Lobbyist Uses Costumes and ‘Visuals’ : Public Relations Can Be Lively on Capitol Hill

When someone dresses in costume and distributes treats on Capitol Hill in October, it doesn’t mean it’s Halloween. It means a lobbyist has come up with a new way to pitch an idea to Congress.

And in the staid, pinstripe world of Washington lobbyists, Pamela Kostmayer stands out.

Recently, Kostmayer, accompanied by an assistant dressed in a panda costume, crisscrossed Capitol Hill distributing jeans to members of Congress and the press. The message: “The textile bill gets America by the ‘seat of the pants.’ ”

Kostmayer, 34, is a public relations consultant currently representing the American Fair Trade Council, a group of retailers and importers that opposes a bill to cut textile imports.

When she joined a Washington public relations firm three years ago, “I was told if I scheduled an early-morning event, I should give the press coffee and doughnuts,” Kostmayer said in an interview. “After attending a few boring press conferences, I decided they would rather have visuals.”

And Kostmayer, who got her early training as a publicist with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, gives them just that.

For example, a few years ago she decided to wheel coffins and urns with price tags into a Senate committee room to demonstrate how her client would comply with a new federal rule requiring funeral homes to inform their customers of the variety of prices available for their services.

For another client seeking legislation to protect brand-name garment makers from counterfeiters, she dressed twins in identical outfits and sent them to Capitol Hill to ask lawmakers: “Which twin has the phony?” The bill was approved.

She kicked off her current client’s $500,000 campaign against limits on textile imports by distributing small stuffed teddy bears with a two-sided price tag. One side listed the lower price the bear sells for now, and the other side a price more than three times higher that the group said consumers would pay if the import bill becomes law. Most stuffed toys and dolls are made in whole or in part overseas.

The next week it was imported socks, with the message: “The textile bill socks it to America.” In each case, the gifts were accompanied by articles and statistics to substantiate her client’s case that import quotas would raise consumer prices and in the long run, cost American jobs in import-sensitive industries.

Despite her efforts, the House overwhelmingly approved the textile bill that its supporters argued was necessary to save the domestic textile industry and the thousands of people it employs. One of those who voted against Kostmayer’s client was her husband, Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer (D-Pa.).

When asked what it was like to go home to her husband that evening, Kostmayer replied: “Interesting.”