Where's My Fifteen Minutes?: Get Your Company, Your Cause, or Yourself the Recognition You Deserve [Hardcover]

Howard Bragman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 26, 2008

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.

Editorial Reviews

From 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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“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.”
—Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (December 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591842360
• ISBN-13: 978-1591842361
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #431,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is great if... you need common sense., January 14, 2009

By 

Pompiere (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Where's My Fifteen Minutes?: Get Your Company, Your Cause, or Yourself the Recognition You Deserve (Hardcover)

This book is great if... you need common sense. It lacks real substance and there's no practical advice. If you were looking for some actual example of what to do to get anything the cover says, well, within the first 25 pages he tells you directly this isn't that book. Sorry. I'd definitely save the money if I could go back and I'd avoid this book unless I was lacking common sense.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Practical How-To Guide for Everyone, December 26, 2008

By 

Daniel Baker (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Where's My Fifteen Minutes?: Get Your Company, Your Cause, or Yourself the Recognition You Deserve (Hardcover)

This book is chuck-full of practical, creative ideas to get your cause (or yourself) some media coverage. It is written in a consise, easy-to-read style that entertains while it informs. I particularly liked the "Ten Commmandments of PR" section with important nuggets such as "All press is not good press" and "They're only building you up to knock you down". PR can be an extremely helpful, cost-effective way to get your message out to the world. This book is a great guide to the ins and outs of the biz from someone on the inside.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Preparedness, September 27, 2009

By 

Stephen T. Hopkins (Oak Park, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where's My Fifteen Minutes?: Get Your Company, Your Cause, or Yourself the Recognition You Deserve (Hardcover)

Readers looking for plain speaking advice on getting attention and recognition might find some nuggets of interest on the pages of Howard Bragman's book, Where's My Fifteen Minutes?: Get Your Company, Your Cause, or Yourself the Recognition You Deserve. You have to love a publicist with a name like Bragman. He draws from his three decade career in this field to offer readers ways to influence perceptions. For me, I kept turning the pages with a degree of amazement that anyone could spend one's working life in the public relations field if this is what it is all about.

Rating: Two-star (Mildly Recommended)