Great PR Pitches
10:00 AM --
One of the worst parts of my job is fielding PR pitches. Most of the time I'll receive an email from a company offering me the opportunity to write about Romanian sportswear, or a phone call from a company that's not in my beat. Those are easy enough to ignore.
But sometimes I'll receive a plea from a PR flack that I have developed somewhat of a personal relationship with, and sometimes that plea will come with the personal request that I save his or her job, like one email I received last week.
It was a pretty standard description of an announcement happening at some point in the future, with the request that I talk to a spokesperson of one of the companies involved. But I probably would have passed on it if not for the personal note added to the end of the email:
PR folks take note: It's that kind of personal touch that stands between good press and no press.
— Ryan Lawler, Total Sucker, Light Reading
But sometimes I'll receive a plea from a PR flack that I have developed somewhat of a personal relationship with, and sometimes that plea will come with the personal request that I save his or her job, like one email I received last week.
It was a pretty standard description of an announcement happening at some point in the future, with the request that I talk to a spokesperson of one of the companies involved. But I probably would have passed on it if not for the personal note added to the end of the email:
Why should you do this, other than a sense of obligation in shielding me from a life of cheap wine, bad hair and an apartment that closely resembles a cardboard box? Well, current spokespeople include...
PR folks take note: It's that kind of personal touch that stands between good press and no press.
— Ryan Lawler, Total Sucker, Light Reading
