New York, NY — With increasing frequency, due to the rapidly fragmenting media marketplace and incessant cable news coverage, politicians and personalities get a hot hand that they play out on the public stage before their two minutes of fame is over. Fifteen minutes of fame, much less five, is just not in the cards.
Until the next cyclical up-tick of attention, they hope, those covetous of media attention are either never heard from again, enjoy just sporadic attention, or, maintain through sheer public relations expertise and persistence a recurring high profile, year after year.
In New York the past year, those enjoying the hottest hand at the epicenter of the Zeitgeist have been Martha Stewart from the world of business, and the Clintons, collectively, from the world of politics. While Martha accomplished a somewhat lengthy, concentrated press hit surrounding her prison ordeal, the big return to Bedford, N.Y., and the launch of her newest enterprise, the Clintons have accrued a slow, steady stream of attention and news coverage month after month.
But unquestionably, the hottest personality and brand on Broadway is Donald Trump – by far. The brilliance of The Apprentice is not just the show, and its encapsulation of what it takes to achieve “success” in the American business world, but the fact that Trump, through the series, has humanized himself in a way no advertising effort could possibly hope to accomplish. Donald Trump has transformed himself into a somewhat likable personality. Go figure.
Admittedly, the only shows I ever watch on TV are sports, local news and cable news programming – it’s been that way for over two decades and it’s not about to change. “Boring,” I’m told. I plead guilty to narrow-mindedness in my viewing selection — but I do watch and enjoy The Apprentice, primarily to watch Trump fire people with what he calls “those two beautiful words.”
The fact the Trump brand is on fire in New York, and throughout the nation, has manifested itself in a variety of ways: Trump has garnered enormous media attention the past month with his unfair but newsworthy attacks on George Pataki and the Freedom Tower – even earning live coverage of his news conference from CNN and the rest of the cable news pack; Trump’s gig as a Dominos pitch man has been a marketing success; We will now have an online Trump University – which was also just covered live by CNN this week upon its announcement; and in a display of clever horizontal marketing by NBC, Trump recently completed an interesting multi-part interview on MSNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch – arguably the best, most creative show on cable programming – to coincide with the season’s final episode of the The Apprentice.
Trump made an interesting observation during the Donny Deutsch interview, which is reflective of his understanding of the broadcast medium, and human nature, for that matter. He pointed out that those who are successful and effective on TV, whether politician or entertainer, are those individuals who come across on camera exactly the way they come across in person. Simple, but so true.
Martha, the Clintons and all the other media savvy operators in New York will still get their share of coverage, but Trump has been hot at one time or another in the 80s, the 90s and now. This cannot be said for anyone else.