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Comedy Central executive visits ISU

By Sarah-Jane Mason
Greenlee Web Team

Photo by Kristeen Primus, PRSSA President Tony Fox of Comedy Central speaks to students and faculty about public relations.

He called it a comedy war. A vicious battle. The king of it all.

Tony Fox, Comedy Central’s executive vice president of corporate communications, spoke about public relations at Iowa State Sept. 26 as part of a PRSSA and the Committee on Lectures and Programs event.

Photo by Kristeen Primus, PRSSA President Fox lectures about Comedy Central's public relations team.

The war he spoke of was in 1991 when Comedy Central was not yet born, but evolving from competing channels HA! and The Comedy Channel.

“It’s all about competition,” Fox said. “… convincing the world that we had the better channel.”

He talked about the huge role public relations played in Comedy Central’s success.

“No one knew what Comedy Central was!”

Fox described the publicity stunts created by the network’s public relations team. One event involved hoisting a celebrity from a flagpole in the middle of Times Square and Comedy Central got instant coverage.

During the Olympics, Comedy Central locked two comedians in a room to watch 24-hour coverage and do live shots. The network got instant coverage.

When Connie Chung was fired, Comedy Central offered her a job. The network got instant coverage.

Fox said Comedy Central wasn’t able to do marketing simply because the network couldn’t afford it.

“PR is free,” Fox said. “And you have a third-party endorsement in PR, a journalist saying a network is great.”

Photo by Sarah-Jane Mason, Greenlee Web Team Tony Fox with PRSSA members Sarah-Jane Mason, Shallen Smitherman and Anna Branton.

Comedy Central now reaches 87 million homes with hit shows like South Park, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Chappelle’s Show.

Fox said the hardest part of public relations is crisis management.

South Park would have been a nightmare for any public relations practitioner. In one episode, they say the s-word more than 160 times, Fox said.

The Iowa State chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America invites a public relations professional to speak to students each year. President Kristeen Primus said they chose Fox because of his background, the people he works with and his relationship with the media.

“He does this day in and day out,” Primus said.

More than 400 people attended the event.

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Last updated: October 6, 2005
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