Piaras Kelly PR – Public Relations in Ireland

I had just sat down in my seat in the cinema last Friday week when my phone started to ring. The film hadn’t started yet and I popped out of my seat to take the call. I never thought I’d ever hear the day when I’d say, “Sorry. I have to go talk to a guy about two elephants.”

Less than a week later, the most difficult photocall I’ve ever had to organise is over. Normally at photocalls you might have bad weather to contend with. I was faced with the task of getting two Indian elephants onto Sandymount Strand, contending with a load of bystanders who stopped to see the show and a windy day that kept trying to blow the models’ skirts up.

When you book a pair of elephants you don’t quite realise what you’ve gotten yourself into until you find yourself standing the the middle of a main road, stopping traffic as two elephants get out of a truck, much to the amazement of motorists.

That said though, elephants have to be the best animals to work with at a photocall because they are amazing creatures. They are likely twenty ton humans that are possibly more intelligent than this PR practitioner who wore a suit down to the beach. I don’t know what the photographer found more amusing, two elephants holding up traffic or a guy in a suit, with his shoes off and trousers rolled up, whilst trying to keep some semblance of order to the whole affair.

Maxwell Photography is now my photo agency of choice. Mark Maxwell, the photographer who coordinated the shoot, was a lifesaver. Having worked with elephants before, he gave me a tip to bring down sugar cubes for the elephants which worked a treat. When I got the contact sheets from the job a couple of hours later, I was spoilt for choice. Normally you spend time looking over the contact sheets to decide which photos to issue to the press. In this case, I was simply spoilt for choice. The photos landed in three national papers the next day.

The preparation for the photocall dragged out over the course of a week. While it proved to be stressful at times, it was just another day’s work. Simply put, in PR you never know what you’ll be doing tomorrow, but there’s no doubt that it’s going to be interesting.

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