Field Guide #8: Publicists
The high-stress world of managing messaging for actors to execs to CEOs, to an audience that doesn't want to listen
Welcome to more of my Field Guides to Modern Hollywood, covering the handling and care of the different personalities and professions who populate your neighborhood. I earlier wrote about Actors, Writers, Agents, Executives, Reporters, Directors and Producers. Today: Publicists.
Of all the professions in Hollywood that these field guides have reviewed, “publicist” may be the one whose work is least understood and least appreciated, even as it has an enormous impact on the community.
It is also a job whose nature has been turned upside down by digital disruption in ways that Hollywood still hasn’t accepted.
From the young person manning the clipboard outside a premiere party to the all-powerful image Svengali to former White House press secretaries, the label covers such a vast swath of professionals. But who are these people who work in such shadowy realms?
Let’s take a look into the world of publicists, the secret hand of Hollywood:
I. The Three Flacks You Meet in Hollywood
The blanket term publicists covers people working in disparate fields, with wildly different priorities. Although these are many and varied, the vast majority of publicists live under one of these three umbrellas:
Personal: The publicists who work directly for talent and filmmakers
Tune In: The publicists who work for studios directly to promote the products, shows and films
Corporate: The ones who work largely for companies to promote and defend the corporate name itself, as well as its officers
Ostensibly, they all deal with shaping public discourse and perceptions, but the three paths are in fact so different in what they do that they are distinct professions. Proof of that is in how little crossover there is between the various roles.
“There are not many people who can do more than one of those things well,” says one publicist.
