Dec
21
Sony does a Wal-Mart ‘flog’
Filed Under Business, Corporates, Online, PR Disasters | 2 Comments
The very excellent blog-building/tech-head/guitarist/vocalist Leigh Mannes tells me Sony have been bad boys on the fake blog (flog) front. Well, their marketing contractors have been anyway. So cringeable, you could surmise that the strategy is ‘be lame, get flamed, some fame’. It’s in the ‘any publicity is good…’ territory and certainly got them talking in the forums, tho Sony pulled the site and apologised.
Dec
21
PR disasters, the nice kind
Filed Under Business, Corporates | 3 Comments
PRIA reports on a cracking CSR initiative for the PR industry. PR volunteers are being called on to give of their skills and expertise in support of the bushfire and other natural disasters. The scheme mirrors a similar PRSA initiative and offers us a chance to give something back to the broader community. You gotta be based in/near Canberra to be involved, but hopefully will spread to other states and we can all do our bit for the people who need it, and for our profession as a whole.
Dec
20
OJ publisher’s personal PR disaster
Filed Under Business, Corporates, PR Disasters | Leave a Comment
Judith Regan, controversial would-be publisher of OJ’s scandalous ‘If I Did It’ book is now facing allegations of anti-semitism, as The Guardian reports she’s been given the heave ho by Mr Murdoch’s mob. This new debacle is marked by a comparable lack of grace as was shown in plans to publish OJ’s profiteering tome. Her lawyer’s saying she doesn’t have an anti-semitic bone in her body (or heart in her chest, some might cruelly add, given her insensitive decision to put Simpson into print). Quick, what’s the number for Rubenstein?
Dec
19
PR Week PR Disasters
Filed Under Business, Celebrity, Corporates, PR Disasters, Politics, Public Speaking | Leave a Comment
PR Week has published its 2006 Top 10 PR Disasters list and some more ‘goods and bads’. I emailed them - via their UK office - on 7 Dec telling them of this site’s search and asking if they were interested/could help. They said they weren’t doing anything on it. Hmmm…Still, will factor in their nominations, nonetheless.
Dec
19
Here’s a disturbing one - The Australian reports how the right hand man for Aussie white supremacist leader, Jack van Tongeren, was foiled in planning an extreme PR stunt. The RHM, Matthew Billings, planned to firebomb two Chinese restaurants as pre-publicity for van Tongeren’s book launch. Restaurants targeted were to be ‘done’ or torched two days prior to launch, obviously mindful of media deadlines and timings.Strange, tho, in trying to find this story link again, it seems to have disappeared off The Oz site. Not so much a PR disaster, as a PR nightmare.
Dec
18
PR Disasters 2006 - new contenders
Filed Under PR Disasters | 1 Comment
Following some welcome exposure in The Age online, the following names have been added to 2006’s contenders list: Brendan Fevola for his Irish pub brawl and SMS shenanigans, Amanda Vanstone (mostly for being Amanda), Germaine Greer for her ill-timed Steve Irwin rant, John Howard for everything Iraq-related, Axel Whitehead for his genitARIA-expose, AWB’s Trevor Flugge’s ’smokin’ gun’ pic, Iktimal Hage Ali whose Young Aussie Award sat uncomfortably with links to drug-runners and, of course, the Aussie Defence Forces for the repatriation blunders and public embarrasment over the Private Jake Kovco affair. Thanks to all, more to follow…
Dec
14
PR Disaster Awards - nominations from The Age online
Filed Under Business, Celebrity, Corporates, PR Disasters, Politics, Public Speaking | 4 Comments
Business scribe Leon Gettler has chipped in a few other nominations for the 2006 Awards: his list includes, Ch9 supremo Eddie Maguire ‘boning’ female talent, ABC paying-for then shying-away from the controversial ‘Jonestown’ book, Telstra’s sodden Sol Trujillo and, among others, dishevelled Danny DeVito. Ta, Leon, nice blog, too.
Dec
14
Press release etiquette
Filed Under Business, PR Disasters | Leave a Comment
Boxing’s not necessarily a game for sensitive souls. However that shouldn’t diminish the need to be emotionally intelligent when publicising a boxing-related event. Here’s news of a press release that’s offending its recipients. A bit like the old PR disaster when the publicist for a computer game, Rock Manager, referred to several muso deaths in the press release.