How does one publicize with no publicist?

Mario Lavandeira, best known as Perez Hilton, has risen to fame for his popular celebrity gossip website perezhilton.com. Perez has even become as famous as some of the people he writes about. This has proven to be especially true in the past few weeks as he has been dealing with his own sex scandal. Perez is suing fellow celebrity gossip blogger Jonathan Jaxson (real name: Jonathan Lewandowski) for defamation. The lawsuit is based on two claims made by Jaxson which Perez claims are untrue. He alleged that Perez asked him to send a video of himself (Jaxson) masturbating in exchange for celebrity rumors to publish on his blog. Jaxson sent the video but Perez did not hold up his end of the deal. Jaxson also claimed that the pair had dated but Perez denied the relationship. After the two incidents, Jaxson was so furious that he published Perez’s phone number on his web site, asking readers to wish Perez “a belated Happy Birthday.” The 25 other sites and blogs that published the phone number are now also involved in the lawsuit. Perez received over one thousand calls on his private cell phone causing interference with his business. He also claims that the scandal with Jaxson has caused him to “suffer loss of his reputation, shame and mortification.”

Jonathan Jaxson is clearly an amateur when it comes to handling the Hollywood scene. He not only decided to trust Perez, the queen of gossip, with a personal sex tape, but he also believed that Perez would help him increase the popularity of his own blog. Why would a celebrity blogger willingly give out juicy information to a competing blogger?

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind here is that Perez does not have a publicist but he was himself an actor and journalist before turning into a blogging celebrity. There is no doubt that Perez knows how to create buzz. Publicity stunts such as this recent one are all to hype up his popularity and that of his web site. My guess is that since the sex scandal, the hits on Perezhilton.com have increased. If Perez became famous for dishing dirt on celebrities, he must have realized that there would come a time when he would have to take it too. I can only believe that Perez had anticipated such an event and is capitalizing on it to boost his celebrity status. He might not have wanted to deal with the thousand phone calls, but I’m sure he loves the attention! We should also not forget how pleased Jonathan Jaxson must be about his free publicity.

What did he say?

While scrolling through the local television channels on a leisurely Thursday afternoon, I happened to hear three words that tickled my skeptically trained advertising ear, “personal production pressure.” As an advertising student, I am taught that everything most things are not what they seem and everything should be questioned. So when I heard these words uttered by an Entertainment Tonight host, I new I had to dig deeper into the matter.

After using my trusted TiVo, I found out that the host, Mark Steines, had been commenting on Ellen DeGeneres and her withdrawal as the co-host of this years “American Idol Gives Back”. According to Access Hollywood, she is backing out of the charity event due to an unforeseen production schedule that conflicts with the taping of her own show. This screams PR cover up! Only two weeks before, Ellen raved about the show saying:

“Everyone knows it’s better to give than to receive. That’s why I want to give you some advice. You get the advice and I get the joy of giving it’s a win-win. Here it is: Give yourself a treat and watch ‘Idol Gives Back.’ Again, you get the joy of giving and an amazing line-up of artists get to give us an incredible show. Last year, we were able to giveaway over $76 million. You give, you get. Get it?

Ellen DeGenerous had the right idea here, and she is not the only one. “Idol Gives Back” has an impressive roster of talent excited to raise money and give back to the community. So why is she dropping out? Some have suggested that Ellen was critical of Danny Noriega’s elimination from the competition as a homophobic move by producers. My guess is something, I don’t know what, occurred between her and the producers. I can’t imagine that Ellen would give up such a great opportunity for something as simple as a scheduling conflict. Hey Ellen, what about taping your show the day before?

Being bad can be so good?

House arrest since November seems to have knocked some sense into rapper T.I. Once claiming he was “innocent, ya dig;” T.I. reneged and plead guilty to criminal charges of gun possession. He realized by taking the guilty plea he would weather the storm and would be able to quickly mend his reputation. His efforts seemed to have been taking advantage of the public’s short attention span.

In a community where the talk of being “hard” and “thug” sells more albums than talented musicians who study their craft for years, T.I. has become a representation of an industry that exploits the misguided aims of valueless youth. The effects are far reaching in these events. For one it causes buzz among the media, free buzz. Instead of pushing his albums and himself on the networks, they will do it for him. Another added feature to his new stain is the credibility it receives among the communities that follow hip hop stars. White suburban youth and lower class communities that follow such stars find his attitude to be cool and try to emulate it to a certain extent. They admire such individuals due to the stigma that they are modern rebels and “stick it to the man.”

T. I. had previously served 3 years of jail time in 2004 for probation violation of a drug conviction. Since then, he has become one of pop music’s most successful artists. These arrests have become an aid in the rapper’s popularity. If singing about sex, drugs and guns are cool then taking part in them has only served to elevate his street cred. Once again, negative publicity has become good publicity.

Jason Wahler’s Crisis

You name the offense and Jason Wahler has probably done it.  The “Laguna Beach” star was arrested April 8^th, 2007 for criminal trespassing, assault and underage drinking.  This was Wahler’s third arrest and a great addition to his previous offenses including assault, resisting arrest, underage drinking and cocaine possession. The incident report alleged that a security guard at the Waterfront Marriot Hotel in Seattle found Wahler wrestling a guest in the lobby.  When the security guard attempted to break up the fight, Wahler punched him in the mouth and fled the hotel.   He returned a short time later and was found passed out in the third- floor hallway reaking of alcohol.  When the police arrived on the scene to arrest Wahler, he became belligerent and began shouting racist slurs like n*****, and f*****.

When searching the mainstream media articles (MSM) for accounts of the incident, there seemed to be a similar perception of Jason Wahler. Interestingly enough, five out of the six mainstream articles portrayed Wahler in an unfavorable manner. They focused on both the incident and previous arrests.  The events leading up to the arrest were described in great detail and four out of the five articles quoted both the arresting officer and Jason’s racial slurs. The pictures associated with the articles did not match their overall negative tone.  Only two out of the five articles had negative photographs, of which one was a headshot and the other was Wahler in a standoffish pose.  One of the sites did not provide a picture while the remaining two portrayed Wahler as a fashionable and clean Hollywood star.  Although the photos did not follow the negatively toned articles, the headlines certainly did.  All five were negative and three contained the words, arrested again.

Only one of the six articles had a positive spin on Jason Wahler’s arrest.  It was comprised of a quick recap of the incident followed by his attempts to stay clean.  Wahler’s publicist was quoted regarding this clean streak to add credibility.  The article also provided a list of his future television appearances.   The headline and picture accompanying the article are also concurrent with Wahler’s positive portrayal. 

The mainstream media coverage showed almost no sympathy but tons of bashing on Wahler’s character.  If this would have been Jason’s first encounter with the law, he might have found his reputation spared.  However, the media has had a frenzy with his bad boy behavior.  Quotes from the arresting officer and Wahler’s racial slurs were strategically placed to add credibility to the article and to lower the public’s perception of the actor. Some may say that even negative publicity is good publicity, but I encourage them to reconsider when it comes to Jason Wahler’s career.

The blog coverage on Jason Wahler was also framed in a negative manner.  All four of the blogs were unfavorable towards Wahler and had a strong focus on previous arrests and on racial slurs that occurred during the incident.  One article even compared his streak of bad behavior to Britney Spears.  That’s pretty bad!  Although the photographs were inconsistent in MSM, the blogs were pretty reliable with three out of the four articles containing negative photos.  All four of the headlines also had a negative view of Wahler’s arrest.

Because blogs are consumer generated content, it is not surprising that their focus was on Wahler’s racial slurs.  This is ultimately the part of the incident that people will be most affected by and inclined to pass on to other people.  Negative aspects of a person’s character and even an inanimate object seems to be what stand out the most in people’s minds when blogging.

Although the majority of both the mainstream media and the blogs negatively portrayed Jason Wahler, there were some differences in their coverage.  The MSM naturally focused more on the details of the incident while the blogs did a quick recap of the arrest and focused more on the racial slurs.  Also, the headlines and photographs tended to correlate better with the blogs than the MSM articles.  This might have been attributed to the access of photos each site was privileged to or maybe an attempt from the media to tone down the negativity of the article.

As a student publicist myself, I believe that Siri Garber, Jason Wahler’s publicist, poorly handled this crisis situation.  She was only quoted in one MSM article and had no control over the negative publicity her client was gaining from this arrest and previous incidents.  Garber should have done a better job of publicizing  an apology and Wahler’s attempts to stay clean.  This would be a great time to sit Wahler down and give him a reality check.  He won’t be able to keep this bad boy attitude for very long before it completely ruins his career.  Wahler’s behavior was compared to Britney Spears, but this B lister does not have Britney’s credibility to muck around so much!

 

Articles used:  People, US Magazine, E! News, Rush PR News, MSNBC, FOX News      Blogs:  Hollywood Gossip, New Chatter, Gay Socialites, In Case You Didn’t Know 

Don’t even bother flipping the channel!

I find myself to be pretty up to date on my celebrities, you might even call me an entertainment junkie, but I can’t figure out who Valerie Bertinelli is. Maybe I am too young to be part of her fan base, but one thing’s for sure, Bertinelli is there every time I flip the channel. She’s made appearances on CNN’s Larry King Live talking about her first kiss with a woman, Entertainment Tonight where she is shopping at the Oprah store, and she has even been a guest on the Oprah.

If you thought Paula Abdul was crazy, watch out for Valerie! This woman is off the walls but you got to give it up to her and the PR team backing her. From the Jenny Craig commercials to her recently released book and the announcement of her talk show on CBS, Bertinelli has definitely been in the lime light. I have gone from not knowing who this woman is to not being able to escape her! Although it may seem some what annoying to have a Bertinelli frenzy on all of my favorite channels, her PR agents have done an amazing job at getting her face out there and promoting all of her new endeavors. And what’s best about her appearances is her honest approach to her marriage and weight loss problems. I would not change a thing about her PR efforts. Well, maybe I would tell Valerie to tone it down just a bit!

Almost a success…

The Israeli hip hop band, Hadag Nachash, jammed out in front of students on The University of Texas South Mall Wednesday night. They were brought to play for the 10th annual Israel Block Party, hosted by Texas Hillel, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel’s Independence. 

The band is not only extremely popular among students familiar with Israeli contemporary music but the band also expresses peace through their lyrics. They were quick to note their cause when they began their performance by addressing the Palestinian group silently protesting next to the stage. “We hope peace will fall on Israel tomorrow,” the band’s lead singer said.Not only is this event a great opportunity to see different aspects of Israeli life but also to see a band that is symbolic of this diversity in Israel.It was extremely surprising to me how poor the PR was for this event, especially with this being the 10th time it has been held. They spent hundreds on the booths and thousands to bring Hadag Nachash. Much more money than the people they attracted. 

Although it’s evident that the target audience would be fairly limited, there was hardly any awareness of the event within the intended audience. The only visible promotions were on West Campus, Texas Hillel and a facebook group. They should have created a better buzz about the event. Hillel could have gone to the Jewish frats and sororities, sent out facebook messages (rather than only allowing those who knew about the group to get more info), and they could have had an article in the Daily Texan before the event about the band’s stance on Israel and their musical style. I mean come on people, why are you spending that much money for hardly any exposure?

“When I’m 64″

Paul McCartney probably wouldn’t have guessed when he was singing the Beatles hit song “When I’m 64″ that he would be in the middle of a divorce in his 60’s. His messy divorce from wife Heather Mills is currently making headlines and Mills has received strong public backlash. Heather Mills is an English activist and a former model. But despite her positive contributions to society, the media has been portraying her as gold digger.

Paul McCartney filed for divorce, claiming that Mills was involved in “unreasonable behavior.” The media alleges that Mills had an affair, but she denies this claim. Other damaging stories are being leaked out about Mills and are apparently coming from Paul McCartney. Since these allegations, Mills has threatened to come out with some serious claims and evidence against McCartney.

This seems to me like they are playing childish games. In normal circumstances, this might be a good way of getting what each one wants from the divorce, but for celebrity couples, this is image suicide! Heather Mills PR agents have no real way of controlling the claims from McCartney’s side but they can spin it by promoting Mill’s strong aspects. Rather than retaliating with he said she said stories, why not bring out the positive? She has done so many great things for the community, and although they may not be as enthralling as the juicy gossip stories, it will begin to repair her image.

Obama who?

I must begin my entry by posing a question that has always bothered me in the world of celebrities. Why do people love Oprah so much? Audiences rave over her thoughts as if they are novel ideas and her every word is taken without reservation or question. In a time when the general public does not trust the President or even their next door neighbor, it is peculiar to me that a celebrity could have so much clout.

Oprah had recently gone on the presidential campaign trail to support Obama and received a good deal of criticism for her support of a black candidate rather than a woman. A post on her website reads, “For the first time in history we actually have a shot at putting a woman in the White House and Oprah backs the black man. She’s choosing her race over her gender”.

Personally, I have no issue with Oprah choosing a man over a woman or a black individual over a white one, because in the end, that is not what makes a good president.

As far as her image, Oprah’s public relations experts made the right decision to pull her from the campaign scene, which Obama’s aides said the reason was because she did not have spare time for the campaign. Either way, the controversy seemed to be suppressed in a political and rational manner. I would have probably done the same. This is just to show the power blogging and consumer generated content has on the media.