SPINdustry Defaces PR
Last night was the premiere of SPINdustry, a new reality show on E!, with executive producer Kim Kardashian, about Command PR, run by her friends Jonathan Cheban and Simon Huck. The firm is based out of New York and LA and calls itself “celebrity PR”.
Attracting reality TV lovers and aired right after the season finale of Keeping up with the Kardashians, I’m sure people found it entertaining. I however, along with many other PR practitioners, found it a bit insulting and a disgrace to the PR industry.
Why?
1) Commad PR admits they don’t even do PR… according to MediaBistro:
A rep from Command PR told PRNewser today that the firm doesn’t represent any talent, but does focus on “celebrity branding,” which means they connect celebrities with brands.
Meaning, they don’t have client representation, and only play the middle man in a marketing effort. But of course they still call themselves public relations. They should really be called “Command Branding”?
2) SPINdustry portrays PR girls as stripper bimbos… one of the first scenes has Kate, a first year associate, open her hotel room in a bra and short mini-skirt and then complain that she is fat when it looks like she hasn’t had carbs in about five years. Kate later uses her “experience” to hand out water to paparazzi and demands praise.
Huck brings in an extra hand, Lauren, who strips down to change her dress in the middle of the office because we all do that right? and later refuses to help out at the event because she demands to run the place and be in charge instead, even though she hardly has any experience and just got hired.
As a 22-year-old PRo hopefully, I was a bit insulted after this show because I, and my female colleagues, have 500 times more class and professionalism than all four of these girls on the show combined. For people who don’t know much about PR, this is a misrepresentation.
3) The name SPINdustry…. Okay if this firm was really PR, they would NOT approve a reality show based on their public relations company with the name SPINdustry. HELLO! The PR industry has been fighting to prove that we aren’t just spin doctors twisting the truth and publishing propaganda for decades!
SPINdustry doesn’t represent the PR industry at all. By putting “industry” at the end of SPIN, viewers might make the false assumption that Command PR and the show accurately represents public relations.
One step forward for Command PR with all the attention, but two steps backwards for real PR firms and practitioners, who are somewhat associated to this disgrace… thanks E!
