Confused Journalist meets Angry Agent of Public Relations
themediaslut’s "Your worst PR client story" has two entry over the weekend.
One from a confused journalist amazed by the actions of clients, the other is one angry agent of public relations.
From Whisperer the Journalist:
- First was when I had a TV crew and a number of filming requirements at Singapore Expo for pure editorial coverage (not paid). PR insisted I decamp to Raffles at my expense to interview his client. On way, find PR phone is shut off and no sign at Raffles. 45mins after scheduled appointment, PR turns phone on and tells me that client decided to go to Expo. Pretended Raffles arrangement never happened. Film crews aren’t cheap! Said client is multi billion dollar company.
- Second was when I attended a multivendor conference and had a scheduling clash with a main speaker. So I sat next to guy on bus and interviewed him there and then. Clearly a on-the-record chat and it was made clear I could not participate in the formal interview. Speaker was then later taken aback when his quotes appeared in print and demanded PR call me - several times - to retract it. Trouble was the PR’s attempts to converse with me were unintelligible and apparently never thought to put the request in email. Never interview people on a bus!
- Third was when a now bankrupt satellite company flew me to Japan and insisted at great length that I catch the train to the hotel from Tokyo airport using some kind of voucher. Trouble is that the plane arrived well after the last train at 1am and as a result was forced to wear the US$100 taxi ride. Then found there was no real hospitality planned so as the “senior” journo took all the press attendees out at my own expense for a very beery night on the town.
- Final one is just amusing: the company that wanted to fly me at great expense to a major global customer conference for THREE DAYS but told me I couldn’t attend the conference. I was offered one one-on-one during a tea break and the chance to be at a dinner in the same room with their execs. I made my excuses and declined their generous offer!
themediaslut isn’t sure if Whisperer’s contribution counts and will decide later. Thanks for the contribution though.
Angry PR Consultant decided to submit his/her worst PR clients story to date.
From Angry PR Consultant:
This particular client wanted to do a launch event and we were engaged to provide PR consultancy. From the very first week of the project, our entire team HATED THEM.
They are the type of client who pays very little and thinks you owe them the world. They call/ sms us almost every night (yes, after 8pm even when it’s nothing urgent) and sms / call us on weekends too for “updates”.
They are the type of client who can’t tell the difference between PR and advertising, insisting that we tell the editors/ writers to mention every sentence and word they want to include in an article and send us nasty notes if they didnt like the article (even though the stories are all positive and good).
They are the type of client who insists on talking only to the directors and ignore the managers/ executives who are managing the account. And from their top management to the lowly, pathetic executives - they are simply RUDE RUDE RUDE.
They are the type of client who has no respect for the PR consultants and will not hesistate to yell at us to fetch this, pick that, move boxes, hang this and that, during an event, as though we were their servants (and no, we were not paid to manage the event as the client think they are too smart and can DO IT THEMSELVES).
They are the type of client who (because of some old media contacts) think that they know the world.
They are also the type of client who can’t speak and write proper English but insist we change sentences in our press materials according to what they want - after which, we are too ashamed to even put our names on the release.
This is the client - WE HATE.
