“I think that I shall never see, a media kit that doesn’t kill a tree.”
With apologies to Joyce Kilmer, we were gearing down from Earth Day festivities when Tamar, a senior editor of MTV.com and the managing editor of the MTV Buzzworthy blog, dropped us a line.
We’re old enough to remember the first video played on MTV (it killed a radio star in fact) and I’m hometown proud of Taking the Stage, so we were more than happy to help them shine some light on some poor pitching.
Per Tamar
…as someone who makes a concerted effort to *TRY* to recycle as many plastic bottles, cardboard packaging, magazines, and junk mail as possible (and to reuse as many mailers), I wanted to let you know that I was HORRIFIED to receive a pitch that was basically an absurdly wasteful combination of all of the aforementioned.
It was sent in a huge cardboard box, and inside that cardboard box was ANOTHER cardboard box, the top of which read "Every day, Americans flush millions of these down the toilet." Inside was a MINIATURE TREE trimming. The tree alone made me extremely sad (as did the unnecessary plastic casing on the CD inside the box), but the info inside was all about how several American brands of toilet paper and paper towels are still made from trees and come from clear cut forests.
Uh, IRONIC, no, to send out a pitch about wasting resources when you're TOTALLY WASTING RESOURCES? Also, I'd like to note that this was totally unsolicited and that I write about music, pop culture, and fashion (and hence will never utilize this info -- except for now, of course) so it makes it even more wasteful.
Thought I'd let you know. I'm now off to recycle the box. I gave the tree to a coworker who owns a home and can hopefully plant it.
Tamar also took the picture above and posted it to Twitter.
Green Pitches Should Not Have Carbon Footprints
We're not going to remnd you to not send off-topic ptches. I mean, sure, like the book says "everyone poops." But why send this pitch to MTV? And we understand the need to cut through the clutter. We also understand that teams rarely have a packaging design expert on staff.
But sweet fancy mustard people, if you’re pitching green, you better be thinking reduce/reuse/recycle through every. single. step. of your efforts. If you're not a single detail can go over like a big 3 auto manufacturer flying to Capital Hill in a company jet to ask for funds (wearing a fur coat).
Which is to say it doesn’t matter if there is a good intention or even a logical explanation behind a pitch. If you claim green, you better be a certain muppet or considering the lifecycle of your entire effort and the details therein. Because unfortunately every day can be bad pitch day.
I agree with the packaging dilemma of this pitch, but why did the tree trimming make Tamar sad? I mean, isn't the intention for her to plant the tree somewhere? Maybe that wasn't clearly communicated in the pitch. If it was intended as such, it was clearly a missed opportunity by the sender to show how socially conscious their company is (that and reducing the wasteful packaging).
ReplyDeleteThis was an earth day media kit? Are the folks that put it together numb? At what point do you think sending out a cardboard box, plastic and a tree is going to benefit the environment.
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to do something like this...don't bother with the greenwashing next time. I'll laugh at you anyway though. I've never seen a media kit that I actually liked.
Really, this sort of thing defies parody.
ReplyDeleteThat won't keep me from trying and inflicting it on friends and co-workers, of course.
Sweet fancy mustard is right! Obviously, the irony of this particular pitch is the big story here, but it's also a great reminder of something I think PR folks sometimes forget: journalists are people. And people have positions on issues that extend beyond their jobs. Right now, most people (thankfully) are cognizant of the environment, and wasteful packaging is probably never a good idea -- green pitch or not.
ReplyDeleteHi.
ReplyDeleteNo, I received this about a week or two ago and not ON Earth Day -- that would've been an absolute travesty. It definitely was a pro-social/ environmental-awareness pitch though.
To me, a smarter move would've been to send an ACTUAL roll of toilet paper. Now THAT'S useful.
~Tamar
MTV Buzzworthy Blog
buzzworthy.mtv.com
While I'm completely with you on this, I have to wonder where the perception that fancy, overpackaged media kits are the only ones that are newsworthy or get read.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I wonder where that comes from...
This is similar in nature to the flier I got on Earth Day. They were handing them out at the BART stations in the Bay Area, and it said..."Thanks for Riding BART. Happy Earth Day". I think it would have made more sense to NOT hand out paper on earth day. Only to see all of it in the trash can later.
ReplyDeleteThis is a crappy post about a crappy press kit about a crappy product.
ReplyDeleteThe product: not from clear cut trees, really who cares? The trees are grown to be turned into wood and paper products, clear cutting doesn't hurt "the environment," in fact if you believe in AGW every time you use "bath tissue" and it goes into the landfill, you are sequestering carbon...and you can feel all warm and virtuous, as well as lighter.
Of course the press kit is idiotic because the product is a silly pandering to a modern quasi-religion...(with its own holy day) and the press kit by the very attempt to ingratiate its product to the acolytes of manages to offend. Of course if the PR hack had simply sent out an email (the "green" thing) it would have been ignored, if it even got through the spam filter.
From the post,
Per Tamar…as someone who makes a concerted effort to *TRY* to recycle as many plastic bottles, cardboard packaging, magazines, and junk mail as possible (and to reuse as many mailers), I wanted to let you know that I was HORRIFIED to receive a pitch that was basically an absurdly wasteful combination of all of the aforementioned.
It was sent in a huge cardboard box, and inside that cardboard box was ANOTHER cardboard box, the top of which read "Every day, Americans flush millions of these down the toilet." Inside was a MINIATURE TREE trimming. The tree alone made me extremely sad...
This is hilarious, really. The tree made him "extremely sad," the tree is a plant, which was grown for a purpose...it's not some delicate wild-flower on the endangered species list. I wonder if eating soy-sprouts makes Tamar "extremely sad." The rest of the resources used in the box were probably far less than used by Tamar for his Earth Day festivities.
BTW, talking about a bad pitch, Obama's Earth Day speech is estimated by CBS to resulted in the burning of some 9,000 gallons of fuel (the White House won't release any figures) for Air Force One alone, which doesn't include his travel on Marine One, or the second 747 that always travels with the president carrying his minions and the press, nor for his limos and the convoy of vehicles he travels with, nor for the flights and vehicles of his advance team...all in all Obama's Earth Day speech probably resulted in the burning of something like 20,000 gallons of kerosene and gasoline into the air...hot air, and maybe I missed it, but I didn't hear any greenies complaining.