No one has ever heard of Eliza Kruger before an article on Deadspin, relating The Somewhat Romantic Story Of Mark Sanchez And A 17-Year-Old Girl. Eliza Kruger, 17 (featured right) allegedly “hooked up” with Jets star Mark Sanchez at his Jersey home last month, and offered a few bedroom photos as proof to Deadspin.
From this PR’s perspective, the story is the stereotype of a savvy PR campaign that makes overnight celebrities. All the “right” ingredients are there: a minor blond teenager; a famous, good looking American football quarterback for the New York Jets and the teenager’s rich father, Connecticut hedge funder Konrad “Chip” Kruger. Add to all this the “I’ll sue, I will not sue!” game played by the main actress of the story with the journalist who ran the news first, and you get the complete picture.
Whether Eliza Kruger and Mark Sanchez have a relationship is irrelevant. The mere mention of their names together in the same sentence today has the same PR effect. For Sanchez, media attention is nothing new, and you can expect the New York Jets PR department response pretty soon. But for the Krugers, things are less rosy: there’s nothing they can do to stop the presses, and the story running on Deadspin gets picked up by numerous mainstream media outlets, including those that are not tabloid-focused, like FOX News.
What makes a news outlet like FOX News run a story more appropriate for TMZ? Well, the actors, of course. Being blond, 17, and the daughter of a millionaire might be cool, but perhaps not cooler than being texted by Mark Sanchez. For our readers, a fair warning: there is more to this story than meets the eye. Expect to hear and see more of Eliza Kruger soon. Next? Perhaps following in Kim Kardashian’s footsteps? You never know… whatever sells.