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PJ Ink, a strangely named PR firm in New York, decided to go the whole infomercial route and talk about the “amazing ARM story” with more exclamations than a four-year-old uses to describe his hatred of Barney.
It’s April and my friend April sent it to me, so this is fitting to begin a month with. (Yes I know, that’s personal.)
Meanwhile end of PJ Ink’s crass, poorly-constructed e-mail has bizarre words I’d like to share with you. No commenting... Ok, I just got to say this thing really offends me. PR People Unite and let's stop pitches like this from a) coming to reporters and b) immediately being forwarded to us with Can you believe someone did this, Richard?" as the subject.
Their words: PJ Inc. is a public relations agency located at 589 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10018. While we're certain that the information contained herein is tremendously interesting and valuable to the press and public, Congress now requires that we notify you that this message may be considered promotional material. If you do not wish to receive future materials about this client of PJ Inc. you may reply to this message or call toll free to (877) DELETE ME. Thank you.
From: Joanna Virello
To: Richard's Bud April, Business Magazine X
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 3:08 PM
Subject: From Gadget Alley to Madison Avenue- The Death of the Yell and Sell
Dear April,
The Amazing ARM Story is here and available through this special offer only…so act now!
What You Get…
A high-torque story for your publication and readership that’s so good…even your in-laws will read it. The Power Base (Victor N. Grillo, Jr. Founder, President & CEO Advanced Results Marketing) is the heart of the Amazing ARM Story. Simply write about The Amazing ARM Story and place it your publication. No buttons to press, no mess, and no complicated manuals to read. Nothing could be easier and you readers will cheer!
Pioneer and Innovator
The Amazing ARM Story comes with twin cross action angles: How Victor N. Grillo, Jr a direct response pioneer launched more than 10 nationally known brands, including…Ginsu 2000 Knife Set, Liquid Leather, Pops-A-Dent, Ab Roller, Contour Pillow, and Triple Edge Wiperblades, and how Victor N. Grillo, Jr transformed the genre of DRTV ADS from chopping, grating and blending to Fortune 500 companies converting and following suit. Both angles are made of stainless steel, so they are editor safe and never need sharpening!
Tall and Short of it…
The unique path of Victor Grillo’s strategy is the secret to the effectiveness of the Amazing ARM Story. Victor’s patented creative formula (problem, product, solution, features and benefits, testimonial, offer and call to action) Buy using the Lowest media rates which are ideal for making DRTV ads even more versatile...just toss in your product, a 1 800 number, a website, and the Amazing ARM Story becomes a ROI tracking machine. Add incredible Customer/Client Service and you know about all your sales as they happen, then sit back and see the amazing results accumulate!
And that’s not all…
Turn your versatile Amazing ARM Story into a poll, a feature magazine article, or a trend story with an interview. Now you can make headlines, or killer a piece in seconds -- made and sent to you right NOW! Operators with detailed information are standing by now! Direct response television advertising (DRTV) is the fastest-growing segment of TV advertising on television and is used by such cable networks as MTV, Vh1, A&E, The Discovery Channel, The Travel Channel, The Logo Channel, Home & Garden Television, E! Entertainment Television, The Learning Channel and The Weather Channel. Due to this massive trend major corporations and Fortune 500 brands are adopting the ‘slice and dice’ formula for their own advertising efforts. Companies like Dell, TiVo, and AOL directly offer consumers their products on television at specially priced packages…IF they call or log online NOW.
But wait there’s more…
You get the The Amazing ARM Story "10 Second DRTV Recipe" Book! AND AS A BONUS YOU GET: The Amazing ARM Story - Interview with Victor Grillo, unlimited information and a couple of top selling products from Arm.
Victor Grillo, CEO and Founder of Advanced Results Marketing, a leader in DRTV is the king pin of this new reality and single handedly created the successful DRTV ad formula, which now has Corporate America is turning to Direct Response TV for advertising dreams come true. What once was laughed at in big New York ad firms has legitimized this genre.
Today, says Victor Grillo, "DRTV for corporate America is here and traditional agencies are not DR experts. The evolution of major marketers is toward 'slicer/dicer junkies' who know how to make a living in this business. Fortune 500 companies now realize they need to go to a specialist. That’s why Carvel, Motorola, The PEP Boys, Mandalay Bay and Chipolte chose ARM as their DRTV ad agency.
I hope you are interested in how Advanced Results Marketing and DRTV advertising simultaneously won the hearts of major corporations and the crock pot crazed city dwelling professionals. Products and places are being advertised on television by ARM in a new genre…a hybrid of traditional and direct response advertising. The death of the infomercial is now… ARM’s new recipe keeps some of the elements of 'yell and sell' but also have a corporate traditional higher-end look.
I think the phenomenon of Victor Grillo’s amazing make over of the ‘infomercial’ is in tune with the readers of your publication. If you agree please order for more information…while supplies last...operators are standing by.
Joanna K. Virello
Senior Account Executive PJ Inc.
Let me end this by asking Joanna why do you have to use the phrase “But there’s more”! "And that's not all!" Yuck. It's bad enough people think PR is all hard sell and hucksters, but you have to strengthen that image??
And finally by saying to PJ Ink that you need to be subtle - at least once - in your e-mails. "Amazing" and "tremendously interesting" are opinions, subjective at best, and you need to allow people to make their minds up. What's groundbreaking one is groundless to another.
Enuf said.
So, folks, meet my Bad Pitch of the month, so far.
UPDATE:
OK everyone, you got me. Clearly this pitch has some legs and I need to spend more time watching informercials. We’re updating the post accordingly to give PJ Ink their due.
But what’s with the ginsu knife through my back?!
A business reporter sent the pitch to my attention in the first place. Secondly, we’re all about opinion here at the BPB; Kevin and I call em like we see 'em. We promised two things…entertainment and education. We never promised you we wouldn’t make mistakes.
If you stab us with said ginsu, do we not bleed? And I’m sure that blood stain can be lifted away easily with some Oxiclean?!
Yeah, we're only human. In fact one of the reasons we started this blog is so folks could learn from otherrs mistakes instead of making their own like we did/do/will. And so:
I appreciate most everyone’s comments. But JK, it reads like you have a whole other set of issues. Good luck working through those. Garsh.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
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14 comments:
This blog was a travesty before it even launched. Let me get this straight, Richard runs a small-potatoes PR agency whose best years ended in the 1990's; he starts a blog to appear "cutting edge" and then uses tat blog to criticize his peer's work?
Richard, why not try to build something worth being proud of (hint, it can't be your collection of ghost-written books)
rickwatcher - You should be pretty proud about posting this comment anonymously. It takes a lot of guts to stand behind what you say.
We are fiercely proud of this blog. (hint, spend some time looking through the comments). Many students and practitioners consider the bad pitch blog a helpful resource...which is exactly why we started it.
I love RickWatcher. (though he needs to watch the typos.) RickyWatchy makes me finally feel I've arrived - I AM David Geffen. And yeah I wish I'd had a ghostwriter. I could point to someone else for my bad jokes. RW, the only person who ever helped me write (and help was word I use charitably) was the guy we now refer to in our small potatoes (but big cajones) firm ...as the young dude who had the balls to say "feh" to the launch of Flikr. Ha. Oy.
I think you missed it this time... She's writing it like the infomercials she's promoting, tongue-in-cheeck. At least it got your attention and that's the point. Which you've missed on every level.
The poster above is right. Maybe you are too young to have seen the original television ads in this style, but as parody this is spot on. Too long perhaps, but dead funny and not a bad story idea once you get down to the essentials.
Who is too young? They still show those. Anyway the "hype-filled" awful pitch is nonetheless truly one heck of a bad story idea.
Also I know just who the first Anonymous is since she wrote the same to me yesterday as a non-anonymous (read bitchy) e-mail: e.g., originator of said crud above. Meanwhile, I stand firmly by my original feeling: the pitch is really bad (which another gutless Anonymous poster says above). More on this in a later post. And oh yeah, incidentally, "essentials" is a great word. Watch for an explanation of what that means in PR, shortly.
Can you all just start using your names. No one will fire you for it. What have you go to hide? Besides maybe being lazy Bad Pitch Practicers?
apparently, a very effective pitch. I just did a search and a daily newspaper story uses the same style in its story about this company.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Mar-22-Wed-2006/business/6467957.html
Richard,
You are an insipid moron...you state Everything But The Girl...as your fave musically in your profile...you have dated yourself passe. I can only sumise that you are a has been 'bag of dust' in the PR world...sans a sense of humor.
Sir you are no David Geffen... you are cluless and further more the pitch letter that you attacked scored more than a couple compliments from Editors and profiles for the client's company.
They are quite happy. You should truly refrain from posting the authors name of said bad pitch letters in the future. It's tasteless...like your dated choices in music...and your pathetic photo on your sad blog.
Is your firm active?
See update in this post.
Thanks, everyone.
signed, Tracey Thorn (wink)
Btw this was not supposed to be Anonymous:
I said...
Who is too young? They still show those. Anyway the "hype-filled" awful pitch is nonetheless truly one heck of a bad story idea.
Also I know just who the first Anonymous is since she wrote the same to me yesterday as a non-anonymous (read bitchy) e-mail: e.g., originator of said crud above. Meanwhile, I stand firmly by my original feeling: the pitch is really bad (which another gutless Anonymous poster says above). More on this in a later post. And oh yeah, incidentally, "essentials" is a great word. Watch for an explanation of what that means in PR, shortly.
Can you all just start using your names. No one will fire you for it. What have you go to hide? Besides maybe being lazy Bad Pitch Practicers?
The Las Vegas Review-Journal article is from Gaming Wire, a paid service similar to PR Newswire. So I need to ask. What kind of coverage did this story get from good old fashioned media relations?
http://www.stephensmedia.com/gamingwire/about-us.html
It is not a paid for service. Gaming Wire is a portion of the Review Journal's business section, everything its staff writers produce, runs in the Review Journal and is editorial in the Review Journal... where you misread is that others pay to RECEIVE Gaming Wire, as subscribers... like any wire or subscription service.
OK - I deleted a message left at 6:15 that had nothing to do with this conversation.
Recently the blogosphere was compared to high school and this comment was something more in line with someone in grade school.
And I also turned on comment moderation. So we can get back to the business at hand...pitches good and bad.
Thanks.
the points you raised about direct response marketing are valid. it would be interesting to see more of your views regarding informercials and the likes.
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