Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Fear Factor’ or great PR?

Is it a public relations gimmick worthy of other legendary Las Vegas publicity stunts: Knock a nude girl out of bed; the floating craps table; or Zsa Zsa's black eye?

Or is it something more suitable for the modern-day "Fear Factor" television show?

Whichever, next week's event at Mandalay Bay's Super Zoo West is certainly a mouthful: Aging-one-time-All-American-TV-dad-turned-pet-product-guru chows down on dog food that he claims is as good for humans as it is for mutts.

Dick Van Patten of the '70s show "Eight Is Enough" will feast on such Eatables entrees as Hobo Chili, Irish Stew, Dumplings and Chinese Take Out on Wednesday and Thursday, in part to promote National Dine With Your Dog Day, Oct. 21.

Joey Herrick, president of Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance, says the company has one firm rule for creating products for its Eatables line: "If Dick won't eat it, we won't make it." (Van Patten was traveling this week and could not be reached for comment, according to his PR firm.)

Local public relations executives, past and present, say the Van Patten publicity stunt is imaginative and provocative. And it just might work, they say, if the mere thought of eating dog food doesn't make people barf.

"It is a good (stunt) for selling the product," says Harvey Diederich, 86, who promoted the neon city at the Las Vegas News Bureau and for several Strip and downtown hotels from 1952 until his retirement in 1988.

"We always found that we got great publicity when we could get a celebrity to participate and cooperate."

Diederich did the 1954 publicity for Ronald Reagan during the late president's only appearance in Las Vegas as a song-and-dance man at the Last Frontier. Diederich had photos shot of Reagan on a yacht fishing at Lake Mead that were widely published.

And in the late 1950s, when Hungarian bombshell Zsa Zsa Gabor performed in Las Vegas with a black eye, she told Diederich that her lover, famed Latin lothario Porfirio Rubirosa, had punched her.

Diederich set up a photo of the platinum-blond actress wearing an eye patch. Along with the photo, he wrote a news release about how the sexy entertainer got the shiner.

"It takes a little study into what will make a good publicity photo and the photographer's skills to make it work," Diederich says.

Wayne Bernath, a longtime local PR man, says the dog-food eating stunt is "more akin to today's 'Fear Factor' TV show than to what has been done in Las Vegas in the past."

In 1995 Bernath paid photographer Greg Reiter $200 to shoot seven showgirls from the Riviera's Crazy Girls revue. The women wore just thongs, and Reiter shot just their back sides.

The photo was turned into a billboard near Las Vegas City Hall and drew the ire of city officials who demanded that it be removed, saying it was inappropriate for public display.

Bernath refused to take down the billboard and sent out news releases. The incident made national headlines, and stories focused on the constitutional right of free expression.

The image became iconic and was the inspiration for a brass statue that today stands in front of the Riviera. Gamblers regularly rub the naked buttocks for good luck, Bernath says.

"A good publicity photo is one that grabs people's attention, makes them do a double- or triple-take and maybe even laugh," Bernath said. "But how far you go with a publicity stunt is a calculated risk. You can cross the line. There are limits."

Public relations execs and publicists long have had a field day promoting to the world crazy events that have occurred in the desert gambling oasis. While none involved dog food, many did center on a Las Vegas delicacy - cheesecake.

But will editors be barking orders to get film of a formerly famous TV star turned pet-product magnate eating his company's creations?

Van Patten is likely to take whatever reaction his stunt evokes in good cheer.

Herrick says that people used to tease Van Patten, saying things must have gone way downhill for him since "Eight Is Enough" went off the air to reduce him to eating dog food. (Things must be ruff , huh, Dick?)

"They don't say that much anymore," Herrick says, "since his products have garnered $72 million in annual worldwide sales."

Eatables were introduced several months ago and are the first products of the company, founded in 1988, to be approved for human consumption by the Agriculture Department, he says.

"The formulas started out as people formulas, then we added the extra vitamins, minerals and calcium that pets need," Herrick says. "It is ironic that the foods we consume from our grocers' shelves will not sustain a dog's life but are OK for us to eat."

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