Frightening Publicist Jobs

Maybe it's the recent full moon.  Or the last week before Halloween.  But things have been pretty scary for some communications people or publicists recently.  Forget about things that go bump in the night.  Imagine how scary it would be to represent these people: 

Rhode Island Gubernatorial candidate, Frank Caprio, who decided to publicly attack a standing president who did not endorse him out of loyalty to his independent opponent who had backed Obama over McCain: 

"He can take his endorsement and really shove it as far as I'm concerned...We had one of the worst floods in the history of the United States a few months back, and President Obama didn't even do a fly-over of Rhode Island, like President Bush did when New Orleans had their problems. He ignored us. And now he's coming into Rhode Island treating us like an ATM machine."

The fascinating part of this story is that Lincoln Chaffee, the independent, didn't want President Obama's endorsement either.  But at least he was polite about it.

Actor Charlie Sheen, who decided to tear it up in NYC this week, in a hotel room next door to his ex-wife Denise Richards and their two little girls.  His reenactment of the movie "The Hangover" landed him in the hospital and is  getting great publicity for his top-rated sitcom, "Two and a Half Men," but not necessarily the type of coverage they are looking for.  The funniest coverage poked fun at the allergic reaction excuse that was provided by publicists for his bad behavior and hospitalization.

Don't worry, though, Charlie, my 92-year-old Mom is still a fan of the man she refers to as "Bad Charlie."

California Gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Gerry Brown.  Having listened to part of their most recent debate this morning, I have to agree with the San Francisco Chronicle op ed writer who said it reminded her of a high school class president debate.  And the fact that they were asked by the moderator if they would agree not to run any more negative ads for the duration of the race and both refused, makes it clear to me that I'd be frightened away from representing, let alone voting, for either candidate if I lived out there. 

Attack ads in general are enough to scare anyone away from the voting booth, in my humble opinion.

Basketball star LeBron James and his hype circus, which will dog him and his new team, the Miami Heat, all season.  After his team's loss in the season opener to the Boston Celtics last night, James' reaction to a game that got more attention than an NBA finals match, was also a source of amusement for local sports radio station WEEI:

"This is a work in progress," said James, who also committed a game-high eight turnovers. "We all feel like, you know, Rome wasn't built in one day. It's going to take time and we understand that. We just have to keep making progress every day."

James' new ad campaign asks "what should I do?"  Well, we have some advice. If you build it (all this hype and cult of personality self-promotion), they WILL come.  And they will make your life miserable, especially if hype doesn't match reality this year.  Take it down a notch.

It's scary weeks like this that I am very grateful that we represent high-tech, healthcare and clean energy clients.