I’m not trying to be an obnoxious jerk here, but as a marketing/PR guy I feel it’s ok to call out stupidity when I see it.
Thanks to my little fashion blog, I get a good number of queries each week from PR companies, most of which are great.
But on the other hand, there are THOSE pitches. The one’s that make you think, “How could they possibly think this isn’t a horrible tactic?”
The most recent example comes from Company X, and the email that was mass distributed starts with,
“I wanted to thank you for all the help with the Person X video earlier this week and let you know that we are filming another event tonight.”
That’s great and all, but the thing is, I DID NOT help promote the video in question. As in, I’ve never even seen the video.
The email continues by offering up some random press release and additional content that in no way fits the format of my fashion blog, Fashables.
It’s just crazy to me that this stuff still happens and that some people haven’t evolved their communications tactics.
And I’d like to really hit home the between the lines learning lesson for this post. By alienating me in the very first sentence, I did not continue reading the email. That’s a disservice to both the company and the brand represented.
There are a ton of great PR people out there, but somehow there some that are stuck in 1996. Amazing.
