Girl Power
Like all things New York, the Grubman Effect has trickled down the Jersey Turnpike, and like characters on a reality show, we’ve come to know Philly’s PR chicks a little too well. Open a magazine or a newspaper and there they are: smiling on the Social Studies pages in Philadelphia Style, boldfaced in Pauline Pinard Bogaert’s Inquirer society column, dispensing fashion advice on CN8 and the Fox morning shows. You might have read about Tina Breslow, the matriarch of restaurant PR firm Breslow Partners. Tina had gastric bypass surgery, and news of this made page one of the Inquirer last October. Then there’s Krista Bard, who represents high-end restaurants and developers and, according to a local rag, composes large-scale paintings inspired by tantric sex. Becky Fawcett, who previously worked in the marketing department of this magazine, recently appeared in its pages to tell readers that the two most important things she needs on vacation are her Dior sunglasses and her dog, Bitsy. And then there’s the gossip, the stuff you overhear while getting your morning coffee: the publicist who was caught giving a B-list actor a blow job in a local bar; the flack whose signature “move” involves a backward grab of the male genitalia; the PR account executive who was publicly fired, and whose boss supposedly posted her picture in the foyer so the doorman would know not to let her back in the building.
Welcome to the fabulous and female world of Philly publicists. In a city run by guys in bad suits, and in an industry still dominated by men, these women have begun to wield real power, strutting through boardrooms and nightclubs on Jimmy Choo kitten heels, clutching Louis Vuitton bags and chatting to their Brazilian wax specialists on their BlackBerries. In just a few short years, they’ve come to hold the fate of many a restaurant, boutique and overpriced hair salon in their well-manicured hands. If Philadelphia’s social scene were high school, they’d be the popular girls. They’re the prettiest, the best-dressed and the biggest flirts, the kind of girls who smile at their locker partners even as they’re plotting to steal their boyfriends.
The South Street offices of Cashman & Associates are half-packed, because the girls — there are 10 or so, plus interns and one male employee, Jonny — are about to move to a spacious new place in Northern Liberties. But among the boxes stacked in Nicole Cashman’s office, a few personal touches remain, including a glittery pillow embroidered with the word “Goddess” and a black-and-white photo of Nicole in a slinky dress. A headshot of Sarah Jessica Parker, the patron saint of conspicuous consumption, hangs above the desk.
“I got a call from a woman today,” Cashman twangs in her thick Philly accent, breezing into the room in a black ensemble that conveys both Audrey Hepburn and Borgata waitress. “She was like, ‘Nicole, I just want you to know that you’re, like, what women aspire to be.’ And it felt so good, because I am what I aspired to be, too.”
The daughter of a fireman and a nurse practitioner, Cashman, 32, must have spent her formative years longing for a more glamorous life. After graduating from Drexel, she bounced from one fashionable job to another — planning events for Strawbridge’s and Bloomingdale’s, booking models for local mannequin hut Askins. Before she started Cashman & Associates in 2001, she had a brief partnership producing events with Michele Malin Seidman, a statuesque blond promoter and former girlfriend of ex-Philadelphia Flyer Eric Lindros. The eventual schism between the two partners is rumored to have been epic — there are whispers of large-scale, ego-tastic battles — but both parties deny there was drama.
Speed bumps aside, Nicole Cashman now has the life that every Barbie-owning little girl dreams of. Daytime Nicole contains her cleavage in stylish Betsey Johnson dresses, tripping from meeting to meeting in pointy Michael Kors boots, the planner tucked under her arm indicating business mode. Nighttime Nicole goes to fancy parties in sparkly tops and full-length furs. Cashman & Associates has grown fast on the backs of “upscale lifestyle brands,” and looking the part is important. Leafing through the C&A promotional packet, you’ll find a client list that has cited trendy bars like 32˚ and Denim, corporate accounts like
Kiehl’s and Govberg jewelers, and high-end real estate clients like the St. James (where Cashman lives). Another list boasts media placements in such esteemed organs as the New York Times and, er, the Marshall News Messenger Northeast.
