“Who wants to hear from a PR person who spins stories for a living?” That was Barry Kluger‘s rhetorical question to a class of film students at ASU last Thursday. In case you haven’t heard of him or read his column in the Arizona Republic now and then, Kluger is the managing partner of the Kluger Media Group here in the Valley. (Formerly handling corporate communications and PR at Prodigy Inc. and before that at VHI.)

Kluger was there to get students fired up about entrepreneurship, and how to break into the market dominated by big ticket names such as Disney.

Kluger made some good points, specifically:

“If you can’t beat them, quit. Go beat the other guy.”
Seth Godin fans will find this slightly reminiscent of some of the arguments in his latest book, the dip, as in “Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons.”)

“Creativity has no residency, no locale.”

“Don’t try to out-Disney Disney.”

“It’s all about finding the right audience.”

Kluger came back to PR now and then, to put an asterisk on the craft that he stressed will only get you so far unless you take risks, push the envelope. “Try a few stunts, do something different,” he urged, and left off with this gem:

“He who whispers down the well
about the things he has to sell
will never make as many dollars
as he who climbs the tree and hollers.”