The credit crunch is lovely, juicy PR

The oldest PR trick in the book (actually it’s behind the dreary survey) comes from a knowledge that, during a big story, journalists’ editorial meetings go something like this:

“OK, the credit crunch story is still everywhere but there’s nothing new to say.  The problem is, the man on the Clapham omnibus is still talking about it, so we need to find an angle”

So off go the poor journalist desperate to find something NEW to say about a story that’s been running for a good while.  That’s where a good PR person can help out.  When petrol prices were going through the roof we sold in Streetcar (a pay as you go car club) to selected contacts - we knew they’d be desperate for angles and an alternative to car ownership story would get them out of a hole.  This is when the ‘piggy back’ is done well.

 And then sometimes it’s done just dreadfully.  I was alerted to one such attempt over on Twitter (you can follow me here):

This was the first thing that pricked up my ears was this tweet from a journalist:  “Have managed to piss off the only PR in the world who still likes me. Ah, well…”

So I asked what had happened:  “sick of being offered stories with a forced credit crunch angle”

After saying she shouldn’t worry she answered: “Not what the PR for Jet Sleeper thinks after he read this http://tinyurl.com/3vn8nh”

So I read the article.  The article is here for you to read but I’ll highlight a couple of things that irritated this journalist so much that, not only did she write a story about it, she twittered it as well.  It’s a good lesson to anyone, are you really trying to stretch that story a little too much? If so, you will be exposed:

“Tenuous credit crunch-related press releases we’ve received have covered just about everything, from the rise of plastic surgery – ‘Credit crunch workers are undergoing cosmetic treatments over fears their appearance is holding them back at work,’ stated a particularly questionable release; to the economic benefits of the  Jet Sleeper, a pillow developed especially for the insomniac traveller who is balking at the (infrequent but nonetheless appalling) cost of using an airline-supplied pillow.

“It’s shocking that airlines are starting to charge for pillows,” exaggerated Tim Williams, inventor of the Jetsleeper, in this particularly dubious attempt at linking the credit crunch to his product. For ‘airlines’ read one airline: US-based carrier JetBlue. “

Ouch - not good is it? 

I’ll leave the journalist’s sign off in her article as a little warning:

“If you’re looking for something to make your new self help book/designer coffee mug/novelty egg timer appeal to the business market: please don’t use the same tired cliché. There’s got to be a more creative way to do it.”

Well hello again!