PR Firm Cashes In On Hot Barely-Legal Girl-On-Girl ActionPosted by Amanda Chapel 5WPR CEO Scores with Girls Gone Wild
Here's the deal: Wednesday 5WPR announced that they'd been hired by Mantra Films as agency of record. Mantra Entertainment produces the “Girls Gone Wild” video series. Maybe you’ve seen them advertised on late-night cable. The videos feature a camera crew patrolling bars and stalking college spring break-like venues in search of young attractive typically "crunk" girls who agree to expose themselves. Harmless one would think... sorta year-round Marti Gras. Show your boobies for a string of beads. Hey, I’ve done that! (So I'm told.) So what? Anyway, my first reaction was to send a sincere congrats to Ronn. I even thought there might be a potential tie-in with Strumpette. What the hell! Women making a personal choice; owing their sexuality; that's powerful. All good right? Well, that’s at least what I was thinking first thing this morning. I got up, set and determined to write a wee bit of a puff-piece about 5W (truth be known). Then I started to do a little research on “Girls Gone Wild.” Googled variously. Ended up on their site. Yikes! Reread Ronn’s release where 5W is “to provide marketing communications support.” DOUBLE YIKES!! 5WPR in bed with a pornographer! Oh boy. I contacted Ronn directly. Okay, let’s back up. A few weeks ago we ran a piece likening Ronn to a Rock Star in the PR Industry. He’s truly a master showman that does not disappoint. He delivers results. When it comes to publicity, he’s the man that’s going to make things happen. As we had said, Ronn's made a national name for himself for good reason. Funny, when we had completed the article, I had asked if he might send along a picture of himself sporting sunglasses and wailing on a guitar. He responded, “If I did (have pics) I wouldn’t send them.... it’s a PR piece and biz stuff.” I admired his judgment. But Girls Gone Wild?! Ronn describes it as "an iconic brand which reaches 25,000 young consumers per week and has a unique position in today’s youth market." OH, YEAH... here are a few examples of what's he's talking about [WARNING: The following links are from GirlsGoneWild.com, an adult oriented site containing images and text of a sexual nature. Only adults at least 18 years of age are permitted to enter.]:
See, that captures it. I think it's the girl-on-girl barely-18 tongue-to-ass action that has Ronn confused. But can you blame him? If that doesn’t describe PR today, what does? ARGUMENTS FOR In my conversations with Ronn and Kevin Mercuri, SVP at 5W, they provided the following rationale:
ARGUMENTS AGAINST First to respond to 5W’s rationale: The lawyer analogy is crap. 5W is going to help them with marketing. With regard to "all companies have dirty laundry," no; they don’t. Furthermore, we’re not talking about what GGW did; we’re talking about what 5W is going to do. Here's the bigger business story in a nutshell: Joe Francis is a pornographer that preys on the young and vulnerable and sells the booty to the seemingly endless parade of Chris Hanson perverts. 5W is going to help Francis sell more. But that aside, this really comes down to PR 101. This is all about the perception of impropriety and guilt by association. Here: That's quite a success story. 5W: THE HOTEST PR FIRM Sorry to rain on 5W's dubious good fortune. Let’s look at the positive. Here are a few potential superlatives that we might draw from all this: I can imagine that they can now claim to be the home of the industry’s first Porn Practice. Certainly, “account service cums first.” Certainly, 5W will become renowned for their late-night “Bust-a-Nut Group Brainstorming Sessions.” And what client wouldn’t see the value in an account team that’s tested once a month? Lastly, it sure looks like the boys at 5W are like to single-handedly and feverishly reverse the overall female profile of the PR business. Seriously, I predict this: This will be the basis of the industry’s largest sexual harassment suit ever. Bookmark This
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Oh, Amanda, great use of Snap! I get to see young girl action instantaneously on my computer at work - while my colleagues oogle. Can I be fired for reading your post? I don't know what you're saying but this post is the hottest ever. Please, I hope you give frequent updates and follow this story very closely. I hope you dig deep in all the cracks and crevices to expose the turgid truth .... sorry. Who said PR had to be dull? Can Ronn use some help on this account?
Calming down now ... It is disingenuous ( a lawyerly term) for a PR firm that is about Who What When Where Why to claim ignorance to the Who and the What of the client, their product, and the impact of what they're peddling. The adult industry is big business. 5W wants to flack for them, okay. PR for porno, say it loud and proud. You can't hide behind the "lawyer" defense that everybody deserves representation. That is usually code for: we want to increase billings by any means necessary so we don't question the details. 5W meteoric rise was propelled by a over the top BJ (I am compelled to this terminology for this post, pardon me) in The New York Times. Since then their mantra has been grow, grow, grow. My question is: what are they growing into?
Mark -- thanks for reminding me why I surf with Firefox -- why I use the NoScript plugin -- and why I haven't allowed "Snap" to bypass it.
I can see the new 5W corporate slogan now: "Porno without PR is just 'O No'."
It's Ronn. Would you expect anything less? "Look who we got! We think there's nothing wrong with them!" translates into "Cool - We'll latch onto their success and coattail them!"
Which is fine, if not a bit icky. But call it what it is, Ronn.
This and that aside, this is a solid, thorough and important piece of reporting and opinion. Thanks.
I have put a post on my blog (www.tonisblog.com) on this issue to further the dialogue.
It is an important one, I recognize, although I fear much more those who tell me who I should or I shouldn’t be working for, than those who are offended by the interests I eventually decide to represent... The real ethical issue is not who I work for, but what I do and how I do it (otherwise we are always searching for alibis..). Admittedly, this is also a dodgy argument…but any truly ethical dilemma has no clear cut answer, and this is why our profession continues to thrive on ambiguity… Simply because it is an ambiguous profession, no matter from which perspective you look at it. And in this ambiguity resides its real intellectual and cultural attraction. toni muzi falconi
Selling porn to the "youth market" is NOT ambiguous. If you don't know right from wrong, that's a problem. Indeed our profession seems to struggle with that. Money has a way of deluding/diluting one's scruples.
- Amanda
Assuming, of course, the prior existence of said scruples.
Toni: Thanks for the insight about ambiguity. You have an incredible background and the names of the companies you have been associated with sound almost mystical: Alchimia financial holding and Methodos spa. I perused your blog and came across the post about "our Iranian colleagues" new blog and I followed that and began to understand your stance on ambiguity. It seems like in the world of IRAN PUBLIC RELATIONS ambiguity is raised to an art form with the one overriding message being make glorious for beautiful benefit of peoples of Iran. I am glad to see that the Iranians are advanced enough to latch on to an old tired US PR technique of having a "Father of (fill in the blank)" to create a figurehead for peoples benefit and appropriate positive press coverage. I just want to make sure that this is accurate (from glorious site of Iranian colleagues communication): Dr. Hamid Notghi (1920-1999), the father of Iran modern public relations, has changed our point of view on public relations for ever. He trained many young, ingenious, philanthropic, and familiar with social and human communication practitioners through Social Communications Science Faculty, which he has himself played an important role in its establishment.
When I watch the old propaganda videos of Hitler in his early glory days rousing the masses I am amazed by the brilliant public relations skills of that man. He never said anything objectionable - no burn the Jews! - it was all positive about the great potential of the German people, caught up in a self actualization fury, marching lockstep, on message damnit. Hell of a good propaganda machine. Any ethical considerations there or is that ambiguous?
Mark, you might have also read my views on the Iran unacceptable rhetory in an earlier post.....which referred to a write up by the chair of the malaysian pr association.
However, I apologise for having been misinterpreted. I really mean it when I argue that the what we do and how we do it has to do with our professional ethics, while the who we do it for (if legal, of course) has to with our personal ethics, which is inevitably, and fortunately, subjective. Your opinion?
Yes but there is a moral standard we could all agree on, like do we do PR for teen porno and do we media train a genocidal maniac? Can you direct me to your earlier post on the Iranians. I have to say that I am flabbergasted (spellecheck, spell check) by the Iranian view of PR. In some bizarre way it is reminiscent of Mallory Bourbon. Like from another planet. Gracias.
there are two other posts on this Iranian thing:
http://www.tonisblog.com/?p=126 and http://www.tonisblog.com/?p=128. I am glad that you are flabbergasted...so was I. Nothing like the.. ambiguos nature of our profession... As per your claim that we can all find a moral standard on which we may agree, I do not think this is possible (nor desirable) from an individual, personal ethics viewpoint. It is instead certainly possible and necessary from a professional ethics point of view, but this -again- has much more to do with what we do and how we do it, rather than who we do it for. If we transfer the who we do it for to the professional ethics level, then we constantly risk moralism, puritanism and, well, conformism. No?
This is the pot calling the kettle a slut, no? Amanda, I think the best arguments stated in this article are from the people at 5W and not you. Who are you to judge which clients can and cannot be signed...especially as someone who airs her own trangsressions out to the general public?
I love the blog and the dialogues that sometimes ensures, but the best part about this story is all of the "holier than thou" gas bags who commented by basically saying, "nope, I wouldn't sign them." COULD they sign joe Francis if they wanted to? COULD they get access to him based on their prior success? I doubt not. Many off us admire the people at 5W and what they've done, but they're not some celebrity we control. Let them run their business and get on with life. Thanks
Mallory,
"This is the pot calling the kettle a slut, no?" No. We are a satire whereas what 5W is going to do constitutes peddling pornography... to "youth." "I think the best arguments stated in this article are from the people at 5W and not you." Apparently, you have a taste and preference for spin. That's too bad. It is truly pathetic having a discussion as to the merits of right and wrong. "Who are you to judge which clients can and cannot be signed." I can judge pornography. I can especially damn those who try to peddle it to the "youth market." "COULD they get access to Francis based on their prior success? I doubt not." Birds of a feather flock together. Excuse me... look at his rap sheet. "Many of us admire the people at 5W and what they've done." Me, too. Past tense noted. "Let 5W run their business and get on with life." I am sure they will. But frankly, I wash my hands of people that need to make money preying on the weakness of others. Regards, - Amanda
Mallory: I think you suffer from PR Stockholm Syndrome – taking on characteristics of your oppressors and believing the bull. Seems like your attitude is – ah, we’re just jealous cause 5WPR has the connections and the power to flog teen sex videos for a guy who has a rap sheet for conspiring to use minors in sex scenes. Hey, he wants to be legit! Ethics? Pshaw. Get on with your life! Praise be 5WPR for having the access to such esteemed products and characters! Who are we to judge?
Mallory, you need professional help. Somebody who knows what ethics is needs to sit down with you and make you understand that your attitude mucks it up for the rest of us. It’s also disrespectful of Strumpette to come into her house and diss her hard work or do you go straight for the spin, screw the facts and the background. I am curious to know if Ronn and his crew subscribe to your point of view, or will 5WPR do like Edelman did and turn mute when the spotlight is internal instead of external. We may screw around here but these are serious issues. You don’t help anybody – yourself, your clients, your colleagues, or the PR business – with that kind of attitude. Add Comment
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Here’s one that comes with mixed emotions and deep regret. Got a note from someone I consider a friend yesterday. Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5WPR, sent me an e-mail announcing a new client. Good for him, I thought. Continued success, I thought. I love that guy! But here’s the twist: Turns out, the whole thing has made me really question his principles and judgment. Apparently, Ronn has decided to cash in on hot barely-legal girl-on-girl action.