Categories: Articles

Clueless Pitch of the Week

B.L. Ochman is an amazing person. Over the past year she has become a steady ally in our similar approaches to how PR people need to get in line with technology and start using it as a tool, and stop kvetching about it all the time. Along with being a published author, she has an amazing blog, which you can check out here. I would also encourage you to sign up for the I-PR e-newsletter. It is an amazing resource for anyone in the communications space.

One of the recent posts was based on a very weird press release pitch that was sent to me. This is how it looked when B.L. plopped it on I-PR:

“TOPIC: Clueless Pitch of the Week

Here is an example of how NOT to piggyback on the news.

From: Lehua Chong [mailto:chong@workhousepr.com]

Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 3:31 PM

To: Lehua Chong

Subject: Assouline Presents: The Leather Book

Greetings,

Janet may be blaming her wardrobe, but leather has been keeping us covered since the beginning of time. The Leather Book by Anne-Laure Quilleriet (Assouline) is a history of leather in fashion and details rock and roll’s favorite look from the jackets of Elvis and pants of Jim Morrison to how these rock rebels have influenced the runways of Christian Dior, John Galliano and Chanel amongst others. Whether Jay Z is rapping about it or Mick Jagger is swaggering in it, leather will always be music’s first fashion. At this time, we would like to offer you the opportunity to review The Leather Book. Please take a look at the press release below and feel free to contact me directly for more information at 212.334.8006. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best,

Lehua Chong

Publicist, Workhouse Publicity

WORKHOUSE PUBLICITY

A FULL-SERVICE PROMOTIONAL FIRM

Thanks to Mitch Joel for the tip.”

Thank you B.L. for all your awesome work!

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.