It is not that I mind the media band wagon-but I have grown weary of the constant over selling of every single element of a celebrity’s life…..wait, on anyonewhodoes anything that warrants a story’s life.\u00a0 That PR machine always on the oneupmanship of down and dirty.\u00a0 When does the real person stop and the fabrication start.\u00a0Where is the person underneath all that what\u00a0has been created to get\u00a0a mention, a line, a notice, a nod?\u00a0 \u00a0I’ll admit it right here and now:\u00a0 I tasted the water of PR-and about choked on it.\u00a0 \u00a0I was in my sophomore year of not knowing what to delcare- when an internship came up and I took it.\u00a0 PR assistant for a company that labels and creates buzz for cosmetics.\u00a0 Like any other sophomore-I thought it would be exciting and glamorous and a way to get free make-up.\u00a0 Besides- it would be a great way to spend the winter months-surrounded by beauty.\u00a0 Granted, this was not in a major city-but in a fairly large city in the Peidmont area of North Carolina.\u00a0 I prepped for my internship-by shopping and going over notes from my communications class…..got my eyebrow waxed into two neat and slightly arched forms, hand my first manicure, signed all the paper work and got ready to show up on my first day of interning.<\/p>\n
The office was a converted historic house-with a giant lion mouth of a door knocker….I knocked.\u00a0 Two of the most perfectly coiffed women I have ever seen greeted me at the same time.\u00a0 These two women were grown up versions of some of the women I went to school with at a very prestigious womens college…..Both greeted me at the same time-speaking the same sentence with the same cadence and southern drawl….”You must be our intern!!!!!!”\u00a0\u00a0 YEA!!!”……..They were both dressed in more color than I had and to this day have ever worn in my life.\u00a0 AND it was perfectly assembled.\u00a0 They were Barbie and Madge- the southern pr Barbies-.\u00a0 I was in black.\u00a0 Head to toe black.\u00a0 Thank God I had enough sense to get my eyebrow waxed. One glance at\u00a0their hands and I instantly knew I had chosen the wrong nail color……both of them were sporting the same slightly rounded manicured nails with a touch of ballet slipper on each and every short,butnotsoshort nail.\u00a0 I, of course, was under the impression a ballet slipper was something one wore, like in the class I was once asked to leave:\u00a0 “maybe you should try jazz…..” and that was that.\u00a0\u00a0 I am quite sure I had some shade of blue red on my nails.\u00a0 And they were NOT slightly rounded-short-but not slighty rounded.\u00a0 That should have been my first clue.<\/p>\n
I was ushered in\u00a0and show around in tandem. The house into office was stunning.\u00a0 Something out of Southern Living, Ralph Lauren and any southern gay mans house I had ever visited…( and there were several; was into theater-and many a cast party were held at some swanky homosexuals house who had “done everything myself”).\u00a0 I was so damned impressed.<\/p>\n
I was given a schedule-went over my day to day expectations and we were off to a day of interning.\u00a0 Barbie, Madge and me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After two weeks of being told how to “convince someone” of something even if it was not true-and having to create names for each product-which I actually liked-(though I was told my names were just a “scoach” in the wrong direction)- and after being told I was not bending the truth enough and seeing things are they were and not how they should be- Barbie and Madge sat me down in the employee kitchen- which was way, way bigger than my dorm room- and with hand on chin(s) and sweet sighs of regret( as only a southern woman\u00a0 can do) I was told this was not going to work.\u00a0 “We” were not a right fit.\u00a0 I was too truthful and the world of PR prefers to create a truth that appeals to the masses. Barbie, who was the big boss\u00a0looked at me with just a\u00a0hint of a\u00a0pout and said\u00a0“People pay good money for us to create lies that make them\u00a0look good…even if\u00a0they don’t”\u00a0 \u00a0Wag the dog do we?…….<\/p>\n
From there I went on to\u00a0finish up my winter session\u00a0by\u00a0creating\u00a0an independant study in New York.\u00a0\u00a0My women studies professor suggested the idea and my\u00a0mentor signed off on the plan.\u00a0\u00a0 I packed all my black and set off on my journey:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0“The Influence\u00a0of PR\/Media on\u00a0Women and the\u00a0Search for Truth.\u00a0 \u00a0I got an A.\u00a0 I went\u00a0into acting and\u00a0never looked back….if Barbie and Madge could see me now.<\/p>\n