The Bear Neccessities

The last two blogs on the site have prompted a flurry of emails offering many examples of disaster stories involving animals and PR stunts.

Jeremy Binns from Philadelphia recounted one of many stories he has surrounding ill fated stunts and publicists. His best story involved an Alaskan bear that was used in the 1950’s by a U.S. honey producer on a nationwide tour to big up the then defunct honey producer in Arkansas.

Alas the bear escaped while touring and went on a trail of devastation before being shot with a tranquiliser dart. However, there was a happy to ending to this story when the bear was returned to its native Alaska and released back into the wild.

In a publicists’ “six degrees of separation”, the famous Hollywood publicist, Jay Bernstein, sadly now deceased, had a 7.5 metre stuffed bear in his Hollywood home, that he’d shot himself in Alaska. Unfortunately, the 30 shots or more that it took Jay to kill the beast were visible, as there were too many for the taxidermist to stuff properly.