Braden Keil Besmirched by Bad PR Person

Sometimes people work in stupid ways – and they know it when they're doing it. Today’s Gawker had a well-devised Hamilton Nolan piece about one of the crassest pitches and most awful tactics I’ve seen in a while.

Titled “Braden Keil’s Death [from melanoma] Already a PR Opportunity,” it’s about how the storied NY Post journalist’s funeral was at 11:30 – and the Post received a pitch… pegged to the beloved real estate reporter’s sad death.

To her credit, the head of this “agency” told Gawker it was her fault for asking the AE (slave) that worked for her to do this pitch (against the AE’s will, it appears). But…still. People should know better than to take the route that follows. In 09 we all know better. How many times does BPB have to reprint crap like this? Let’s learn.

[click on image and read; be glad it's not yours]



What amazed me was right away a decent Postie wrote that AE back to chastise her - and what he said was pretty measured. (Okay, I don't usually like it when journalists act like they are above PR types, but in his case he was livid!

Jenna,

Though many people disparage the work of flacks as being too undignified for pond scum, I tend to give your profession the benefit of the doubt. In fact, many of my friends are flacks [RL: are they gay too? murderers?]

….But to send this out less than an hour after the whole newsroom returned from Baden’s funeral, to use the death of an esteemed colleague as the peg for a pitch…seems to indicate that you possess less humanity and empathy than a staph infection.

Sincerely,

Jeremy (Olshan)

Note to Behrman PR: News pegs need to be tactful, and using the just-dead as the peg is a risk you should not take unless it's Bin Laden.

Huge Fail.............On that yucky note, Kevin and I promise that our next post will be super positive.

Twitter @laermer