COLUMN: Artists need publicity, public relations, media management, hype, hoopla, and buzz. In every major city can be found oodles of failed screenwriters, unpublished novelists, unsung musicians, and nameless poets who call themselves PR specialists. Does that sound unfair? Remember, I’m one of them. Sure, I’ve actually gotten a screenplay produced, two books published, and 8 albums released, but always under names other than John Scott G or Scott G, so I still fit into that category.

Let’s face facts: to a certain extent we’re flacks, hypemeisters and blurb mongers. Yet so much of what gets published and posted begins with our work. Simple press releases and media announcements serve as the calling card for new works in almost every segment of commerce. In many cases, our releases are run word for word.

So, be careful who you select for your creating and disseminating your media announcements. The wrong words can determine the success or failure of your current efforts.

Recently, I received a link to information about an artist I will call Robin Battler (the name has been changed because my beef is with the artist’s publicity people; the artist may be great and undeserving of poor PR). Actually, the way it was presented was “Award Winning Artist Robin Battler.”

Okay, right away I’ve got a problem. If an award means anything, then mention it by name, as in “Grammy Winning Artist” or “Oscar Winning Artist.” Whenever someone is described as “award winning” I immediately think fondly of Victor Spinetti petulantly stating “I won an award” in “A Hard Day’s Night.”

Considering what came next, the “award winning” hype was a drop in the ocean. This is the opening paragraph of this artist’s online presentation:

“Robin’s dynamic vocals and honest lyrics have been compared to John Mayer, Tom Petty and Peter Gabriel. His sound has been described as reminiscent of George Martin’s arrangements with strings and textural guitars — a bit British meets old school with contemporary and clever lyrics. His songwriting comes from a Dylan-esque ‘fly on the wall’ storytelling perspective — the way he views the world. ‘Even when a song seems to be on the surface “about a girl” often times that girl is a metaphor for something deeper and larger in scope,’ shares Robin.”

Hysterical!

Allow me to retort: “Even when hype seems to be on the surface ‘a bunch of bullshit,’ often times that bullshit is a metaphor for something deeper and larger in scope,” shares Scott.

[tags]Scott G, publicity, public relations, music PR, hype, marketing, writing[/tags]