PR FAIL of the Week| Retiring the PR FAIL Post

failAfter some deliberation, we have decided to retire the PR FAIL of the Week post from the RPR repertoire.  It’s been an incredibly fun post to write, but I’ve struggled the past several weeks with what the PR FAIL post adds to conversations about Raleigh and public relations.  My conclusion: not much.  More often than not, the post doesn’t focus on Raleigh or even North Carolina.  Recently, the PR FAIL post has discussed the worst news story of the week and put a PR slant on it.  We read two excellent blog posts this morning on topic of criticizing by Beth Harte and David Mullen which finally persuaded us to put the FAIL out to pasture.

It’s one thing to thoughtfully criticize an individual or organization, but it’s something else entirely to jump on the bandwagon and add nothing to the conversation.  So, speaking as a reformed bandwagon-jumper (sometimes I make words up), you will no longer see a PR FAIL of the Week post on RPR.  That’s not to say we’ll never criticize a poor public relations strategy or misstep, only that we won’t create missteps to reach our quota.

In conclusion, if you didn’t read the posts by Beth Harte and David Mullen above, do it now, and don’t forget to check back at RPR for public relations news, tips, and opinions.

Related Links

Beth Harte - An Open Letter to Johnson & Johnson, Kathy Widmer, VP of Marketing

David Mullen - Three Reasons Our Monday Morning Quarterbacks Should Stay Off the Field

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January 16, 2009 · Filed under Everything Else

4 Comments »

  1. Beth Harte Said,

    January 16, 2009 @ 4:39 pm

    Hi there (not sure of your name, sorry…), thanks for the link love. I think too many people are criticizing traditional and social media efforts and the issue is, I/we/they are not part of the target audience or community. Unless we are, it’s hard to really know what’s really right or wrong and what works. I still feel that the Motrin ad campaign should haven’t been pulled because a minuscule percentage of moms on Twitter made a fuss and a major percentage never said a peep. But, that said J&J did what they felt was right and pulled it.

  2. Bobby Said,

    January 16, 2009 @ 4:45 pm

    Thanks for the comment @Beth Harte! My name is Bobby McDonald and I wrote this post; we don’t sign our names because several different people contribute (we really need a headshot and author list).

    I found both your and David’s post through one of your tweets and it articulated exactly how I was beginning to feel about the PR FAIL posts. I enjoy your insights via tweet and your blog, keep the good stuff rolling :)

  3. David Mullen Said,

    January 17, 2009 @ 7:27 am

    Bobby – glad you enjoyed the post. Thanks for sharing it and extending the conversation here with your readers.

    I think we, as marketers, have a hard time remembering two key facts when creating campaigns for our own brands/clients and when critiquing other initiatives.

    1. We are usually not the target audience, as Beth said. That’s a key fact to remember for creating your own campaigns, too. I’ve seen clients kill some amazing ideas because “that wouldn’t make me buy the product,” though they are no where near being close to the target audience.

    2. We don’t speak on behalf of everyone in our individual demographics. For example, when in brainstorms, sometimes colleagues will look at me and say, “as a dad, what do you think about…?” I can tell you what I think, for sure. But it’s important to remember that I don’t speak on behalf of all fathers. That’s key with the Motrin case. Just because a small percentage of moms didn’t like it doesn’t mean they speak on behalf of all moms – or even the majority, to Beth’s point.

    Thanks again!

  4. Bobby Said,

    January 20, 2009 @ 9:36 am

    Both good points David. Keep up the good work!

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