Hot tempered exec crosses the line
We’ve seen crises caused by errant emails, we’ve seen crises caused by potty-mouthed execs, but throw both of those at a blogger that has well over 100,000 followers and you’ve got a truly spectacular mess on your hands. Check out this quote about the incident, from an AdWeek article by David Griner:
The blogger in question is Jenny Lawson, best known as “The Bloggess” and named by Nielsen as one of “Top 50 Most Powerful Mom Bloggers.” She recently received a poorly worded pitch from the agency about the Kardashians, and she sent back her usual reply—a picture of Internet man-meme Wil Wheaton collating paper. The BrandLink PR rep, “Erica,” responded a bit defensively. But it was the vp, “Jose,” who stepped well over the line with a reply-all calling Lawson a bitch. She wrote back, prompting Jose to dig himself a deeper hole by replying that she “should be flattered that you are even viewed relevant enough to be pitched at all.”
While dropping the B-word was a very immature act, to me the real insult was the statement that the blogger (and, by extension, her readers), “should be flattered that you are even viewed relevant enough to be pitched at all.”
Well, BrandLink, if you’re pitching product placement shots to a blog, then obviously you think its readers are potential customers and, really, it’s you who should be flattered that they buy your product and/or support whatever celeb you’re pushing.
If I were the Kardashians I’d be taking my considerable PR budget elsewhere, you don’t need the firm responsible for your publicity creating crisis management nightmares out of nothing.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/