Erika Icon talks to Cosmo magazine about what it’s like to do PR for porn stars.
Most publicists who represent actresses do everything possible to prevent their clients’ sex tapes from becoming public. Erika Icon (pictured below at right), the founder of The Rub, a public relations agency for the adult industry, does exactly the opposite.
“The problem is, once the perception’s out there, it will be hard to change it.”
I had a lot of different jobs before I got into advertising. I worked retail, I was a diamond grader for GIA [Gemological Institute of America], I was an executive assistant. I worked for a couple of different advertising agencies. I quit my last job and said, “I can’t take this anymore.” They were making me cover up my tattoos and take out my piercings, and it was ridiculous. I answered an ad on Craigslist to work for this company called WantedList. They were the Netflix of porn. I was a video buyer, because DVDs were big back then. When I was there, one of my clients said, “Do you want to do PR for us?” I worked for them on a consultant basis and I really liked it. I’ve been in the industry for almost 10 years now. I usually average 12 to15 clients at a time.
My clients really like what I do. I try to come up with extremely clever things. I don’t work with anyone I don’t like or people who are mean. I don’t work with people I don’t believe in. I’ve dropped clients and I will if it gets to the point where they’re really misbehaving. I once had a client who threw a fit on a showroom floor and was crying and having a temper tantrum.
I understand that the girls, just like the companies, are a product. I know how to get people’s attention. I have a really good group of girls and a good group of clients. Quite a few of them view me as a friend, and they call me with their problems. They call me when it’s nothing to do with work. Sometimes they get so upset that they can’t work or they can’t do an interview or whatever, so they talk to me. I’m their mommy, their psychiatrist [laughs].
A publicist is different than a manager or agent. Agents are very important because they get the girls work and they guarantee they’re gong to get paid. My favorite agent actually is a woman. I think that the girls feel better being around a woman. There are women who run toy companies, who are agents, who are publicists. I’m starting to feel like [porn]’s not just a boy’s world. In 2015, it’s a positive to be a woman in this industry. I think that you’re going to see even more women in the industry. When I tell women outside this industry what I do, they’re not very nice to me. They’re mean and catty, and I feel that it’s because they’re not in touch with themselves sexually or they’re extremely judgmental. I’m kind of leery to tell people what I do. When I put my profile up on the Internet for dating, I just say I’m a publicist. I wait as long as humanly possible, usually before I go out with a guy, but I don’t always put it out there what I do.
I’ve had girls who have had some [substance abuse] problems, but for the most part, girls who want PR are serious and they’re not going to be like that. I’ve had girls who aren’t serious and don’t want to do their portion of the work, like running their social media or whatever. But most of the girls I’ve had are very serious. They want to do well. Girls [will be more successful] if they’re business-minded. They go to sets, they’re professional, they do good work, they get along with people, they show up on time. They should have good relationships with people within the industry and have a plan. I can usually tell [who’s going to succeed]. Have I picked some people I shouldn’t have though? Yeah.
Directors and studios — they look at Twitter. They look at social media to see what these girls are doing. I want the girls to have a personality. They’re all very different. I want them to be themselves, but I also don’t want them doing harm to their image. The problem is, once the perception’s out there, it will be hard to change it. I had one girl — she was a mess and I had her change her name hoping that would help, but she continued to do the same thing. I once had a girl tweet something and I was like, “Really? Let’s think about why this was not good to tweet.”
You’ll never see me disparage someone on Twitter. I also tell my girls no shit-talking, no starting fights, no pictures with a drink in your hand. I tell them, “Keep your clothes on when you’re on the red carpet or being interviewed. Don’t give it away for free.” Just because you’re in porn doesn’t mean you don’t have to have class. There are hundreds of girls who come in every month and there’s a lot of competition. The average girl is in porn six months or less. Most of my clients have been with me for years.
Sometimes they have to really, seriously mess up to see the repercussions of what they’re doing, but usually they listen to me, I think because I’m a woman. I’m not trying to have sex with them. I’m not trying to use them for anything. I just want to help them in their careers. I want them to win awards. I want them to be happy. That’s the problem with some of the men in the industry. There’s not even a casting couch. They know they’re going to get [sex] if they want it. I’ve seen it in the mainstream industry too. I worked with a mainstream photographer who wanted to get into porn photography and videography, and I saw it in the studio. Mainstream fashion girls were just throwing it out there.
The funny thing is that I watched more porn before I got into the industry than I do now. I used to watch a lot of it. I know everybody now, so it’s a little creepy. I’ve always been a very sexual person and very in touch with my sexuality. I really wasn’t involved in the sex industry at all. But for some reason it’s the one industry I feel I belong in. They don’t care about the fact that I have tattoos or piercings or giant boobs. In the real world, people get weird about that stuff. In the porn industry, people don’t expect you to kiss their ass generally, unless they’re really full of themselves. It’s the one industry I’ve actually been able to fit in. I don’t always feel like I fit in the world, and people have this perception that the porn industry is a sleazy place and people are horrible, but I’ve made friends in this industry that will be my friends for my whole life.
I have to laugh because I’m so jaded from working here for so long. But once I threw a party for a dungeon in L.A. I was at the dungeon and there was this dog bowl and I asked, “Do you have a dog?” They were like, “No, we pee in the bowl and the slaves drink it.” That floored me. I was like, “I’m so sorry I asked that fucking question.” I worked with a dominatrix a few years ago, and some of the things she did shocked me. Putting push pins in guys’ balls and stuff. But it takes a lot to shock me in this industry. Stuff in the real world is more shocking to me than most of these movies.
I’m dating a couple of guys. I’ve never made a movie. I’ve been asked many times, but I’ve never done it. I don’t because I want people to take me seriously as a businesswoman. It’s really hard dating in the industry. I’ve dated a director and that was good, in the sense that he understood what I do on a daily basis. When I date in the real world, guys have this perception about me. They think I’m a whore or that I’m making movies. If I’m seriously dating someone I don’t want them to view me only as a sexual person, I want them to view me as the whole package. They ask a lot of questions about the industry. It’s hard in general for me. I’m not a skinny girl; I’m covered in tattoos. I know I will find someone that looks at me for me. I swore up and down that I will not date or have sex with anyone else in this industry, and I’m holding strong to it but it’s hard.
I’m not really a porn girl, but I’m also not really what we call a “civilian” either. I’m somewhere kind of in the middle. I wish that people, specifically women that don’t work in the industry, would have a little more respect for our industry and a little less judgment. It’s unfortunate.
Source: Cosmopolitan.com
