A Very Bad PR Pitch - What Not To Do When Pitching Media

I thought you all deserved a nice laugh this Friday. A reporter from the AJC posted this pitch she received up on Facebook today. She called it "How to Succeed in PR" and trust me, she's being ironic. 

Greetings Jenni (last name removed), 

On behalf of our client Award Winning Off Broadway Actor [Client Name]; we're requesting a featured front cover story about [Client Name] for Atlanta Journal Constitution Newspaper for June 2009; [Client Name] arrival in the Stone Mountain, Georgia district is July 1st,2009. [Client Name] will continue his Prostate Cancer Awareness Advocacy in the state of Georgia; his works have been honored by Atlanta and Macon Georgia Government Officials for February 2nd,2009 and has Proclaimed [Client Name] Prostate Cancer Awareness Day in his honor for all his hard work around the world with Prostate Cancer.

Buckingham Palace on behalf Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has saluted [Client Name] Prostate Cancer Foundation fifth year Annivesary for the month of May 2009.[Client Name] is starting a National Prostate Prostate Cancer Awareness Tour June2009 until September 2009

Attached with this email: Award Winning Actor Relocating to Georgia.Zip(48KB)
See [Client Name] web site at: 

I know this is not The Bad Pitch Blog, but I had to put it up here because this is just so laughably bad. Every single thing about it - the horrible writing, the length of the pitch, the lack of any discernible hook, the SPAM-feeling of it, an attachment (!), and my personal favorite - the request for a front page feature story! (Oh - gee, since you asked for it, sure!) I don't mean to be snarky here, folks. But, it's emails like this that give us all a bad name. 

Here are a few tips for you all just to keep the industry's rep up. 

- Know the reporter you are contacting. Know what they write and what they're interested in.

- Follow them on Twitter. Most reporters I know no longer want email pitches and instead want PR pros to follow their tweets and respond with relevant information. 

- Be brief!!! You can always elaborate in the next conversation. But, if you can't convey the story in a compelling way in two or three sentences, you need to rethink your hook.

- Never, ever, under any circumstances send an attachment - especially to a reporter you don't know. (This is how viruses are given).

- Be respectful of their time. Remember for every one reporter out there, there are thousands of "you" emailing them. Give them time to respond. 

- If you haven't heard from them, it's usually okay to follow up with a call - IF you are respectful. The call should go something like this, "Hi, this is Jennifer Jones, I'm following up on a pitch. Do you have a couple of minutes to discuss it?" From there, they will tell you if they're interested.

- Always remember, what you are really after is that second conversation. You don't need to tell them everything - just enough to get that second phone call or email exchange. 

- If you are ever in doubt - put the question to them. "I've got a client launching a product in XYZ area, is this something you'd like to hear about?" will either get you that second conversation or, let you know to move on. 

- Oh! And, this one is a huge pet peeve of mine - especially because it happens to me all the time. This reporter's name is Jennifer. Notice, he called her "Jenni." This guy doesn't know her and yet he's so informal as to shorten her name. Again, people - respect!

For more laughs, here are some of the comments people made on FB about the pitch. 

Margot at 11:04am June 12

holy hoppin' christ on a crutch. that's just unbelievable.

Tara at 11:10am June 12
Should we now be calling you Jenni? :)

Helen at 11:33am June 12
This is a joke, right?

Laura at 11:35am June 12
Oh my! DEFINITELY send it to the Bad Pitch Blog!

Chris at 11:39am June 12
Never heard of the guy?, but Prostrate Cancer can be pretty bad. I hope his organization does well and I hope he gets a new PR person very soon!

Kirsten at 11:45am June 12
Can't stop laughing. This has to be computer-generated — no human would write this!

Louise at 11:50am June 12
Give him credit for coming right out to ask for a "featured front cover story." Well, we can't give you that, but we'll propel your bad pitch into the blogosphere and boost your client's SEO. whoo hoo!

Laura at 12:13pm June 12
I also enjoy this man's concept of "newsworthy."

Mitch at 1:08pm June 12
this is so odd, b/c usually when I ask for a front page story it's not a problem.

Jenny  at 10:25am June 12
Holy cow! You should send this to the Bad Pitch Blog (Journalist)!

Anna at 10:28am June 12
This is literally the most horribly written media memo I've ever seen. Wow.

Hal at 10:30am June 12
likely grad from an Alabama school of journalism! lol

Meg at 10:37am June 12
Um, could English be an after-thought?

Mitch at 10:39am June 12
wow. This gives me a great feeling of job security.

Richard at 10:41am June 12
brilliant! thank you for sharing. 

James at 2:23pm June 12
Ya'll need to read this bio of the award-winning actor on his web-site if you're wondering who wrote this release. The writer has a bad case of the run-ons, as in run-on sentences. [Client Name] web site.

So, remember, y'all - media pitching is an art. It's about finding the right story and communicating it quickly (and respectfully) to the right person in a way that they instantly see the value to themselves and their readers.