Good Grief, it's a Bunny Massacre!

So you thought Charles Arthur was a hardcore PR hater, did you?

Huh. He's a lightweight. Some chap who runs a blog called Systeme D is fed up with PR folks indiscriminately sending out press releases to all and sundry. And bad press releases at that. 

So he's set up a 'name and shame' list identifying PR bunnies (his words, not mine) who have ticked him off with poorly targeted, badly written or just plain dumb press releases. What makes this a step beyond the lovely Bad Pitch Blog is this list doesn't just name agencies. Oh no, that's for wimps. This list names the individual PR people who have issued the release, with their email addresses. See it here.

Comments

[Linda]

Absolutely brilliant and hilarious. For about six months, I was editor of a charity magazine for families with twins etc and a regional business magazine, in the West Midlands. I used to laugh my head off when I got the same press release addressed to me twice but for the different magazines. This is a long time ago, but if my memory serves me right, then one culprit was a Northern museum.

[Sally]

Oh, I don't know - don't you think printing someone's name and email address is a wee bit harsh? There's worse crimes in the world than making a slightly dodgy reference to Princess Di, surely?

[Linda]

Yes there are worst crimes but I don't think it's cruel, if it had a sentence saying: "Email this daft mare to tell her not to send me this b********", then that would be cruel. Funny but cruel.

[Black_Bunny]

I must admit the line about "my kitchen must-have is a large pan to boil bunnies alive" did elicit a guilty snort of laughter. (Not that I approve of this sort of thing in any way, no sir, not me, sir)

[Charles]

The irony being that by posting like that he's giving those s/he professes to detest a ton of Googlejuice. Durr. Way to 2.g0.

[Sally]

Hi Charles

Agreed. And it's a he - I believe it's written by an editor of a magazine about canal boats or some such.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Er, they're mailto:s, Charles, not http:s. Google won't take any notice. Spambots might, though.

Sally, yes, that's right, I'm editor of Waterways World, the well-known magazine about skincare, kitchen equipment and extreme sports. (And thanks for the mention!)

[Sally]

Tis a pleasure.

I can well understand why you chose to create the list, irrelevant releases can sometimes seem impossibly stupid. But can I ask why you've included the email addresses of the PRs?

I guess there must be a reason, but it seems a wee bit harsh to me.

Sally

[Spud]

Charles - I don't think that Richard's goal is to raise anyone's Google ratings. I think it's far less sophisticated than that. That is, however, probably the most insular form of irony that I've ever encountered

Richard - How many "Waterways World" relevant releases do you get that you aren't a subscriber to...? Thought so... so set up a rule that puts anything with press release in the subject into the bin, stick with your RSS feeds and stop getting wound up.

Linda - I can only assume that you took the time to inform the northern museum that you were editor of both publications - because I personally would have drawn the obvious link between a charity magazine for families with twins etc and a regional business magazine. Christ, it's glaringly obvious, especially when both publications are edited by someone called Linda... Thought so, never mind there are "worst crimes"

My thoughts on this can be found here: http://spudgun.wordpress.com/2007/06/14/attacked-again/
with apologies to Sally for nicking a link, but otherwise it would just take too long and right now I'm way too tired

[Linda]

Hi Spud - no I didn't take the time to tell them that but I did take the time to tell them that (let's say) a release about the promotion of their deputy manager to manager wasn't of any interest to business owners in Smethwick and nor was there any slot in a magazine specifically for families with twins, triplets or more entitled "Staff promotions in museums in the North."

That's unless of course the new manager had big plans to start offering special discounts/sessions for multiple birth families or unveiling a new display called 'Quads in the North through the ages."

What made me laugh was the fact that they felt either publication should be on the list for general press releases in the first place - nothing to do wit who was editing them - that were also no doubt sent to 800 other "contacts" - before they'd taken any time to see if there were actually any sections in there that were relevant.

Fair enough if they were going to say: "Hi, I thought this may be of interest for your X, Y or Z slot."

I have a huge respect for good PR people, of which there are plenty - and I get equally as riled by journalists who slag PRs off for the sake of it, especially as I have worked in the two disciplines and continue, as part of a company I started, to make money from some PR work but sending out scattergun press releases or ringing up a news editor on a regional paper right on deadline to ask: "Did you get my press release about tasty treats for spring?" are two things I have tried to avoid.

All the best to you.

Linda

[Richard Fairhurst]

Sally: well, yes, it is a little peevish, I'll grant you that. Two reasons, I guess. The first is that the information is already public: they've sent it to me without my requesting it and without any 'in confidence' disclaimer, so I assume they're happy for it to be widely distributed.

The second is that they are, to put it bluntly, spamming me; and like spammers, their indiscriminate mails can cause active harm (I think the final straw was when I got a 20Mb or so attachment-laden e-mail on deadline day last month, when I was frantically trying to send PDFs back and forth to our designer). Spambots will pick up any addresses posted on the web, and you can guess the rest.