Open letter to PR drones intent on wasting my time
I don’t have a problem with PR folks emailing me, in fact sometimes it is quite nice. I have found some agencies who are amazing to work with, for example RocketXL (more on them soon). If you ever get anything from them in your inbox, you can assume they’re not assholes. In fact, I’ve met 4 of them in person and they are even better than “not assholes.” They’re interesting, smart people who honestly want to build a relationship with you. I’ve also heard good things about the Graco bloggers, and there are many other good PR people out there. (In fact, I encourage you to leave more names in the comments so we can all start to recognize the good ones.)
That said, this note is to the dumbfucks who just can’t manage to get it right.
Normally, I’d just click ‘delete’ and move on, but there’s an issue that has been festering since September 2007. The flacks from an agency in New York just won’t stop emailing me recipes. Evidently this is a food blog. Who knew?
I ignored and deleted their emails for a few months, but then on December 20, 2007 I politely asked them to stop sending me recipes. They said they would stop. I got my next recipe email from them on January 9, 2008. I just deleted all the recipe emails I got after that one, but then on March 28 I couldn’t take it any longer and emailed again politely asking them to stop sending me recipes. Again, they said they would stop.
Then came May 2, 2008. The day the same person I spoke to a month ago sent me more recipes. And don’t know why, but it just sent me completely over the edge, and I had to email her back.
I will now start marking all emails from [domain].com as spam since NONE of you over there can manage the simple task of NOT SENDING ME ANY MORE FUCKING RECIPES. Seriously people. What do you think I do with them? Gratefully republish them on my blog as I am too fucking stupid to think of anything to write on my own? Give you free advertising, see ‘too fucking stupid’ above?
I have sent so many people in your company, including you [flack], emails politely requesting that you stop spamming me with recipes. And yet. They keep coming. I am incredibly tired of you wasting my time on this crap.
Stop.
Erika
(For the record, I am not in the habit of cursing at strangers, but I felt it added a certain je ne sais quoi that might actually be remembered. And maybe they’ll stop emailing me now. Bonus.)
Besides the fact that I cannot understand why someone would pay a PR company to spam bloggers (hello Money, may I introduce you to the Drain?), I cannot understand why it is so hard for them to stop emailing me this dreck. Do they think I have no choice but to take it? Do they not care what bloggers think of them? Do they imagine I’ll eventually give in and post some of their recipes on my site? Do they imagine this is the way to run a successful business?
It is the accumulation of so many small incidents just like this one that has caused me to have a ‘guilty until proven innocent’ relationship with new PR people in my inbox. It’s a shame too, because I’m open to genuine and interesting proposals, but when my openness gets repeatedly abused, I get hostile. And vocal. For now I’ve concealed the name of the company in this post, but they’re on notice. If I get any more recipe spam from them, I might come back to do a little editing.
See how this works? Communicate with me in a genuine and respectful way, and that’s how I’ll treat you right back. Treat me like a number, or worse: a moron, and I won’t have any qualms telling my friends how you operate. It’s amazingly like real life that way.
Update December 15, 2008: Susan Getgood over at Marketing Roadmaps has a great post about how this company has continued to spam me for 15 months now. I got email today from someone there who says they’ve removed me from their lists. My response was:
Thanks [flack2]. Note, however, that I’ve been told this before. It takes quite a bit to rile me up, but this situation with your firm pushed me over the edge
So. Next recipe I get from them and I’m coming back to this post and naming the company name. I’ve tried being nice, and even not so nice, and next I’m just going to be a bitch.
I love most of my PR friends, and I’ll listen to most anything people have to say.
However, there was the PR flack that ended a letter with, “…if you want more information, please me.”
I wrote him back and said that I hardly knew him.
But holy hell if they don’t stop sending me “opportunities to interview” the CEO, the VP, the janitor’s cousin, the dog, I’m gonna have to cut somebody.
Busy Mom, you still win the prize for the best PR typo. It is my favorite ;)
It’s amazing how the bad apples really ruin it for the rest of the, um, good apples?
AMEN.
Dana’s latest post: Content with enough
Dana, It surprises me that people who do this work for a living just don’t get it. You think they’d at least try to imagine what they would want if they were a blogger…
I hope you included the LOLdog pic attached to his email. It totally makes the case ;-)
Loretta’s latest post: Job Seekers Lead List for Friday May 2, 2008
I must be very lucky. I haven’t come across any rude or annoying PR people. Sure… they may send excessive emails… I just delete them. Although…come to think of it…this morning I had to remove myself from a PR list because my sites have nothing to do with what they were peddling.
Some great companies I’ve worked with who deserve some kudos: Edelman, Bender Hammerling Group, and MS&L Digital.
But, you have a point, if a company doesn’t know how to remove names from an email list, then they definitely deserve some public ridicule.
Jennifer James’s latest post: Replacing the Bad with the Good…continued
What a waste of time on their part, and how annoying on yours?
Wait till they start placing comments in your posts – vaguely linking your post and their product – this happened to me and I still get annoyed by it. I declined participating with them in promoting their product – and they came on my blog and did it anyway? It was months later I might add – but still – weird.
Annie’s latest post: Things that make me smile.
Annie, that would drive me nuts! And so counter-productive on their part too.
You have such a way with words! I’ll bet your email makes an impact.
I haven’t had too many bad experiences, except for one firm that asked me to just repost their press release, verbatim. Typos and all.
Laura’s latest post: ArtsCow.com FREE Digital Photo Prints
Laura, Ill bet that my email makes it right into their spam folder because of all the swearing, but I enjoyed writing it.
And yes, the people who so graciously offer to let you post their press releases… they’re just charming.
I work for a PR firm and my boss can’t figure out why bloggers won’t just talk about our clients for free (***bang head here***) no matter how many times I tell him.
Lisa’s latest post: Hannah Montana?
Lisa, feel free to print out this post for him ;)
I always think this is what I aspire to — PR people wanting a piece of my blog… I think you’ve just convinced me otherwise!
that girl’s latest post: This Photo Needs a Caption:
that girl, you know most of the time it is pretty good, but there are some morons out there who kind of spoil it for the rest.
I’m pretty sure I know which P.R. firm it is. Do the recipes come from Women’s Health magazine? yeah, I just delete those.
I’ve started getting ones now addressed to “Hi Ms.”. Huh? If they can’t figure out my first name from my blog, or from my EMAIL ADDRESS (duh), they could at least say “Hi Table for Five” or something. Delete delete DELETE.
Elizabeth’s latest post: It’s the Two’s A Charm Virtual Baby Shower!
Elizabeth, I just couldn’t even delete them anymore — they’re so rude I had to say something. Of course my emails did nothing, so I had to escalate to a blog post. Not my favorite method, but you do what you gotta do.
Oh I’m dyin’ here. Hubby had to come see why I was snorting so bad.
And since we’re sharing, I have to mention the recent post I did about the Undies awards. Now, I was all touched when I got the *first* email because it looked like they may have actually read my blog – cervical cancer awareness, me having it and it becoming A Cause… but when I got the SECOND email worded exactly the same, but addressed from someone else…
The other peeve of mine is when the emails start off pretending they read my blog, but somehow they missed a) I’m Canadian, rendering me ineligable for 80% of the offers I get and b) I don’t have any preschoolers or babies.
Andrea_R’s latest post: Flooding
Word.
Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah’s latest post: Sticking With the Shower Theme
Hopefully they will now have their daily bowl of “Get a Fucking Clue” and do some research Wheaties. ;)
Jamie’s latest post: Murphy’s Law of Mommy Blogging
RocketXL has the coolest website.
I have to say I’m really entertained that I’ve only received one pitch ever and I didn’t even know I was being pitched.
Maybe that’s why I don’t get pitched, huh!
Mutha Mae’s latest post: A look back at the artificial twins
I’ve been doing successful email marketing now since 1998 and it never fails to astonish me how often people forget about basic netiquette/research/answering the ‘what benefit do I offer the recipient’ etc. questions.
Politeness and openness is simply Internet good manners.
Data points,
Barbara
Barbara Ling’s latest post: 15 Reasons To Just Freakin’ Do It…Stop The Complaining and Take Command! Make the Pitch Your Friend