Joho the Blog
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June 14, 2006
Steve Rubel disagrees with David Meermen Scott about the value of "direct-to-consumer" press releases. According to Steve, they suck. Yup, they do. There are two basic reasons why they suck: 1. Press releases are a weird rhetorical form, one-sided in the extreme, non-credible, and written in a bizarre form of speech found nowhere else. 2. Direct-to-consumer press releases are spam. Plain old press releases need to be deep-sixed. They already are nothing but wastebasket fodder for editors. Mulch waiting to happen. The idea that their reach should be extended to customers I find actually depressing. Is anybody doing this, or is it just David's own PR plan? (Disclosure: Steve works for Edelman, to whom I consult.) [Tags: pr media marketing] Posted
by D. Weinberger at June 14, 2006 11:37 AM
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Comments
It is depressing how important press releases continue to be. My company has never done one--they make me feel unclean, as if I had to promote my symphony by writing a jingle.
Worse, they're full of lies. A press release written by a company I'm associated with "quoted me." Of course, I never said the quote. It was created by a PR guy. I did get to pass on the release before it went out, and I changed the quote so it sounded like something I might say, but the whole idea left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. What if it was *my* press release. Would I have quoted myself?
Needless to say, the quote was picked up various places, as were sentences and phrases from the release. Blogs picked up the story too, but I got the distinct impression they visited the site and formed their own opinion.
So, tell me again how reporters are trained professionals with standards?
Posted by: Tim Spalding | June 28, 2006 01:08 AM