infomercials.

you ever make a bad decision that comes back to bite you? yeah, me too. and this is the story of my most recent epic bad decision.

back in feb 2008 i filmed a commercial for this little company. yes, it's true. how did this happen, you ask? i was a real p-a customer and in one of my shipments, there was a little note saying if you submitted your "before" pictures to some website they'd give you free product. yes please. so i did, and one of the casting directors latched onto me the very next week and wanted me to shoot a testimonial. i think i was an appealing candidate because i a.) lived in LA [they film in LA & SF, and have to fly in the testimonials if they live elsewhere] and b.) worked in PR [so they figured i could stay on message and put together a coherent story].

she & i were in talks for shooting a testimonial for over a year but things were always held off due to my work schedule, vacations, etc. when i knew we'd be moving soon for MBA school and time was running out, she offered me one last chance to do a shoot. my sched was open and my curiosity overtook me and i agreed. having always worked behind-the-scenes in my career, i was super interested to see how they did everything, even though it meant i'd have to be in FRONT of the camera instead of behind.

they put me up in a hotel in the valley and paid me $50 gas money to drive over. i got up early in the morning, met my fellow testimonial-ers and got schlepped over to a giant house in reseda [fun fact: where they also filmed flava flav's show for vh1]. i had two makeup people and one hair person get me ready and i worked with the wardrobe girls to pick outfits. i spent most of the day scoping out the house & amazing backyard, enjoying the craft service table [which was probably what i was most looking forward to & turned out to be everything i'd ever dreamed of -- new meals & snacks on the hour, every hour!] and hanging out with the other girls. i filmed a few interviews, changed clothes, got touched up, filmed more, ate more. and then we were done and i drove home. oh, and i got to keep a totally awesome dress that i wore for one of my interviews. [i still get free p-a products to this day, btw.]

and that was it. only my mom, b, and like two other people even knew i had done it and i sort of hoped my footage would never see the light of day. then, over the past few weeks, i've been notified by a handful of friends [the first one being an ex-boyfriend, which is sort of awkward] that I'M ON TV. ughhh. so far sightings have been on e! and mtv.

so now i'm outing myself so that you lovely blog readers can keep an eye out too. i can't tell if i'm more embarrassed by the fact that it's ME on tv, or that i'm hawking p-a. but let's be serious, at least i'm in good company with the likes of fellow p-a users katy perry, jessica simpson and justin bieber. right? right. ugh. still embarrassing.

p.s. for funsies, here's some pics from that day that have never been published. me & my fellow testimonialists -- see if you spot any of them on tv too :)



an outtake from my interview...it was freaking bright outside. lol:



the end. moral of the story: free facewash is not worth a lifetime of humiliation.