flack

To flutter; palpitate.

To hang loosely; flag.

To beat by flapping.

A publicist, a publicity agent.

Edward Bernay, who was a consultant to the US Delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference which terminated the first World War (and who finally wound up as a flack for the United Fruit Company in Latin America), believed that propaganda and its covert marketing could effectively alter the will of the American public.

Thought you were flack," she said. "I'm not flack." "All right, P.R., a reporter, a novelist."

To publicise, to promote.

[..] he told funny stories about his early days in the theater district, flacking shows up and down the street, but Klara wasn’t listening.