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 It’s not been a good week for the region’s flacks.
First, Promax, on behalf of HP’s oh-so-exciting printing division, manages to enrage T-break editor Abbas Jaffar Ali, by first inviting him to a press conference, then telling him it was cancelled, and then...
“Now imagine my surprise when, on Tuesday, I saw a tweet from a fellow colleague saying ‘Just got done with the HP event.’ Was I furious? Yes,” wrote Ali on the T-break blog.
He continues: “Lying to an Editor about the cancellation of an event for whatever reasons, I would think, would be a cardinal sin for any PR agency. These are the people that help your client get exposure and going down the route that Promax did is a pretty good way of signing your own death warrant.”
Unsurprisingly after such an outburst, Promax got in touch, and with much contrition, said that there had been two events that day, and there’d been a mixup, because one did get cancelled.
This seemed to mollify Ali, although to our paranoid minds, there’s still something suspicious about the whole thing: TWO printing/imaging events, on the same day? Seems unlikely. And what about that plume of smoke over the grassy knoll, eh?
Anyway, no sooner are we done with that, than some hapless PR over in Jordan – at MS&L, since you ask – manages to alienate a substantial portion of the region’s journos.
Having failed to see any response whatsoever from an almost-impossibly-thrilling press release about Sipes Paints being chosen to paint the Jordanian village of Rasoun, she proceeded to send out the following to her press contacts:
“Dear All, Please note that this PRL was sent a couple of days ago and you haven’t published the News. Kindly can you publish it or explain why it hasn’t been published in your esteemed portal.”
Oh. Well. That told us, then.
We got our hands on this email via a technology website, which perhaps provides a hint as to why the paint-related release wasn’t published (and also suggests MS&L Jordan’s industry-specific email lists may need some work).
A quick call to the PR concerned resulted in another very speedy show of contrition – it seems this followup mail was definitely NOT intended to be read in the tone many recipients probably read it in, no siree. Also, this definitely won’t happen again, oh no.
Well, we should hope not – although again this does illustrate quite how dangerous a dashed-off email can be – so LET THIS BE A LESSON, flacks of the world.
And it seems like PRs have more fundamental problems on their hands, judging by the number joining the Facebook group “I Work in PR and My Family and Friends Have No Idea What I Do” – existential crisis, much?
Well we’re happy to help out here.
See, PR, is... erm. Well basically, it’s when you... er... talk to people... about... stuff.*
Hmm.
Can we get back to you on this one?
Have a fun weekend, flacks and flackettes, wherever you are.
* Your correspondent’s father, who was in the PR biz for many years, was happy to describe PRs as “the whores of the advertising industry” (which, some might comment, is really saying something). Anyway, works for us...
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