By Peter Berton

LOS ANGELES – An old adage maintains that “a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.” While the same may not be true for all porn people who handle their own public relations, there’s no doubt many could benefit from professional help.

That’s where firms like Erika Icon’s come in. As the owner-operator of The Rub PR, Icon manages public images for adult performers including Allison Moore, Brooklyn Chase and Kimber James.

YNOT.com asked Icon to define exactly what it is PR and image-management agencies do, and how her company fits into the industry.

YNOT: You were an art director and copywriter for an advertising agency before opening your own firm. Why did you specialize in adult entertainment?

Erika Icon: I worked for six years in advertising as an art director and copywriter before moving to the adult biz, where I’ve been for eight years. During that time, I’ve worked as a retail buyer, writer, sex advice columnist, [product] reviewer and publicist.

About six years ago, I was working at Wanted List and a vendor — Megan Stokes from Shane’s World — talked me into doing PR for them. I liked it so much that I decided PR was what I should be doing full-time.

Five years ago when I started the agency, there weren’t very many PR companies, and even fewer were run by women. I saw a call for a woman publicist, since many of my clients are female performers, and with the industry changing, a need for things to be done differently than they been had in the past. I haven’t looked back.

Why does the adult industry need good PR?

I’m glad you put the word “good” in there. Not all PR is good; that old saying about [any publicity being good publicity as long as they spell the subject’s name right] doesn’t ring true anymore. Bad PR can kill a career, and it takes a really industrious, creative and talented publicist to fix all that.

Each month, hundreds of new girls enter adult. With so much competition, it’s really important to stand out if you’re serious about your career. The same goes for companies. And with the bad PR going out about our industry as a whole, we need to change what outsiders think of adult and put a positive spin on things.

What services do you offer?

We offer more services than most adult PR companies. Beyond the usual press releases and interviews, my assistant and I move mountains.

We get our performer clients places to sign at trade shows and help them get ready with banners, photos and signage. We broker deals for toys and toy lines, get our girls into noteworthy adult and mainstream magazines, throw parties for birthdays and website launches and more. We have lots of mainstream connections and even book feature dancing gigs.

We help companies run their booths at trade shows. You’ll often see me in a booth ensuring things are going well, making signing schedules for the girls, and helping them with all the paperwork and signage. For adult-oriented companies and performers, we are huge into marketing and branding. This is all just the tip of the iceberg of what we offer.

How does your agency differ from its competition?

What makes us different is that we really care about our clients. Each client is treated equally, and we do as much as we can for each one. As a Nichiren Buddhist, I bring compassion and patience to the table, which is extremely important. I also have an advertising background, so I can help with art direction and copywriting for sites, along with branding and marketing.

What results have you achieved to date?

We’ve had some big names on our roster, like Nyomi Banxxx, Kelly Divine, Pulse Distribution and Kimber James. We’ve also helped to carve out great careers for newer girls or girls who weren’t getting the attention they deserved, like Nikki Delano, Brooklyn Chase and Jenna J Ross, who are on their way to becoming household names.

We’ve garnered toys and toy lines for quite a few clients, and I recently got one of my clients on a mainstream reality show on a major network. I garnered three Fame Registry nominations for Publicist of the Year between 2010 and 2012, and I received my very first major awards nomination this year for Marketing Campaign of the Year for our work on Sparks Entertainment’s The Vampire Mistress.

The crowning achievement was when we helped Julie Simone get into the AVN Hall of Fame. I was sitting at the awards show with her, and it was amazing.

What are the major PR mistakes adult operators make?

Well since you asked, I can think of a few.

Being a performer and hiring a publicist who is also a performer in the industry is one. In that scenario, you’ll never been number one, as clients should always be. You’re competing against your publicist for interviews, face time, nominations and award wins, and in some cases even walking the red carpet with them.

Making up things to garner publicity is another. I’ve seen more than a few companies and performers say they’re doing projects that never transpire, and they do this repeatedly. Others say they’re donating to charity when they’re really not, and some put out press releases with ridiculous claims. Everyone can see through this type of behavior, and it tarnishes the efforts of companies that really do give money to charity, like Girlfriends Films.

Another big [mistake] is putting out too many press releases. We only put out PR when it’s really relevant. That way, people take our news seriously and will read and post it. Flooding the news sites and boards with endless PR is no bueno. This annoys the sites, as well as fans and other publicists.

How can people find you?

You can check out our site, TheRubPR.com and see our client list, blog and some of the services we offer, along with contact information. I’m on Twitter and Facebook with our company page and my personal page. If you want to know more about how PR works in the adult and mainstream markets, check out my bi-weekly blog on Rock Confidential.