How-Do receives worst press release ever - North West Media News

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How-Do receives worst press release ever

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Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Here at How-Do we’re used to receiving press releases of varying degrees of interest and various degrees of quality, but rarely do we get one as jaw-droppingly awful and poorly targeted as this…

How-Do has to admit that it opened the emailed release, securing the PR the first points on the publicity board, but then what else were we meant to do when we saw the title ‘Olivia Newton-John saves a kitten on the Great Wall of China’?

Help...

Okay, the North West media and marketing angle wasn’t immediately obvious perhaps, but we assumed there was some sort of hidden relevance (or slightly dodgy website links) enclosed.

Bizarrely, there wasn’t.

The email was actually about Olivia Newton John saving a day old kitten from a pond on a charity walk across the Great Wall of China.

Worse still it had an inbox clogging megapixel picture attached of Ms Newton-John, said kitten (now named Magic apparently) and some camp looking chap who bore a distressingly creepy resemblance to Sir Cliff Richard.

...please God, help!

Reading on about ONJ’s “sleepless nights” tending Magic, feeding the poor feline milk from a syringe every two hours, it quickly became apparent that it was the God-bothering crooner himself in the picture... as the walk had attracted celebrities of the order of Sir Cliff, Dannii Minogue and Toyah ‘fu*king’ Wilcox.

Jesus.

How-Do wishes all the best to Magic (who is allegedly desperate to find his way back to that pond) and, of course, to ONJ on her “extreme 23 day trek” of 228kms (that’s almost ten kilometres a day!), while wishing all the worst on the London-based PR agency who thought that a North West media portal would be remotely interested in this utter shite.

In an ironic twist to the tail said outfit is actually called The Good Agency.

We couldn’t make this up if we tried…

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Comments (14)

1 By Peter , on 30-04-2008 07:54
Well the only thing about this press release is that it got published by How-Do. So did it work or didn't it?

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2 By Kinski, on 30-04-2008 08:45
Fair point Peter... it worked as a naming and shaming exercise anyhow.

As a lowly hack poorly targeted, irrelevant PR tosh is the bane of my life.

All the scattergun approach does is make you pissed off with the agency that's constantly sending you all the crap.

Cute cat though.

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3 By Hang on a mo, on 30-04-2008 09:40
Getting rejected my arrogant journos is hardly fun... with out PR's you'd have to get of your butts and do some work. Grr...

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4 By Kinski, on 30-04-2008 11:43
Hang on... I'm not saying that, and I don't think the story is either.

The point is that targeting is absolutely crucial.

Target your release to the relevant media and it'll be warmly welcomed.

Fire out 1000 emails willy nilly and all you'll succeed in doing is pissing people off.

Good PRs target their releases properly and become absolutely vital to journalists.

Do that and everyone's happy, especially your clients.

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5 By Hang on a mo, on 30-04-2008 11:49
Wow - thanks for that pearl of wisdom... i'll get in touch with the CIPR and make sure they know about this.

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6 By Rob Artisan , on 30-04-2008 13:24
Very good way of making your point.

Still I got a load of coverage about a dog who liked curry but at least he was a local.

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7 By George Dearsley , on 30-04-2008 15:28
We know most PRs do a wonderful job. However, because I am still on several media lists as working for "women's magazines" (having for many years written stories like 'I tried to murder my husband' and 'my death bed wedding' etc) I recently received a glossy A4 Press release/brochure in Manchester City blue which carried on the front cover what looked like a golf club with a pointed end compared with the wide end of, say, a putter. On looking inside I was met with a headline which read The Last Taboo...and realised to my horror that the "putter" was actually a device to be inserted into a woman's vag*na. With not a mention of any possible discomfort, the Press release assured me this was her "first step to a strong and healthy pelvic floor" and claimed women could look forward to "an improvement within weeks". I have referred in many a lecture and training session since to the Pelvic Floor Educator (registered trade mark). So in some way I suppose I have given the company some small degree of publicity and now I have introduced the device to How-Doers. But I'm afraid I shrank from offering this to a publication as a news story or feature.

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8 By Jim, on 30-04-2008 16:28
The point was to get people to sponsor Olivia (or even Magic) for her charity walk on the wall of China. As far as 'only' 10k a day? The conditions were adverse: snow, rain, sandstorms, high precarious crumbling-wall treks, 40+degree incline climbs, etc. If you read any of the blogs posted from other, younger, fit walkers you'd see it was no walk in the park. www.greatwalktobeijing.com

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9 By the one that I (don't) want, on 30-04-2008 16:47
That's all well and groovy Jim, but why send the release to a NW business website?
Surely Heat, Now, Daily Mail, express, Toyah Wilcox Monthly etc would be the correct kind of media channel rather than How Do.
I agree with Kinski and George - it's all about targeting. that's common sense, but unfortunately not everyone has it.

Now where can I get my Pelvic Floor Educator?

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10 By sharp shooter, on 01-05-2008 13:16
Most half decent PRs do target key media with relevant stories but due to the fact they can also access comprehensive media databases and mass email a release in seconds means the temptation to 'spam' editors will always exist.

How-Do for example is listed on Cision's Mediadisk along with a named editor and a valid email. A lazy exec will often select job title 'editor' - regardless of publication - and hit send to about 10,000 contacts at once. There are lots of filters but often these are often ignored.

PRs also know it annoys journalists if they send them irrelevant releases but the pressure to secure coverage means that if a mass broadcast release can generate even one or two more cuttings (in a regional, on a website, in an obscure trade title etc.) then a PRO feels obliged to do it as a mopping up exercise.

However, you'll be glad to know that most of the decent PR agencies in the nw region have quite a good rep for not blanket emailing journos.

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11 By stoney, on 02-05-2008 07:46
I agree with jim's comment. The trek is hardly a walk in the park and if you could save an animal why wouldn't you?
Seems to me that How-Do's ridicule of this news item is just a pathetic attempt at publicity for itself.If How-Do consider the story crap then why not just ignore it?

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12 By Kinski, on 02-05-2008 09:17
You're missing the point stoney.
The frustration doesn't come from the story (who wouldn't try and save the kitten!), it's the targeting and the London based PR agency that doesn't understand what the site's about that's clearly caused the frustration.
See sharp shooter's points re. spamming.

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13 By tris, on 02-05-2008 14:17
Personally I thought it was $&%*ing hilarious that you 'used' the release in such a way.

Give us more - time for a competition I think.

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14 By Hang on a mo, on 07-05-2008 09:40
This site should be a community, not a place for old hacks to slag of PR's. Why any one would KNOWINGLY or UNKNOWINGLY send anything they had written to it is beyond me.

Put your claws away and get down to some journalism.... you know, digging about in your inbox for a good press release and slagging off PR when you can't find one.

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