Chris Anderson sparks PR flak armageddon
Last week Wired editor Chris Anderson published a list of PR folks who'd spammed him with inappropriate news releases. On his Long Tail blog, Anderson said that all the addresses on the list were blacklisted forever from his inbox.
As a result, one PR firm is now bragging to clients and prospective clients that it is not on Anderson's blacklist. This has prompted a flame war between PR firms.
Silicon Alley Insider has published some of the emails:
5:25pmLink (Thanks, Charlie!)
From: Adam Handelsman, 5WPR EVP
To: Steve BlinnYour email to my client is disgusting and I want you [and employee John Chapman] to take notice... I have instructed every one of my staffers (80) to personally target your clients. I will pay them an entire month’s fee as a bounty for every client they take from you. I am also personally calling CEO of your clients, and forwarding your BS email around the industry.
Great move moron... this is war!
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you don't understand! the other guy isn't good with people. I'm good with people. Why can't you get that. What the hell is wrong with you, our PR is better!
Let this be a lesson to the world: nobody had better make 5WPR look like a pack of fools who substitute spamming for proper relationship-based PR. Anyone who ignores this advice will soon learn the meaning of fear, as 5WPR makes themselves look like a pack of fools by spamming your clients instead of doing proper relationship-based PR.
What a bunch of morons. What is this? 5th Grade?
If I were one of their clients I'd pull my account and take my money elsewhere. I'd rather have a PR firm that focuses on me and my needs instead of bickering with each other like a bunch of school kids.
I am constantly surprised by how publicly unrelatable some PR people are. If your job is to maintain relationships with other human beings, you probably ought to realize that when you say things like "this means war," you are quoting Daffy Duck.
well, daffy was quoting Groucho Marx.
These flaks are watching too much Entourage: each email reads like a wanna-be Ari Gold tirade.
Please, more PR anecdotes Mark. Anything that exposes people to the thinking and habits of America's propaganda specialists is probably healthy.
Can't wait till his new book Free comes out...
Is Blinn on Anderson's blacklist now?
These guys are supposed to be charming for a living? Yeesh.
I did a short stint in a pretty powerful PR firm in NYC, and it was kind of stunning just how unpleasant and out of touch these people were. On the upside, however, I did get to meet Karen Duffy and see the Disney/Dali collaboration "Destino" through the gig.
I forgot to say, Anderson ought to banninate any and all parties involved in this pissing match; I can't imagine he'll want to hear out of an affiliated cakehole ever again.
Yeah! Great move moron!
as an aside, #7, the people who REALLY need to hear this stuff likely arent reading this place to begin with, unfortunately.
Sheesh don't these people have actual jobs to do, other than writing emails that boil down to "Hey you think your cock is big, well look at this cock, yeah that's right I'm swinging it at you."
Signing it 'you moron' is the most self-reflexive part of that whole exchange. Way to go, Adam and Steve. Now make up or settle it in the sandbox.
Honestly, if you're in PR, you really need to figure out that spam isn't an effective way of Relating to the Public.
Which was already said by Chris Anderson, but it's particularly apt.
"Please, more PR anecdotes Mark. Anything that exposes people to the thinking and habits of America's propaganda specialists is probably healthy."
Yes, Burz, let's one-sidedly perpetrate stereotypes that apply to a few in order to make all PR people look bad. That would seem to be the kind of suggestion that an unethical PR person make.