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Topic: Worst PR idea in the history of time
| Author | Message |
| lissa2k | Posted – 3/28/2008 1:00:51 PM | show profile | email poster I just got a FedEx, marked urgent, from a company in North Carolina called McNeill Communications Group. So I opened (and discarded) one medium FedEx box, transported from NC to New York. I removed (and discarded) some packing paper that was securing a cardboard box. I opened (and discarded) the cardboard box to find a plastic box wrapped in styrofoam. I threw out the styrofoam and opened the plastic box to find more paper packaging, a plastic bag of styrofoam peanuts, a plastic swizzle stick, and a three-page press release. The title of the release? "TharpeRobbins Celebrates Earth Day by Leading the Way with Environmental Initiatives." The gimmick is that the styrofoam peanuts dissolve in water. My jaw just dropped. The best part is that I have never heard of TharpeRobbins before, and the release gives no indication of what the company is, does, or sells except for the boilerplate at the end: "The privately held TharpeRobbins was created through the February 2007 merger of The Robbins Company, founded in 1982, and the Tharpe Company Inc., founded in 1981. Customized programs include products ranging from personalized jewelry to fine art, electronics, sports equipment, and outdoor merchandise. The company also offers rewards through local and national services, entertainment and recreation." Clear as mud. The other three pages of the release are dedicated to TharpeRobbins' environmental initiatives and awards. So essentially, what this boondoggle of a press kit did was to bring TharpeRobbins to my attention and provide no information about them except that they appear ludicrously hypocritical, by announcing their commitment to environmentally sustainable operations with a really wasteful mailing. Nicely done, McNeill Communications Group! |
| Unemployed-gal | Posted – 3/28/2008 1:25:02 PM | show profile That is too ludicrous! I once worked at a company where all the senior members of the company (some 20 in all) were sent a "press release" from some unknown company. Here's what each entailed: a Fed Ex envelope; those styrofoam bubbles; then the press release itself was a see-through plastic box with a kind of diorama (te kinds that third graders make) inside. The information itself was written on a sheet of paper glued to the back, upon which, like the pr thing you received, had absolutely nothing about the company or what it did. The cost to mail all of these? Apiece, $4.60. Times 20? You do the math. What a waste of resources. It's one thing to get creative with press releases, but it's quite another to be wasteful and say that you're "saving the enviroment." |
| London | Posted – 4/1/2008 10:15:24 AM | show profile | email poster Worst PR idea from the ludicrous to the downright scary - there is a notorious example from here in London when, back in late October 2001, a series of trade magazines received in the post a package, get this a hand grenade! of course it was a dummy, but the attached press release announced the "explosive" launch of some dumb product - needless to say the agency and brand hung their collective heads in shame as the walls fell-in on them.... Not a PR stunt as such, but a performance artist, left a series of exceptionally lifelike "bombs" on West London streets - apparantly this was an examination of modern citizens' alienation from their urban surroundings blah blah blah - amazingly (and very lucky for her) she was let-off by the police with a slap on the wrist in return for a contrite apology saying it was thoughtless and not intended to cause distress - duh |
| Sam Waynewright | Posted – 4/1/2008 11:25:03 AM | show profile Worse PR idea How about the one with our moronic president dressed up like a whizzened old hawked-nosed Tom Cruise, in full Hallooween-shop store Flight Suit, landing on a carrier just off San Diego (but carefully positioned so that you could NOT see the city in the background) and then have him announce: "Mission Accomplished!" Cue the wide angle camera showing hundreds of sailors who simply wanted to get home to their families and were held up another extra day for this nonsense. |
| wineaux | Posted – 4/1/2008 12:50:57 PM | show profile My God, maybe you were being punked? The irony is palpable. |
| lissa2k | Posted – 4/1/2008 3:43:34 PM | show profile | email poster Frighteningly, no I seriously considered the idea that someone was effing with me. I e-mailed the PR contact and got a one-line (and grammatically incorrect) message saying she would remove me from the mailing list. The funny thing was that I had just finished a piece on environmentally sustainable business practices, which is why I thought someone I knew might be kidding with me. I just wish I'd gotten it in time to include it in the piece - as an example of egregious greenwashing! |
