.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Right, So, if you're a and you have gone to
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: the trouble of like going in and hiring a producer
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: to produce your albums, and like you've made a studio
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: quality album that you're proud of, you might want to
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: hit everybody up or gather around another two grand to
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: hire a publicist for a month to release that album. Correctly,
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: not a bad idea, no, And like just hiring a
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: publicist isn't going to automatically make it great. Like you
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: need to say, can we see some of the other
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: campaigns you've run, what are your ideas for this campaign?
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Who have some of your clients been in the past,
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: what are what are what's some of the press that
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: you've gotten? You want? Yeah, you don't want to just
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: be like throw a darted a phone book. Do your
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: research because it's two grand and you're an up and
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: coming band and that's just that's not chump change. But
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: if you if you look at it as a wise investment,
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: and you do invest it wisely in a good publicist,
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: it could make a huge difference.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: For you agreed this. Julie said that they try and
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: get out for major artists, three or four months ahead
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: of the release of the album is when they want
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: to start their job. So it's not like, hey, it
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: drops next week, let's think of some good ideas, you know,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: they want some good lead time. And they said that
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: they like to work around goals if there if it's
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: like a tour, like for us going on our tour,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: we don't have a publicist, no, but we have promoters
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: working with venues that sort of do the job of
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: a publicist as far as trying to sell tickets. But
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: if you are booking a tour and you have a publicist,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: they're going to be the ones that are getting you
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: on the local radio stations, morning TV, getting you in
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: the local newspaper or alternative newspaper to get you some press.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: And this is I mean, if you have like, this
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: is stuff you can do yourself. But one of the
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: things that you are hiring when you ira a publicist
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: is their context. Yeah, absolutely, Like you don't have the context,
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: you're just the band. One of the problems is you
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: are it's going to be tough for you to think
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: objectively like, you're not going to understand why every journalist
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: you talk to doesn't want to automatically do a long
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: form piece on how great your band is. Right, publicist
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: is going to be dispassionate enough, yeah, and removed enough
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: that they can see it objectively through a journalist's size,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: and then pitch it in a way that's probably going
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: to get better more bites.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Because the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: artist we've even experienced this as the ones who gets
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: their feelings hurt, saying like, oh man, you know they
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: interviewed us last time, why did they do it this time?
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: And they're always great about massaging the ego a little bit,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: saying like it's okay, guys, it's no big deal. Yeah,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: because that doesn't do much for us anyway. Lie, we
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: got this other thing that's better. Lie.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: The other thing they're gonna be doing if they work
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: for you, they are going to be sending you weekly
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: or bi weekly reports on what's lined up, who passed
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: on stuff, who bit stuff like that, like they're keeping
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: you informed. Yeah, you're not just like in a black hole.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: And some artists like to be well in touch on
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: that stuff, and some probably don't care about being bothered.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: Right, you know, they just want to be on Conan Man.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Conan shot in Atlanta, fifteen minutes from our house where
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: we live. Yeah, and we couldn't get on Conan. And
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: it was while our TV show was debuting.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: I know, you know, if you remind me, let's talk
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Penny C.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Sansy Vieri, Yeah, from HuffPo. She is the author and
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: CEO of Marketing Experts, Inc. And she listed out nine
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: things that a good publicist does.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: What's number one, Chuck, can you guess think like a journalist?
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: That's right, you already said that and you were right.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: It's the number one rule. Number two rule is no
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: the rules.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Right, got to play within the game if you start,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: and you can bend rules, but if you start breaking them,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: people have a long memory.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: Well here, yeah, if you go on and read, just
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: type the phrase rules of pitching and Publicity into your
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: favorite search engine and it will bring up apparently one
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: of the journalists. Things journalists like to do in their
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: downtime is write lengthy blog posts mocking pr and publicists
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: don't follow the rules of pitching. So one of the
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: rules is no phone calls.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: You just don't use the phone all email.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, especially if you're cold calling people like I guess
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: if you have a relationship with somebody, you can pick
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: up the phone and call them, But you don't send
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: an email blast and then a day later follow up
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: on the email by phone. Apparently that's the worst thing
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: you can do.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't want to bug people.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: No, And it's very easy to come off as like
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: pestering a reporter as your publicist.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: I bet.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: So you need to know the rules, or your publicist
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: needs to know the rules.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Here's a good one that I didn't think about reading
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: outside of your market. I'm sure it's pretty easy to
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: just think of New York and LA, like, what else
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: do I need to know about?
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Well, not even that. It's like if you're a.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Band outside of your industry, yeah, yeah, you.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Know, and just start to think of like, oh, well,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: we actually sing this song about the oil industry, and
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: oil prices are going through the roofs, so maybe the
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Today Show would want to talk to us about our song.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: If it didn't think about that.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: I'd be a great publicist a songwriter. I'm terrible at networking.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Google alerts. That's kind of a no brainer. I would
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: think understanding the importance of local media. That's a good
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: one because while your artist is not going to be
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: super stoked about appearing on Good Morning Toledo, Hey, if
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: there's a tie like you're from Toledo, you yeah, then
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: that's probably a smart thing to do because the local
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: media loves people that were from there that moved away.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: Right, plus they still live there. Plus missus san Cvieri
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: makes this point, or miss sansy Vier sorry, makes this
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: point that you never know where a local contact is
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: going to end up. Sure might hit the big time.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: It might work for USA today in a couple of months.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't get bigger than that. And if they
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: if they hit the big time on their end and
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: they have you as like a contact, it could help
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: you out big time.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: That's right. And then earlier you mentioned something about subject
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: lines for emails. I never really thought about this, but
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Penny says, Can I call her Penny? You can't in
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: a first name basis.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: I call her Miss SANSAVIERI okay.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Well, she says that crafting a subject line is one
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: of the most important things that you can do as
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: a publicist, and that they agonize over this and it
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: makes total sense with a glow of emails that people receive,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: especially journalists, you want to grab their attention otherwise it's
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: just going to be bye by time.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: So, but you also have to be redrafting, editing, tweaking,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: she says. It's just like maddening how much you have
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: to do that.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that would drive me crazy.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's the minutia. So much importance on the minutia.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's true, and you have to you have
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: to put a lot of thought into it. But you
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: also probably can't come off as having put too much
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: thought into it else it seems desperate, which you'll turn
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: somebody off.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Journalists.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Publicists want to kill journalists and vice versa.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like a weird relationship for sure. Yeah,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: And then also do you look up media leads? No,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: So basically there's services out there where journalists say I
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: need a quote on I'm doing a piece on nuclear
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: fusion and I don't even know what that is, so yeah, source.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: And then this this service that the the journalist calls
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: puts out like a daily or you know, maybe even
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: more than once a day newsletter blast to pr people
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: who pay for the service and then they go through
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: and say, oh, I've actually got a nuclear physicist on
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: my payroll, Yeah, and I'm going to connect him.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: We've been connected that way before. Who when we had
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: different PR firms working for with us. At times they've
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: gotten in touch and say it said so and so
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: at SpaceX wants to know if you want to come
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: on and talk about this or when we did that
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: stuff on ABC about when the housing crisis hit.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because we're financial experts.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so stuff like that. Yeah, I guess it used
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: to come across our desk every now and then.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Well, there's subscription services that connect people through leads. From
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: what I'm seeing is Twitter is now filling that void
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: a lot where you can just search Twitter for the
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: hashtag h A ro O, help a reporter out, Yeah,
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: the reporters. And then also I guess there's a lot
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: of PR taste makers out there sure that are just
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: super connected and will basically tweet a lead And you
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: don't have to pay a thousand dollars a month for
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: that subscription service. You just follow certain people on Twitter,
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: and as a PR person, you might have somebody that's
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: a client that you connect.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that whole new job of being an aggregator, a
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: curator like that. Yeah, like people do that and that's
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: all they do.
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: But we also live in an age where people are
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: famous for being famous.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Man, I need to take back a little bit my
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: tirade about liars. I think that what I'm talking about
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: are people publicists for like big celebrities and stuff like that. Like,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: we've had publicists work with us, and about eighty percent
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: of the clients that they work with are like people
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: like us, where you don't have to like lie and spend.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're always on our best behavior.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just you know, regular stuff like let me
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: find a good opportunity for you and connect you. And
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: so it's I was overstating, and I think that's just
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: the far edge of the celebrity end of things. Gotcha,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: because I just got to thinking about what if they're listening.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I don't want them to think I didn't think they
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: were doing a good job. He did a great job.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: We'll wait to back off of that one, Chuck.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: I got one more little thing on Jim Moran.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: Moran Jesus said moron m o n I think Moran, Well,
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: not the way the friends say Moron.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: He is was known as the master of the publicity
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: stunt back in the day, like he did things. What
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: his big thing was to take a saying and try
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: and disprove it, like for a company. So he literally
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: went to Alaska on behalf of ge to sell a
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: refrigerator to well, it says an Eskimo, but I guess
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: an Inuit just what you would say today. He walked
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: a bowl through a china shop in New York City.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: How that go is a stunt? I think they broke
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: some things. He got on a horse for a politician
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: and changed directions mid stream on the horse, like rode
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: it through a river and changed directions. Yeah, like you
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: can do this. And then in nineteen fifty nine, for
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: the premiere of The Mouse that Roared, the Great Peter
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Sellers movie, he opened an embassy. Remember the movie was
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: about a small country that declared war in a big country.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: Because they wanted to declare war on the US and
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: then surrender and then get financial aid from around the
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: world because their economy.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: But they ended up winning or something. Wasn't that it?
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: He opened an embassy in Washington for a mythical country.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Nice, speaking of By the way, I finally saw
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: doctor Strangelove. Oh, really great movie.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: One of the best. It's up there for sure, one
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: of the best satires.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: Let's say it is a great movie.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Great movie. And Peter Seller's man.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: Just he did great. But also I mean, like George C.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: Scott was amazing.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: He was amazing. And the guy I can't remember his
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: name that played the colonel or whatever.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: The one who lost his marbles.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he was. He was so good.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: Everybody was, uh, slim Slim Chills or Slim Pickens, Slim
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: Pickens Chills. Yeah, there's chili. Chill Wills was another, Like
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: what country Western actor Chill Wills? I think is his name,
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Chill Wills. You'd recognize him if you saw his face, Okay,
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Chill Wills, All right, of course. Chill Wills makes an
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: appearance in the How Publicist episode.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: You got anything else? No, I got nothing else.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Thank goodness. If you want to know more about publicists,
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: you can type this word in the search bar at
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: HowStuffWorks dot com. And I said search parts was time
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: for listening to mail.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: I did have one more thing, Well, what was it
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: that movie America's Sweethearts? Did you ever see that? With
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: John Cusack?
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: And I know what you're talking about.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Billy Crystal has played a publicist, a pain in the
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: butt Hollywood couple.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: Oh best, best portrayal of a publicist on Seinfeld? The
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: mom from that seventies show, Remember she played Seinfeld's publicist.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Oh she was.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she tried to get the airline pilot kicked out
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: of Jerry's show and he ended up getting right. Right.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: I think it's the one where Kramer's at JFK or LaGuardia.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: He's making bets on arrivals and he ends up using
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: the son of Sam Mailbag as collateral.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Great episode. But the mom from that seventies show played
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: Jerry's publicist.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Kitty Yeah, who was also in Friends?
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: What was she friend?
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: She played Phoebe's half brother. Giovanni Ribisi played his girlfriend
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: or wife. Oh yeah, which is a weird, fucking mismatched couple.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: That's odd, and I think they were. They got her
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: to be a surrogate for them, Okay, when Lisa Kudro
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: got pregnant in real life. I think that's how they
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: handled it.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: We have watched a lot of teams.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna call this one. We were actually right,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: and this lady was nice at a gender party. How's
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: that for a subject life? Okay, hey, guys, have a
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: little story. I was at a small dinner party where
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: the host was making his own sea salt. The topic
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: about It's one of those dinner parties. The topic of
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: kosher salt came up, so I dropped a fact from
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Your Salt episode that kocher salt is actually just salt
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: used for drawing blood out of meat to make it kosher,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: not salt blasts by a rabbi, and the fellow guest disagreed,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: to which I responded, I'm quite sure about this. The
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: host then said raise your hand if you're Jewish, and
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: the guy that disputed me raised his hand felt rather
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: embarrassed while he explained to me what kosher means and
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: that salt also goes through the same kosher process that
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: would ever explain how I backed down and didn't try
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: to defend the fact that I just told. It's not
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: that I doubted you, guys, though I jokingly said I'd
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: write an email to complain, but it's because a peel
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: is disrespectful to correct someone on their own heritage. Good move. Yeah,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: I also didn't want to start any petty debate with
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: someone at someone else's dinner party also a good move,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: So I decided to take in the embarrassment while he
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: was explaining what koscher is at the same time eating
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: a spite of pasta with turizo. I hope you find
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: this amusing. Please keep up the good work. If you
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: read on the show, please give a shout out to
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: my friend Amber who introduced me to the show. And
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: that is from Chloe to say, so.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: Wait a minute, Chuck, were we right and the guy
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: was wrong?
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: We were right? The Jewish guy was wrong because I
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: looked it up today just to be sure. Yeah, and
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: apparently kosher salt is kosher because in fact, they said
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: it should be called koshering salt.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's used to make things kosher. It is
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: not the salt itself that's kosher.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: It would have kept Chloe out of that kind of situation. Chloe,
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: it sounds like you have a lot of tact and dignity. Yes,
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: and exratulations on that. It sounds like, yeah, the guy's
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: a bit of a blow hard. I'm not ruining the
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: dinner party.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: So that is from Chloe in Sydney, Australia.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: Thank you if you want to get in touch with us.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: We want to hear about all of your misadventures out
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: there based on Stuff you Should Know. You can send
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: us an email to Stuff Podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com and,
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: as always, joined us at our home on the web,
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: Stuff Youshould Know dot com.
• 43:11
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• 43:14
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