The Art of the "Marketing Stunt" never dies....a response to Bob Lefsetz Letter, Re Myth Makers

 Dear Bob, 

Thank you for eloquently explaining what I do for a living, yes I'm a "fixer" or now, I'm in the group referred to as "the creatives", my personal favorite, "diabolical genius". I'm one of those people that create these memorable moments in time. Don't think it is limited to music, you can see it in business, college athletes, actors and now politicians. In the day, we could take the amazing and with a little spin, throw in a couple of obtuse ideas, and we made people stop, look, and listen. The artists became immortal i.e. Jim Morrison, Jimmy Hendrix, Ozzie Osbourne even as far back as Ricky Nelson in the 1950's. Ricky's father, Ozzie Nelson was brilliant PR mind, creating homespun live, much like the Leave it to Beaver, and should be credited with the first music video.

I started working with Dinah Shore in the late 70's, while she was at CBS, what I refer to the Burt Reynolds years. It was bragged in our small circle of us "fixers" that "we could fix anything from finding a dead hooker or live young boy in your bed and make the client look like a victim". We spun, we fabricated, enhanced and repaired the problems that would make our clients look bad.

This still goes on today with Bieber, and Swift and those are the ones you know about. It was easier in the day, we controlled the narrative, we controlled the news, and we to some point controlled the police. If you doubt that, look at OJ's relationship with Wilshire Division prior to Nicole and Ron's murder. The paparazzi were still respectful but it was changing, if they got out of hand someone in my position spanked them.

Now the mundane, video exhibitionists, and Corporate Guys have become the celebrity, with all the perks that come with it. This demographic of people are being lifted from obscurity over a deal, a sex tape and even domestic violence. The mediocre hired by the brilliant trying to be seen or heard. Most are so fabricated you don't know where the PR guy and client leave off if the client stopped quickly we would have to have to remove the PR guy from his ass.

The interesting part, those stars that Bob references Include with Jimmy, and Ozzie had a pure talent, they just needed a push (in the way of the press) to be immortal sooner as opposed to later, however, they were the real deal, the music, and message, were king, and the music lived on. These were just brilliant creative geniuses that had a little issue with portraying conventional behavior in a structured environment. After meeting and working with Jerry Garcia at a gig, I am convinced he was on the spectrum of autism. Things he did and required to play support that statement. Many artists, as you so often spotlight, had scary wicked talent and lived vicarious, which in most cases, we desperately kept out of the news. In the day, "Stunts" either we conceived or happened by chance, were pushed past the boundaries of convention, it is like dropping the mic onstage today, "yep enough said".  Now we see the mediocre live forever i.e. the Kardashians with the audience waiting for the next exploited tragedy or a sex tape, or a good sex change operation.

Zoey Tur explained this with riveting detail on LA's KFI 640 on the GaryandShannon Show. As Zoey (formally known as Bob) Tur was the first news chopper pilot with her crew, who found the white Bronco containing OJ and AC. She recounted the events of the famous chase beginning the reality show trend we see today. We created a monster, this tactic is not easy, a few dared it, because if the "OP" didn't work, you were a 30-second wonder and hated. The client had to have the talent to both "stay" in the light and shine, the talent lived on and the work took its rightful place in history.

Now we have a culture that wants to be famous just for the sake of being famous and mostly without talent. It's nice of The audience slips away because the actor in this charade has no talent to keep the audience engaged or has to keep performing more and more stupid human tricks to stay in the limelight. I've always said, "the bear at some point has to dance" I can hype it, sell it, market it. But when the time comes the bear better do a great Gregory Hines impression or their done and the audience leaves. It's always been in politics but now it's even worse, would you have ever had thought we'd see the day when a presidential candidate would insult a woman journalist and rise in the polls. Sadly, hype over substance still rules the world. How can it possible get worse. Time will tell. Thank you, Bob, for your a true sage,  Sincerely. Dr Allen Miller