Midnight Oil Writing

I’d heard consumer PR is different from B2B PR.  Now I know “Hollywood” PR is very different from technology PR. 

Through a perfect storm (sorry, had to) of coincidences and personal contacts, a friend, Jamie Marshall of Gloucester, asked me to donate some PR services to a fundraiser in Gloucester.  Jamie and the apparently indefatigable Kristin Michel pulled together a sell-out fundraiser for the Gloucester Little League.  Community fundraisers aren’t always a sell-out, but they are when you get guest stars from Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch!

If you really want to hear about the PR tactics I used, I can tell you.  But the other details are much more interesting.

The Catch guys and me

With just a few short days’ notice, Jamie asked me to somehow find a hotel and place for a meet and greet for Captain Johnathan Hillstrand.  .  Now, I’ve met some of these guys before, and being a Jersey girl, I’ve always prided myself on my ability to hang with a tough crowd.  But true confession: just the idea of being around Johnathan scared the bejabbers out of me.

The Charles Hotel came to the rescue with a room and a place to meet with fans, but hmmm, Johnathan in the swanky Rialto or the Noir bar?  That’s one strange port in a storm.  (Again, sorry!)

Most of us know a bad idea when we hear one.  A worse idea (the worst, up to that point) was that WBZ radio really wanted Johnathan live on the Dan Rea show that night at 9pm.  What does one crab fisherman plus one fan event plus Crown Royal plus live radio equal?  We’ll leave you with a mental picture of me dragging Johnathan by the back of his “wife beater” through the WBZ hallways to get him into the studio on time.  For a complete picture, add a quick trigger finger for the guy charged with bleeping out various FCC-unfriendly words.

Post interview the evening included bar hopping in Harvard Square, one lost cell phone, and me leaving a bar asking if anyone had seen a drunken sailor.

The next evening was the most interesting night though.  A little bar hopping in Gloucester and boy, I learned what “rock stars” these guys really are.  I think I finally understand Entourage.  There was the complete stranger who pretended to be their confidant/bodyguard.    The really drunk guy who followed them into the men’s room – eventually, I had to get a bouncer to remove him.  Then, when he followed us to the next bar, I had to make sure he couldn’t get in.  How my crab fishermen resisted just turning around and slugging the guy, I’ll never know.  Hell, even I was tempted.

And then there were the women.  Copping an attitude with me, trying to elbow me out of the way, and telling off my friend.  And this is even after I explained I was the PR slave.  Trust me – we  have very different goals!

Two nights later was the sell-out fundraiser.  Add a third Deadliest Catch fisherman and a bunch of Little Leaguers into the mix.  It was an opportunity to see not just the power of stardom, but also the power of the respect people have for these guys.  Watch the show and you’ll understand their hard work, heart and drive. I suspect there’s nothing else they’d rather do.

It was fascinating to see how people positioned themselves with these guys.  Just because one watches them on TV every week doesn’t mean one actually knows them.  The crabbers stay friendly, polite and are able to deal with a crowd of fans getting quite close. 

Take the bouncer for the evening.  Don’t know who he was.  But after busting my butt on PR for the event and serving as a handler for a few days, all I really wanted was some photos for my friends and me.  But I was rather impolitely told by the bouncer that I was taking too much time.  Luckily, one of the DC guys stepped in and said, “she’s with us.”  <smile>

After scrambling for days, securing a hotel, making sure there was ample Crown Royal (and beer for the crew member who took the Fung Wah bus up from NY), I was able to do a little hanging out with the stars.  I wouldn’t want to be part of the regular “entourage,” but it did feel kinda good to be with the in-crowd.

If you pay attention in April, it seems the Deadliest Catch stars are everywhere.   (It’s the beginning of the new TV season for them).  As a group and as individuals, they’ve been on countless morning shows, Leno, Letterman, Larry King; they do hundreds of public appearances and fan events.  After just a taste of the mental exhaustion and the fame juggernaut, I wonder if it makes them crave getting back out on the Bering Sea.  I needed a week of downtime after just a few days.

Oh, and that trip to the ER? Totally unrelated to hangin’ with the Deadliest Catch guys.  One completely lame bee sting that got infected!