It's obvious that when an institution of opinion the likes of Roger Ebert passes away...due to cancer no less...it sucks.
When you find out the aforementioned movie critic passed away via email, it sucks even more. It sucks to find out someone died via email at all, right?
But when that email is a pitch shoving "a relevant expert" down your throat, it's a whole new universe of sucking. It's a dimension of sucking so far beyond the "sucks universe" that it takes light from sucks a year to reach it.age. It's a state of sucking so far beyond sucking it takes the light from sucking one year to reach this new level of bad pitching.
You get the idea.
Yet, less than 24 hours after Roger Ebert went to the big movie theatre in the sky, someone who shall remain nameless, sent out the following pitch en mass. This pitch was sent to me separately by Shannan amd Traci - two different PR professionals.
Speed Kills
Since it set a new land speed record in bad pitching, we offer it to you as we head into the weekend. Our edits noted in BOLD and ALL CAPS.
----
SUBJECT: Nostalgia Expert Available to Honor & Speak About Roger Ebert
Hi FIRSTNAME,
I hope you’re doing very well. With the sad news that legendary film critic Roger Ebert has passed, I wanted to let you know that nostalgia expert NAME, Founder of the THING, LINK/NAME, is available to speak about Mr. Ebert’s incredible career and impact on film and culture.
Please let me know if you’d like to speak with NAME. I can make him available at your earliest convenience.
----
Early Bird & The Worm?
The Early Bird May Get the Worm. But Stupid is as Stupid Does. We've profiled the "dead" pitch so many times, it's not even funny. So I won't even put the seemingly obvious moral of this story. But I will say that speed can kill...without strategy. And in this case, common sense.
Culture-Jacking
The above idea is indirectly linked to Oreo's Super Bowl, Lights Out, Real-Time Content, "OMG this is so cool I can't stand it!" buzz we've seen lately. You don't hear anyone talking about Oreo or Kraft Mayonnaise trying to replicate Oreo's real time content win during the Grammys. That's because there wasn't any relevance to their efforts at the Grammy awards. They were simply trying to hijack popular culture with their brands. It sucked and it showed. Or didn't show in this case.
Mayonnaise is samich lube. Do you see any connection between this condiment and the Grammys? Neither do I. Real-time content following Roger Ebert's death helps reinforce this lesson - albeit indirectly.
:: Kevin Dugan, @prblog
Tasteless doesn't begin to cover it.
ReplyDeleteThey beat us, and we become stronger.
ReplyDeletePerhaps to a lesser degree, but still tasteless is the "I have a medical expert" pitch after a sports figure or celeb goes down with an injury. As noted in the link below, journalists aren't a fan of this kind of opportunism.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2013/04/painful_fallout_from_kevin_war.html#incart_river
I consider all forms of new media to be a double-edge sword. Launching and trending at the right moment has the potential of giving any brand or campaign the WOW factor needed to position it self and capitalize on the buzz of current events. Unfortunately bad timing and poor common sense don't mix well together and usually result in disaster. Positive core values and good business etiquette are still the back-bone of any company and should be the essence of any media campaign wether its for a small business, large corporation or a celebrity. In this case I think its safe to say that even though the public is always hungry for content, at the core they still cherish a company that is respectful and tactful. Pitch shoving "relevant experts" in less than 24 hrs of the passing of Roger Ebert definitely sucks.
ReplyDelete--
Christopher Roberts Camus
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisRobertsPR
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/christopher-roberts/5b/39b/357