From launches to Letter stuffing to Poster hanging, I thought I had done it all... then came my celebrity moment.
As a part of the Centenary celebrations, my boss and I set out on a search to find someone famous who was attached to the hospital. There was many - do we choose the radio host who is openly passionate about her love of her children, the boxer who has brought his child into our ED once or twice. No, we chose a person who we believed captured the spirit that is PMH. A child who had been through many battles, but come out the other end victorious.
The boy we chose starred in a movie that has the same name as our great country. He is a 13 year old boy who for part of his life, stayed for long periods of time in the hospital battling leukemia. A boy who owes his life in part to the doctors and nurses of PMH.
My boss and I firstly made contact with said celebrities parents to see if he would be interested in being part of the celebration - they agreed. At this point we are thinking that we are onto a winner!
We arranged to meet him at the domestic airport on a Saturday where we would have a quick interview and take some publicity shots.
On the day my boss and I stood excitedly waiting for him to arrive - we had set up the captains lounge for the interview and the photo shoot - we waited and waited but only saw one young boy get off the plane, but he had a shaved head and a rats tail so surely it could not be him.
In fact the pint sized boy was him. We missed the greeting altogether so we rushed off to find him to take him up to the captains lounge. All was looking good, we were up the stairs about to enter the lounge when the boy turned on his heel and ran down the stairs. My boss and I stood their stunned. a phone call from his father explained he wanted wedges - fine I thought , the boy is hungry let him eat.
He finally appeared up stairs and I kid you not, that amazing gifted actor that we saw in the movie alongside Hugh and Nicole was no where to be seen. Instead we were greet by a child who would not speak and would not pose. We tried everything we could to get a smile out of him, a word even, but nothing.
So we left, with terrible photos, no story and a bitter taste in our mouths - I couldn't understand how a boy and father who owe so much to this great hospital could be so unhelpful and uncoopritive.
My excitement and meeting my first real life celebrity was crushed and as a result I now believe what New Idea and Who Weekly say about child actors.
However much of a disappointment as it was, he is still down to cut the cake at our open day. Will this still be the case? All will be revealed in my next blog.
2 comments:
Hey Fran,
How unfortunate for you! It must have been a real disappointment to see a lot of hard work and much enthusiasm go down the drain at the whim of young Mr X.
I have arranged a few interviews for people at my placement and was quite surprised to find that they were not always obliging or enthusiastic about the opportunity I had sourced and worked on for them. So I completely understand your frustration.
However, and I know this is gong to sound preachy but I completely don’t mean it to be. When it happened to me I just had this little flashback to PR Media and corporate, being lectured on the importance of careful consideration when choosing a ‘Poster Person’. That whom every we choose is a reflection of our company – it needs to be a safe, in-the-bag sort of choice because their actions can dramatically affect not only the companies image but also our work as PR people. No one enjoys cleaning up the ‘media mess’ created by a representative gone bad.
I find myself lucky in the fact that my interviewees were obliged under contract and an interest in selling tickets to comply. You seem to find yourself in a much trickier position. But I wish you luck and hope the little Mr starts behaving and doesn’t throw cake at anyone!!
Chelle xx
Wow Fran that is an unfortunate outcome for your PR venture! I guess that's why we learn so much about what to do when things don't go to plan! Maybe you should have a bowl of wedges waiting for him at the cake-cutting event! Perhaps a back up celebrity or a high-level member of staff should be on the sidelibnes just in case a last-minute replacement is needed. Goodluck! Jess x
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