photo credit:HAMED MASOUMI (CC)

Back in my day we used to say, “Any PR is good PR.” We had no need for crisis PR or Twitter customer service. So your tragedy ended up on the front page of The New York Times? At least it was above the fold! In a few days from now, no one will remember what happened.

But they will remember that you were in The New York Times. That is one hit you will never forget.

You know what else we didn’t have – new-fangled interactive polls. We had the old fashioned kind – the kind where we made up the results. That’s right, men don’t really prefer women that wear glasses but that optics company really needed some hits. And let me tell you, the press was eating up those results. Even the the wires didn’t bother to fact check that one. Where would they fact check it anyway? We didn’t have Google back then.

[Editor's Note: Mr. Publicity is an 'old-school' flack, though not old.  They will be offering some tidbits from time to time about antediluvian flackery (or at least what they claim to remember of it) -- when press releases actually got  printed and mailed, phone (or smoke signal) was the best way to build a relationship, and people actually ran into newsrooms yelling "Stop The Presses" (ok, I'm not sure that one ever really did happen)]

photo credit:HAMED MASOUMI (CC)

Who needs social media marketing?  Back in my day we flacks used to actually meet reporters face-to-face over a nice big lunch, fueled by alcohol and generously provided by our clients. We used to grease up the reporters and get ‘em good and tanked.  Then, once back at the office, we’d call them on the phone and they would actually take the call.  They might even remember us.  Of course, then we’d mention how they promised us a cover story over lunch and since they were drunk they wouldn’t remember.  After that tab, they felt too guilty to turn us down.  So we’d really get that cover story.

Sometimes, we even brought the clients along!  (If you got them drunk enough they wouldn’t remember if said cover story never comes through.)  Sure, we got fat doing it, but no one had a Facebook page to brag about how much working out they were doing, so it was all good.  There were no tell-tale profile pictures sporting our growing waistbands.  Boy, I miss the good old days.

[Editor's Note: Mr. Publicity is an 'old-school' flack, though not old.  They will be offering some tidbits from time to time about antediluvian flackery (or at least what they claim to remember of it) -- when press releases actually got  printed and mailed, phone (or smoke signal) was the best way to build a relationship, and people actually ran into newsrooms yelling "Stop The Presses" (ok, I'm not sure that one ever really did happen)]