Turning around, ruffian grabs publicity thing (6)
I believe the answer is:
doodah
'thing' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'turning around ruffian grabs publicity' is the wordplay.
'turning around' is a reversal indicator.
'ruffian' becomes 'hood'.
'grabs' indicates putting letters inside.
'publicity' becomes 'ad' (advert).
'hood' enclosing 'ad' is 'hadood'.
'hadood' back-to-front is 'DOODAH'.
(Other definitions for doodah that I've seen before include "Whatsitsname" , "thingumajig" , "Thing whose name you can't remember" , "Thingamy" , "Whatsit" .)