The Art of a PR Relationship
Bloody iconic.
If you think about it, maintaining a real relationship in Hollywood in today’s era is probably harder than maintaining a PR relationship. The schedules. The crazed fans. The Internet gossip. Sleazy headlines. I can barely go a day without constant attention, I can’t imagine dating someone on a world tour or a press tour.
Speaking of a press tour, the media impressions on Taylor and Travis’s relationship are astronomical. Regardless of what you think, whether it’s real or fake, Mr. American Football and Miss Americana make for quite the profitable duo. I can’t be bothered to spend more than a paragraph on them so let’s pivot to a history lesson instead.
Publicity relationships date back to the dawn of time. Entire societies were once bound by arranged marriages of princes and princesses who probably didn’t even speak the same language. A love of nods, smiles, and probably non-consensual sex. In 1920s Hollywood, big studios were known to pair rising starlets with big movie hunks as a way to elevate their stock. Or maybe studios set-up stars who were rumored to be gay with the opposite sex as a means to save their careers. Enter Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Great book. Excited to see whether or not Netflix will butcher it.
Modern PR relationships in today’s era aren’t quite as meticulous despite what the public may think. For the most part, today’s PR relationships are organically initiated and a matter of both parties capitalizing on the public interest of a love affair’s ups and downs in terms of media dollars. Whether it’s a star who has a new movie to push or, I don’t know, it’s a certain Puerto-Rican rapper looking to expand his American empire, if you examine today’s A-list couples, you’ll probably find media motivation in there somewhere.
Instead of asking whether or not a relationship is for publicity, we should be asking how much of a relationship is for publicity.
It’s a hot take, but I would conjure to say that 90% of entertainment relationships have PR elements such as timing a red carpet arrival or deciding to have a date night at that restaurant. Your favorite stars are rich. Multiple homes in Italy rich. Private jet with private jet headlines rich. If they want privacy, they can afford it. So when you’re seeing them photographed, it’s usually for a reason.
Why do we care?
That is the question I ask with each Kelce/Swift headline I’m force fed at gunpoint in the morning with my cup of coffee. Think of entertainment relationships like brand partnerships. Some really work. Nike x Tiffany. Two powerhouses with two completely different brand images uniting to create something legendary. Provocative.
In my book, a healthy dose of PR in today’s Hollywood relationships is anywhere between 10-15%. Tom and Zendaya. But the more a couple is seen and photographed and plastered on the cover of Us Weekly, the more likely the public pendulum of sentiment will swing from love to hate. It’s a thesis for another day, but there is a threshold of saturation when it comes to anything in entertainment (a pop song, a fashion trend, slang, etc) before public sentiment moves from admiration to disinterest, to finally, resentment. Another hot take, I think the pendulum will swing backward with such force on this next season of Vanderpump Rules that it’ll push Ariana off the #Scandoval cliff. Just one Glad trash bag ad too many, I’m afraid.
One day in the future I pray to wake up to a quiet social media landscape. I want to watch videos of focaccia bread art. I want to see a cat somewhere in Japan sleeping somewhere unthinkable. But for now, I’ll drink my coffee and involuntarily absorb the latest conspiracy about a recent happening at an Eras tour stop. I suppose heading into 2024, I’m sure I’ll look back in a few months and wish for times like these.
