Chicago Sun Times
Lewis Lazare

It’s clear Richard Laermer knows at least a thing or two about the business of public relations. Included with a sheaf of press materials that accompanied a copy of his new book Full Frontal PR (Bloomberg Press, 231 pgs, $24.95) were four full pages of complimentary blurbs from notables.

Peter Guber, the chairman of Mandalay Entertainment, hailed the book as “a wizard’s navigational tool kit for succeeding with media mavens,” while Laermer’s new best friend Al Ries, who co-authored the controversial book The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, calls Full Frontal PR “the best written, most interesting, most up-to-date manual on the PR field.”

Public relations, admittedly, may mean different things to different people both in the PR business and outside it, but in Laermer’s mind, it all really boils down to one simple word: “buzz.” Good PR people, said Laermer, instinctively know how to generate the word-of-mouth publicity that is the essence of buzz.

Laermer isn’t a fan of much of the PR work done out of large public relations agencies, which he claims are often “more interested in their own business model than their clients’ business.”

But Laermer, who heads RLM Public Relations in New York, doesn’t have too much time to worry about the really big guys. He’s in the throes of setting up a Los Angeles office and putting the final touches on a Feb. 26 New York launch party for his new book. To help spark a little more buzz, natch, he’s commissioned New York choreographer Edisa Weeks to create a new dance with the titillating title “What Is PR, Really?”