PR Disasters and Bad Pitches – Don’t Become a Case Study
December 6, 2006 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
The blogosphere can be an unfriendly place at times. One of those times is when you or your organization are singled out as an example of what NOT to do.
Here are two sites you don’t want to be featured on — The Bad Pitch Blog, and PRDisasters.com.
Satisfy your morbid curiosity for cringe-worthy public relations. Go ahead, check out these sites.
The Bad Pitch Blog was set up to encourage better PR pitches . Authors Kevin Dugan and Richard Laermer provide tips for newbie and veteran PR people. But that’s not what draws their audience. They also point out examples of poor pitches they’ve received, or that have been forwarded to them.
Anonymity is preserved for occasional perpetrators, but repeat offenders have their names revealed.
PR Disasters is calling for entries for PR disasters of 2006. Not sure I agree that each of their examples is a mismanaged PR situation. Sometimes you have a business disaster with PR implications.
What’s the difference between a PR disaster, and a business disaster? In my book, a PR disaster is when public relations mistakes are made. I suspect the average person considers something a PR disaster if it causes bad publicity for a company.
Tags: crisis, disasters, pitches, pr, public relations
Hi Eric, Thx for picking up on my 2006 PR Disasters Awards call. The point you make resonates strongly and is a point made in my book PR Disasters (Talespin); I agree that there’s a difference between a real PR disaster and what the media dubs a PR disaster, but until we educate the greater populace, then the all-encompassing definition will have to do.
Thx again
That’s true, Gerry. In the end, if it’s a business disaster, the company suffers. Reducing the damage, or repairing the organization’s image is the important thing, not itemizing the exact targets to blame.