A few bad pitches have us seeing red on St. Patrick's Day. OK, we've seen worse offenders. But it's been too long since our last post. So we're calling out assumptive news releases and even making you some "Bad Libs."
The Assumptive News Release
Promoting the fact that “it’s an honor just to be nominated” can be
considered news. But speculating outcomes or promoting news before it’s a fact is
presumptuous at best.
Take the tech news release sent our way noting that tech brand X is
“expected to redefine” tech category Y. Well, I’m expected to do things too. But sometimes I forget to put the toilet seat down.
My point is the news release's assertion is a bit much. And it's part of a bigger media relations misdemeanor: bombastic claims that set the news subject up for a
tear down later. Every time I see predictions that a
brand will “kill” its competition, I track their accuracy. It's loads of fun!
Play PR Mad Libs!
Hemingway is a reminder that beyond bluster, buzz words and acronyms, our writing bloats with adjectives and big, unnecessary words. Hemingway’s lean writing style relied on simple, short word combinations to tell his stories.
So when Richard sent me a book/author pitch from a publicist suffering from “verbal diarrhea,” Papa Hemingway, and my two kids, inspired me to create the Bad Pitch blog's version of PR Mad Libs. Bad Libs keeps the identity of the aforementioned 50-cent word millionaire publicist anonymous. And it lets you have some fun with their bad pitch and news release.
This ADJECTIVE NOUN is one of the most ADJECTIVE NOUNS
we have represented, equally comfortable discussing ADJECTIVE NOUN, ADJECTIVE
NOUN or the nuances of ADJECTIVE NOUN and current events.
OK, that’s from the pitch positioning the author as the most versatile source on earth. And here’s a marathon run-on
sentence from the lead of the accompanying release.
Though there is a plethora of ADJECTIVE NOUNS on various aspects of America’s ADJECTIVE NOUN of NOUN and NOUN for ADJECTIVE American ideals, there are few if any, current fiction works
which embody the foundational essence of the resurgence.
OK, that sentence wasn’t the best Bad Libs
candidate. But have you ever embodied the foundational essence of something? I feel like I should be wearing a monocle, a jacket with patches on
the elbows and holding a pipe just reading that statement.
But instead I'm wearing green. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
:: By Kevin Dugan, @prblog
I can think of a lot of so-called internet marketing experts who would do well to read this article and learn when and when not to speak.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting post, Hemingway is a good example also. It is something that more people should think of when writing.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with Eric :)
ReplyDeleteGood post Kevin - business professionals in general need to get to the point because too many of them are "suffering from verbal diarrhea".
ReplyDelete