The Fame Formula
With a profile piece in The Independent and an extract from book in The Guardian today, the promotion for my book has really started. I have already done a number of interviews and have some more lined up, but what I notice most is that it’s very odd being on the other side of the promotion process. It’s me who is usually creating a publicity platform, so standing on this side of the fence I get a rush of emotions which confuse my natural inclinations to be a publicist rather than the centre of attention.
Confessions of a stuntman. Mark Borkowski on the fame game . The Independent Monday 28th July.
The master publicist who promoted Jacko and Pavarotti and filled Selfridges with nude people is disturbed by the success of his profession – accusing it of promoting fake celebrity and soundbites that betray complex issues. He talks to Ian Burrell
Power player: Borkowski says publicity is a drug and must be handled with care.
‘It’s not quite the Aleister Crowley-esque profession of popular legend, but the seeds of that are there,” admits publicist Mark Borkowski at the conclusion of his new book, The Fame Formula. “There’s an arcane thrill about the practice of publicity… it is a drug and as such must be handled with care, but the possibilities, now more than ever, are endless.”
What makes people famous? And once they nmake it, how do they stay in the public eye? Top PR agent, Mark Borkowski has studied the celebrities, crunched the numbers, and come up with…. The Fame Formula.
The decline in a star’s fame follows a certain trend, and fame can be continued ad infinitum in the hands of a careful, clever “flack” or publicity agent. I spent a year poring over cuttings, pondering this notion as I studied the various methods and madnesses of the publicist. I started to wonder if Andy Warhol – an artist by calling but a master of the stunt and the soundbite – was right; does everyone get 15 minutes of fame? It occurred to me that it should be possible to look at fame statistically, to analyse the evidence we have all witnessed in the media, to see if fame’s decline can be quantified. The answer, I discovered, is that it can be, and that Warhol was partially right – but the first spike of fame will last 15 months, not 15 minutes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/jul/28/celebrity.bigbrother