Here’s one for the bad pitch blog. Irish journalist (and blogger) John Collins recounts a recent example of the massive value add offered by many of my PR brethren:
pr: “his this is x from y agency, i’m just ringing to see if you received the release from our client that we sent out this morning?”
me: “ah, yes, i think i saw that one alright”
pr: “ok, thanks” [hangs up]
Ah yes, fantastic. Of course (fast becoming an older person every day) I remember when I can admit to using the “e-mail must have got lost” excuse a few times back in the early 1990’s, but it’s not really expanding the media relations experience is it?
Of course, in fairness to the poor innocent who made the call, I’m sure they were probably forced to do it by their muppet manager who makes them call up all the journalists on the e-mail list so that they can put it in the monthly report. For the love of Jebus (Jebus isn’t a real religious figure is he? I don’t want loads of protestors on the blog so if he is, apologies in advance – if you can’t read this I’ve already deleted the reference in a failed attempt to avoid widespread condemnation – now where was I… oh yeah..) when will people stop and think about what they are doing?
If you are wondering why our poor maligned profession continues to fail in efforts to improve its image, this is a great example.
Murphy's Law 