Remembering the Octomom Account

0

Joann Killeen, president of publicity agency Killeen Furtney Group in Brentwood, vividly recalls the day more than a year ago when she won the account of a lifetime.

It started when a PR firm representing Kaiser Permanente called to ask if Killeen would be interested in a pro bono account for a patient. The patient’s name: Nadya Suleman – Octomom – the woman who made medical history as the first to deliver eight surviving babies.

The story inspired a tsunami of media interest. Killeen’s agency fielded 1,200 media calls. Her Web site got 40 million hits and she received more than 4,000 e-mails, much of it hate mail directed toward her client.

Killeen hadn’t known key facts from Suleman’s past, including that the single mother of six was unemployed and on public assistance when she visited the fertility clinic to conceive an additional eight children.

“Every day was a big story, a new drama,” Killeen said. “It was a runaway train that continued to run every single day.”

After the babies went home, an exhausted Killeen resigned the account. But Killeen is writing a book about her experience and has about five speaking engagements each month. That’s why she calls the Octomom account “the gift that keeps on giving.”

Animal Wisecracker

With all the uncertainty in today’s economy, financial professionals are looking everywhere for additional insight – even the Chinese zodiac.

City National Bank recently held an economic forecast at the California Club in downtown Los Angeles for about 200 local investors and business owners where Chief Executive Russell Goldsmith and economist Ed Leamer dispensed their wisdom.

But it was Rich Weiss, City National’s chief investment officer and resident comedian, whose insights raised the most eyebrows. He noted the uncanny connection the markets seem to have with the Chinese zodiac, which relates an animal to the year.

“It’s no surprise that 2008 was, very appropriately, the Year of the Rat,” he said. Last year, he added, which was a tough slog for investors, was, appropriately, the Year of the Ox.

Weiss generated the most laughs, though, with his reference to a certain professional golfer who has dominated the tabloid headlines recently. He pointed out that 2010, coincidentally, is the Year of the Tiger.

No posts to display