Mumbrellacast special: Roxy Jacenko on mental health, industry envy, and her TV pilot
On this special episode of the Mumbrellacast, editor Vivienne Kelly sits down with Roxy Jacenko, ahead of the premiere of I Am Roxy during Ten’s Pilot Week.
During the unfiltered chat, Jacenko talks about ignoring the traditional public relations model, upsetting her competitors, and how she feels about the criticism she attracts from the media and marketing industry at large. She also addresses mental health in the industry, including her notoriously hard-working staff, involvement in the Perfectly Imperfect campaign, and why she hates it when people “play the mental health card”.
And of course, they chat about I Am Roxy: whether she will watch it, if anything was off limits, and how she wants everything she does to succeed beyond anyone’s expectations.
In the chat
- The real reason Roxy had to do things differently (4:30)
- Why regular people love her (7:50)
- Refusing to stand for mediocrity – both for brands, and from her employees (10:32)
- Whether she could be Australia’s answer to the Kardashians (20:02)
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Why, why why give her any airtime at all? She’s EVERYTHING that is wrong with media, PR and marketing, tied up in a neat little bow of pure, white-hot self-indulgence and a stunning lack of self-awareness and humility. Sure, I’m falling for your schtick by engaging, but seriously, I thought you lot were above this.
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Who are ‘regular’ people? Is that the general public? Is the distinction that regular people like her because she is aspirational but the industry, employees, ex-employees and clients see through it (After a while).
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Hi ‘Robbo’,
Whatever you may think of her personally and professionally, Roxy works in our industry, and influences public perceptions of it. She’s about to appear on consumers’ TV screens, and is also somewhat of a brand herself. Me ignoring that won’t change anything.
Plus, if I only spoke to people I liked and agreed with, or indeed people who liked and agreed with me, there would be far, far, less content on Mumbrella.
You should take a listen. I address the accusations of bullying and her staff’s mental health issues with her. I talk about her becoming the story, instead of her clients, and I address industry perceptions of her.
I enjoyed the chat, but you don’t have to. If you don’t want to listen, that’s fine. There are plenty of other things to fill up your day, I’m sure.
Vivienne – Mumbrella
jm
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Agree 100% with Robbo. And yes Vivienne, re your snide remark, there are plenty of other things to fill my day, you can be sure of that!
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100% agree with Robbo. Aim higher Mumbrella!
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sounded like 21:34 of PR for Roxy.
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she is drop-dead gorgeous
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Really? Why would you give her any more
oxygen than she is already stealing? Come on Mumbrella… you’re better than that.
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Agree with Robbo
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Roxy is the PR equivalent of Pauline Hanson.
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Lol Roxy, is that you?
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Retreat to your beige world and your tunnel vision view of society Mumbrella audience.You are all so boring.
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“Me ignoring that won’t change anything. ”
yes it will
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Sounds like the interviewer handed RJ the mic and said ‘Go for it – just regurgitate any old crap!’. Wonder what she got in return…
What a lame, watered down excuse for an interview. It’s a total promo for RJ’s pilot. RJ gets criticised not because people are jealous – she gets criticised because she makes decisions that cut corners, disregard ethics, and treat humans like a pair of shoes that arrive in a box.
And to click-bait the ‘interview’ with her so-called comments about ‘playing the mental health card’? She doesn’t actually say anything in any depth about it, except that she hates it.
Sorry, what does she hate?
Vague, boring, shallow, and entirely devoid of any interest.
Here’s a real zinger but – maybe you could have asked her about some real issues, relevant to marketing. Like, remaining married to a con-man? Using her child as a promo device? Glossing over mental health?
Yup – Mumbrella could do a lot better. With it’s choice of content, and clearly – it’s choice of Editor.
Unsubscribed.
#xo
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There are good arguments for and against interviewing Roxy (surely you must realise that she’s an echo of the character, Ms. Roxie Hart from the musical/play, Chicago). Google the story line.
The industry doesn’t like her for any of the following reasons:
– screaming at her staff (there’s no place for bullying and harassment in the modern workplace)
– her belief in the maxim ‘any publicity is good publicity’ which disregards the ethical practice of PR/communications (read the PRIA’s Code of Ethics)
– she’s a publicist (tactically chases as many column inches in the media for her clients) not a PR person (provides strategic advice to clients on communicating or not communicating with all or some of its publics – internal, external, media, influencers, competitors etc. – via any channel in order to achieve a business goal). Note: Mumbrella, after all these years you still can’t tell the difference.
– using her children as props for her own/client campaigns
– being unable to resist using client work to propel her personal profile (making herself the news story when she is supposed to be promoting a brand)
– trying to be the Australian Kardashian
I’m sure there’s also an element of tall poppy syndrome in there as well. After all, it is an Australian tradition.
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