bignoisepr.com Blog

Spike and Sundance

Administrator — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:12:50 +0000

I love going to Sundance. It’s fun, cold, exciting, exhausting and intimidating. You rub elbows with stars, see amazing films and shorts, go to incredible parties and get terrific schwag. The air is electric with creativity and everyone is pysched to be in the entertainment biz. This what it’s all about, right? Making films that matter and then trying to explain them so someone will buy them. Big name talent take the stage to pour out their passion and share their vision. Everyone knows how it works. Everyone except Spike Lee. Are we really supposed to believe that he didn’t know that the whole point of taking your film to Sundance anymore is to get a distributor to recoup the costs of financing the film. Yes, it’s nice to get the Award, but the game is about money. So his tirade in response to Chris Rock’s non-inflammatory and jokey question about money really doesn’t make any sense. Maybe Spike doesn’t have a publicist or manager who explained the game to him before he left home. Oh well, lesson learned, right?

Happy New Year TV!

Administrator — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:30:07 +0000

The TV biz is off to an incredible start in 2012! With YouTube developing entertainment channels, Hulu producing and premiering series, Yahoo Screen introducing creative short series and Netflix resurrecting critic and fan faves, the explosion of good content is amazing. TV now means short-form, long-form and any other kind of content that can be clearly directed at a specific audience and hopefully be monetized in the long run. I am fascinated to see how many of these traditional companies – and digital upstarts – will gain market share that pays for itself. Stay tuned and tune in!

The Talk Show Ratings Game

Administrator — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:29:32 +0000

Okay, all you publicists out there. Just give it up on getting your clients on talk shows until mid-January. Unless you rep Matt Damon and can get him to wear an ugly Christmas sweater on the Today Show, nothing doing. That sweater things was pretty funny by the way. I feel sorry for the Today intern or page who was sent out shopping for today’s show to get all those ugly sweaters. They must have hit up eBay pretty hard. Anyway, the ratings game is on for the holidays and everyone should tune-in to see the biggest stunts and the best interviews to get the numbers up for the end of the year. Ellen has Paris Jackson, Anderson has Angelina Jolie, Kimmel will deliver with a Grinch redux of his Halloween prank, Leno has a homerun with Louis CK and his non-DRM success, and Nate Berkus, well, poor Nate’s show didn’t get picked up for another year. It’s a viewer’s bonanza out there. And every non-celebrity publicist’s nightmare. Enjoy and happy holidays!

I Love Jon Stewart

Administrator — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:00:00 +0000

I know he pisses a lot of people off and his politics are a lot left of center for most people, but how can you not love the guy? This month alone, he has managed to make himself headline news at least three times. That’s a pretty good quota that must make his PR people and the network execs do a little jig around their offices. If I wasn’t already tuning it, I certainly would be now! My all time favorite was his recent Twitter prank on Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman and former Utah governor. Poor Jon H. was just trying to have a little old town hall when the Daily Show team Tweeted the governor’s town hall hashtag as the place to ask questions of Jon Hamm, the hunky star of AMC’s Mad Men. Well, Jon H.’s team did pretty well wading through the questions, but what a pain in the ass for them, especially the questions about sex. Anyway, keep up the good work Jon S., you’re keeping everyone on their toes.

The Kardashian PR Machine

Administrator — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:40:31 +0000

What a stinkin mess! The Kardashian PR machine is on high alert again. Well, actually, I guess they are on high alert all the time with Kris as the helm. I mean, think about it, they must have planned this all along. Naming all the kids with the letter ‘K’, marrying Bruce Jenner and being best friends with Nicole Simpson, I mean this thing is orchestrated like a military operation. That woman is running the show, period. Those girls do everything she says and don’t make a move without her. How else do you explain Kim’s husband finding out about his own divorce from TMZ like the rest of the world? I feel sorry for that guy, he had no idea what he was getting into. Diabolical I tell ya.

Actress Sues Amazon…

Administrator — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:43:31 +0000

Cause that’s a better headline than actress sues IMDB.com, right? Amazon owned IMDB.com is the entertainment business source for everyone in the industry. It is updated by those very people and by the Oz-like staff at IMDB.com. So this unnamed actress (of Asian descent, with an Americanized name, living in Texas) claims that she has been trying to get IMDB.com to remove her birthdate from her site profile because it is hindering her chances of getting roles in Hollywood. It’s not clear who put the birthdate up there in the first place, but it doesn’t sound like she did. To be honest, she has a point. Whether it is her birthdate or a crappy role or her hometown or whatever, it’s your info and you have a right to ask them to limit the details in your profile. My guess is that IMDB.com has 10 interns working on profile and site updates round the clock and this one just got ignored because someone decided it wasn’t a big deal. Well, it’s a big deal to unnamed actress and she figured out the best way to get their attention. Sue Amazon. Yay!

Lady Gaga Takes on Bullying

Administrator — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:19:13 +0000

I have to admit I was surprised by Lady Gaga’s topic choice for her visit with America’s head honcho. She chose to take up the issue of bullying, which I think is hugely commendable and very smart marketing as most of her fans are teens and tweens. I would have put my money on gay marriage, since its taking too long for that to happen and she pulled a pretty good tranny move at the Grammys. My heart breaks that she had a kid reach out to her before committing suicide after being bullied, what a burden to bear for both of them. Bullying is a crazy serious issue that needs the spotlight, but do you think there is a plan or she is just going to unload on Obama?

The Old Naked Photo Fiasco

Administrator — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:36:40 +0000

As a personal publicist, I feel for other publicists who have to go through the crisis of their talent’s overexposure with the release of nude photos or videos. But I also have to wonder, everyone in this business knows how the the game is played, so why the hell would you ever take the naked photos or make the video in the first place? Unless you actually planned it that way. Seriously. Don’t tell me that when you are standing there doing your naked photo or video thing as an aspiring or accomplished actor that it wouldn’t occur to you: ‘this is either a really bad idea’ or ‘this is my ace in the hole publicity stunt for when my career is in the toilet.’ I’m not saying that’s the deal with Scarlett J, but she was getting a bit of a bad wrap after her marriage to boy next door Ryan Reynolds fell apart. Maybe her career needed a little perking up?!

The New Face (s) of Daytime TV

Administrator — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:16:22 +0000

As a pop culture junkie, I can’t tell you how excited I am about the new face of daytime TV. With the departure of Oprah and the demise of the daytime soap, there are plenty of great shows stepping in to fill the void. The Chew sounds like a refreshing new take on food that is not pandering to one specific personality or food type, plus I love me some Carla. Getting Katie Couric back in consumer mode is going to be a boon for the genre. Love the idea of Rosie back on the air, she offers a daily boost or sarcasm and snarky commentary that is missing. And I have to say, I am giggling like a little girl about Anderson Cooper’s new show, he is a funny and intelligent interviewer who will bring some weight to the line-up. Not sure about Rikki Lake, didn’t we do that before? And frankly, somebody needed to give The View a run for their money!

I know

The Evolution of PR

Administrator — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:57:51 +0000

I have been doing this for 20 years and feel like we PR folks have finally arrived. The advent of social media was a total boon for us; we are so used to taking everything on that no one else has time for or wants to own and this one was right in our wheelhouse. I know there are fights at companies and agencies about where social media should fall, but it is the purest form of PR I can think of. The old adage that with advertising you pay a price to tell people what you want them to do or think; with PR, your aim is to influence public opinion or purchasing decisions spending no money and using all platforms at your disposal. The argument could be made that company Facebook pages are advertising tools and that paid Tweets are straight-up advertising. I get that. But utilizing FB and Twitter, as well as Foursquare, Flickr and all the others, as PR tools is a more effective way to get viewers to understand and believe in whatever you are selling. Give me a product coupon or have my favorite blogger tell me a story about a product? I vote for the story. Since the business of PR has been given short shrift in the world of marketing, I wanted to take a minute to point out a major shift in thinking and give kudos to my fellow flacks for a job well done.