Warning: Rant ahead.

An artist recently shared this screenshot of a local entertainment venue’s social media post:

He was outraged. In his view, it was disrespectful not to use each entertainer’s name, instead listing generic titles like ‘magician,’ or ‘juggler.’

The comments section agreed: it was a scandal. Completely unacceptable behavior on behalf of the venue. Because of course, the commenters were all artists.

Despite being an artist myself, I don’t see it that way. And in this article I’m going to make a case for when and why a venue has good reasons to leave out an artist’s name.

Perceptive readers will quickly recognize this is a discussion about marketing and not magicians, jugglers, or entertainment venues.

An important note: I’m not merely playing devil’s advocate (as I was aggressively accused of in that thread, and in much more colorful language).

To see why I’m cutting against the grain, let’s take off our artist’s hat and put on our marketer’s cap instead.

Who’s it for? What’s it for?

Seth Godin taught me that as a marketer you’ve got to answer two simple questions:

• Who is this piece of marketing intended to serve?
• What action or change are you trying to bring about in those people?

The problem with trying to generate buzz, trying to get people in the door, trying to get them to buy into your idea, to want to spend their time or money on you, is it’s a self-serving perspective. It’s all about what you want.

But the marketing isn’t for you. It’s for them. And they rarely, if ever, have the same interests, wants, needs, or beliefs that you do.

This is a local venue’s free summer series for young families. So, let’s think about their perspective.

What does a family with young kids need to know about a free, weekly, family-friendly entertainment series on the lawn of a local business or shopping center? What do they care about?

Chances are they don’t care who the performer is. They don’t care about the artist’s accolades or which local morning program they’ve been on.

The show is an hour of free babysitting, a distraction for the kids while the parents sit on a blanket, getting a break from the chaos of parenthood.

My son is only 9-months-old, so we aren’t quite the target audience. But my friend has two kids under 10, and regularly attends similar free summer events. Here’s how that conversation doesn’t go:

“Hey, I noticed there’s a free magic show on the lawn this Saturday. You want to take the kids?”

“It depends. Who is it?”

The only thing my friend cares about is what type of entertainment it is. Her kids love magicians. They love jugglers. They don’t care much for balloon twisters for some reason. So, that conversation might go:

“Hey, I noticed there’s a free show on the lawn this Saturday. You want to take the kids?”
“It depends. What is it?”
“It’s a balloon twister.”
“No thanks. What about next week?”
“Next week is a juggler.”
“Oh, great! We’ll go to that one.”

Putting the names of the performers wouldn’t add anything, at least not on that particular post – a list of every week’s type of entertainment for the entire summer series. In fact, it would get in the way of the intended outcome. Listing all the performers’ names would make the post longer and harder to read while scrolling the newsfeed.

It might make sense on a weekly post about that week’s show, with more details and a link to further information, but not on the post in question.

It’s the lawn, not Broadway

Think about your local McDonald’s – the one that you go to occasionally when you need something quick on the way to or from work. Do you know the name of the person who cooks the food?

Of course you don’t. It doesn’t matter. ‘Cause it’s McDonald’s.

You’re not looking for a special experience or you wouldn’t be at McDonald’s. You’re looking for the same food cooked in the exact same way you’ve had it a million times before. When that’s what you’re looking for, it hits the spot.

There are a couple of restaurants where I know the name of the chef, because they’re a celebrity chef from the Food Network or Bravo. I go there not for the food but because it’s that particular chef doing his or her art.

Sometimes I enjoy the meal, sometimes I don’t. That’s not the point. It’s not what drew me in.

The kinds of entertainment venues in this social media post are McDonald’s. They’re not selling specific people. They’re selling magicians, jugglers, balloon artists.

The one-and-only

It’s clear why so many artists were upset and offended. It’s a fragile and vulnerable life. I get it. I’ve lived it. We build up the idea that we’re special and unique to protect ourselves from judgement about our art.

Except, most of us are not special or unique performers. We’re merely really good at what we do.

One commenter said, “I get called “The Puppet Man” all the time. Sometimes I’m billed as just “Kids Entertainment.”

When my artist’s hat is on, I feel for him. But when my marketer’s cap is on, I ask a different question:

Have you done anything to warrant somebody using your name on the flyer instead of calling you “The Puppet Man?”

Are you actually bringing something to the table that, if they were to use your name, would generate more interest, more excitement, more buzz?

The answer is probably not.

Because if you did, they would be using your name.

The Big Secret

Marketers want people to buy.

This venue’s marketing reflects what they think is going to get more people in the door. And if they thought using your name would sell more tickets, they’d be using it.

If Penn & Teller were coming to town, they wouldn’t advertise “Magic Show.” They’d advertise Penn & Teller. They probably wouldn’t even say it was a magic show. It wouldn’t matter. The attraction is that it’s Penn & Teller, regardless of what they’re actually here to do.

Their name sells, because they are actually a unique, special experience. They’re the one-and-only.

You’re probably not. When I was a full-time magician I wasn’t – not to the public, anyway.

I’ve been flown literally all over the world across continents and cultures. Those corporate event planners could have spent one tenth the money on an equally good magician right there in their home country or in their region, but they brought me in because of my name.

BUT if a local entertainment venue where I live in Connecticut was putting on a summer series and they booked me to be one of the acts, there would be no reason for them to use my name. Nobody in the general public knows my name. Corporate event planners the world over do, but local families in Connecticut don’t.

Using my name on the marketing would be a waste of space.

All they would need to say was “family-friendly magic show,” and then people would show up and they’d see my show. And if I was really good, maybe I could convert those people into being fans of me specifically. And then in time by over delivering I would develop the kind of reputation where putting “Brian Miller” on the flyer would sell tickets.

Until then, “magician” is fine by me.

3 Solutions

Okay, we’ve identified the cause of the outrage.

We’ve established why it’s reasonable for a local entertainment venue to advertise in this way, even when it’s contrary to the wants, needs, or beliefs of the artists.

But what if you’re one of those artists- surely your feelings matter, right?

Here are three specific things you can do to remedy the situation.

1. Refuse bookings that don’t honor your artistic or professional integrity, as you see fit. Don’t like the way this venue markets their events? Don’t take the gig.

2. Specify in your contract or rider precisely how you are to be promoted, in exactly the language you want. You can establish before signing a contract that your name is to be used in all marketing, print and digital. If the venue won’t agree, see Solution 1.

3. Build a following so strong that organizers desperately want to put your name on their marketing in order to sell more tickets and generate excitement.

I posted these three solutions in the original thread, and was subsequently accused of victim-blaming.

Let’s be very clear: We’re not talking about sexual assault. We’re talking about a magician or a juggler being unhappy with how a local entertainment venue promotes their free summer series.

You’re not a victim. You are an artist.

On Ethics

“But shouldn’t the venue use artists’ names simply because it’s respectful?”

Sure, that would be lovely. But you can’t control that. You can, however, control 3 specific things we outlined above.

People aren’t going to do what you consider respectful, right, or fair. They’re going to do what they believe serves the audience, which is not you.

One artist argued that listing each entertainer’s name would actually make the acts look like known-quantities, giving the entire summer series more cache and increasing a potential attendee’s interest. While I’m not sure I agree, at least that was a marketing argument from the audience’s perspective, not merely an ego boost for the artist who hopes to get visibility for themselves.

As artists, we need to check our egos and remember who we are here for.

As far as I’m concerned, it makes no difference to me how the audience ends up in the seats. But once they are, it’s my job to deliver an outstanding, incredible, mind-blowing experience that is so good…

They may even remember my name.

In the words of Steve Martin, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

When it comes to the work of an artist, that’s the only guaranteed solution to just about everything. And the funny thing is, when you spend more time with your marketer’s cap on, when you learn to see your work through the eyes of the audience instead of your ego, you’re more likely to earn the respect you so desperately crave as an artist.

‍