A great publicist is worth his or her weight in gold. I’ve worked with all kinds. From the ones who want you to do their work for them to the ones who try to tempt you with extravagant bribes in the expectation that you’ll look favourably upon their client. Hey, how do you think I got this diamond necklace?
Kidding!
The best ones know not to bombard you with every single topic they have on their roster. They have a lot of contacts and make sure they target their requests properly. So for House Proud, for example, smart publicists will send me home-related info and not press releases concerning dog food or clothing or wine.
Late last year I dealt with one who took the cake and ate it too. Let’s call this person Fred and their product, flooring.
Fred and I arranged for me to speak to the company’s spokesperson. Fred is a bit particular about the interview, as some publicists are. Fred wants to know what my questions will be. I assure Fred they will be about the flooring. Seems straightforward but you wouldn’t believe how often I’m asked for my questions ahead of time. By the way, I never comply. Fred sends me fact sheets and photos and I conduct the interview.
The article gets published and Fred is pretty pissed off. I get an email that tells me, in a nice way, that I’m an idiot because I had the fact sheets right there but I still managed to get several details wrong. Those infractions are itemized for me. Fred wants me to have the article corrected before it is printed again, which it is scheduled to be. So I ask my Editor if this can be done and he says yes, even though we both realize that every single mistake that has Fred so out of sorts came directly out of the mouth of his spokesperson. And let me add that it is not my job to check his spokesperson’s facts against the fact sheet. It is Fred’s job to make sure that the spokesperson knows the facts. I am not their keeper. Fred is.
Unfortunately one of the corrections was missed and once again we heard from Fred who just thinks we are the biggest bunch of morons he has ever encountered. At this point I said to my Editor, it’s time to stop sucking this up and to tell Fred that the problem stems from HIS end, not ours. At first we were nice enough to say, okay, we will try to make this right because we are good people are you are obviously saddled with a spokesperson you can’t count on. But enough was enough. I will not ever work with Fred again. We’ve moved on. Fred can’t seem to see that his flooring got national publicity for absolutely no cost and the errors made by a member of his team meant very little to anyone…but Fred!
Somehow though I don’t think I have heard the last of Fred. Just call it intuition. People who can’t admit to mistakes tend to have trouble getting past them.