Press Day....

   As I lay in bed, my feet throbbing in pain, I wonder...why was I so excited about press day at Paul Smith? Ohhhh that's right, it was because I thought I'd get to observe and learn things about the PR field. If only.

   The day started out well, I was introduced to Paul for the first time, who was really nice, and then asked to check over the mannequins to make sure they all look alright and was asked for my opinion by the women high up in the office. After that, I helped the girl who was an intern last year and got a job finish stuffing the goodie bags. We then went downstairs and put the food on platters and stuff. All of this was fine...but my excitement in thinking I would be experiencing what a press day consisted of quickly dwindled. In short, the rest of my day consisted of me standing in the kitchen next to the showroom where the event was taking place. In the kitchen, I would usually either be reading the newspapers from last weekend that hadn't been read yet or washing dishes because as guests came and went they had drinks/left glasses lying around. Occasionally, they would let me out of the kitchen to walk around with a platter and offer food to guests or just to 'top up' the food. I sat down for maybe 10 minutes out of the 9 and a half hours I was there, and both times I did sit down, that same girl who was an intern last year either questioned me about why I was sitting there or told me I should go back down to the kitchen to see if they needed help cleaning up down there. It's funny how the head of press (who let me leave a bit early and gave me a goodie bag) and the two women right under her treat me with 10 times more respect than the two younger girls.

   So basically, I didn't really learn much about the PR field today, as I had hoped I would. I know that people who work for magazines/newspapers or are publicists or stylists came in and chose items they wanted to use in photo shoots or dress their clients in...but that's about the extent of it. And there's a tube strike tomorrow so I have to take a bus and walk pretty far to get to work, which is going to take twice as long. Yipeee!

   I will now leave you with this question: when did interns become the equivalent of a minimum wage earning dishwasher at McDonald's? Except we don't actually get paid...