Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Publicity hounds and media jackals

Listed among the Bay Area events reporters may want to cover today is the US citizenship ceremony where Odessa Gunn, wife of "famed cyclist Levi Leipheimer," will become a naturalized citizen. The 10 a.m. ceremony is in SF at the Masonic Auditorium and "reporters interested in interviewing Gunn should arrive at 9:30 a.m."

Sharon Rummery is the contact for the event. Typically the contact is a public relations person.

I'll try to refrain as much as possible from asking questions on this blog without at least providing some half-baked answer, but in this case I don't understand the overall PR angle.

Is this the work of Levi's PR folks keeping Levi's name in the news and bolstering his image as a Bay Area celebrity in a run up to what will hopefully be Levi's fantastic run in this year's Tour de France?

Is Odessa making a PR run herself, a la Spice Beckham, prior to launching a line of clothes, fragrances, etc.?

Maybe someone in the cycling community can help me see the overall picture here.

In totally unrelated news, there's a front page story in today's Wall Street Journal headlined "Amgen's Star Fades Amid Safety Questions." The story says Amgen has lost $20 billion in market cap after regulators placed a "black box warning" March 9 on labels of Amgen's amenia drugs including EPO. Amgen's CEO notes "that more than 50 studies show the anemia drugs are safe when used according to the label."

OK, one more question sans half-baked answer: "Does the EPO label list blood boosting for cyclists among the drug's recommended uses?"

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