Where's My Fifteen Minutes?: Get Your Company, Your Cause, or Yourself the Recognition You Deserve by Howard Bragman, Michael Levin (With)

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Synopsis

An accessible and insightful PR guide from a top adviser to the rich and powerful

Media attention can boost careers, generate millions of dollars, and make dreams come true. It can also destroy reputations and derail carefully laid business plans. All publicity is not good publicity.

No one knows this better than Howard Bragman. For more than thirty years he has helped prominent people—movie stars, business leaders, philanthropists— get their messages out, in good times and bad.

His book won't make anyone famous overnight, but it will help readers understand the changing world of today's PR. If your public's perception doesn't match reality—if you are a better person, offer a better product, or stand for a better cause than anyone realizes— you need help. Bragman shows how to:

• Understand your real target audience
• Respect what the media needs and wants
• Give memorable interviews, even during a crisis
• Handle the new challenges of the Internet age

He illustrates his lessons with juicy examples, from Frank Sinatra and Madonna to Coca-Cola and Monica Lewinsky. Whether you're trying to build a business, advance your career, or change the world, there's much to be learned from Bragman's insights and experience.

Publishers Weekly

With 30 years in public relations, Bragman offers an insider's perspective on creating-or refurbishing-a personal image or brand. His book reads like a who's who of his celebrity clients, from Cameron Diaz to Paula Abdul, lending a sensational quality to the text; Bragman is more on point when he sticks to such details as building a believable and authentic image, describing the finer points of creating an effective Internet presence and knowing when to seek publicity. He makes canny observations about the melding of public relations and the "new media" and sharp advice on how to navigate the divide between perception and reality. But there remains a schizophrenic quality to the book, as readers are instructed to apply celebrity PR and media relations techniques wisdom to their daily lives; the author claims his methods will benefit everyone from the "local environmentalist trying to effect change" to the state representative looking for a writeup in the hometown paper. But Bragman's arguments are more apropos for the glitterati and not for the fictional PTA bent on a recycling initiative. (Jan.)

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Biography

Howard Bragman is CEO of the public relations agency Fifteen Minutes and the founding partner of Bragman Nyman Cafarelli, the largest entertainment PR firm in the world. He has represented some of the most famous celebrities, companies, and events in the world. He appears regularly on television to comment on entertainment and cultural issues.