Terrible PR Emails: Part One

Red MangoBeing a blogger I get tons of emails from companies and PR people trying to pitch me on why I should write about their restaurant or food product. Most of them are really well written and have nothing wrong with them at all, but every once in a while though one comes along that just sort of makes me laugh.

I get emails inviting me to events in states that are 900 miles away. I’ve been asked to write about children’s food. I’ve even gotten emails asking me to mention new health food products. Really? My blog is called DudeFoods and if you spend even a second looking at it you can obviously tell that health food is pretty much the farthest thing from what I write about.

I sort of went back and forth about whether or not to write this blog post. It’s not intended to be mean at all even though it sort of comes across that way, so if you’re a PR person please don’t be offended by it. Again, 99% of you guys do an amazing job, but there’s always those one or two that don’t quite seem to get it, which is why I’m starting a new column here on my blog where I’m going to start pointing out the things that amuse me when it comes to PR emails.

Alright, onto the good stuff! This first email comes from the PR person from Red Mango, which is a frozen yogurt and smoothie chain. I’ve posted a screenshot of the email down below, but basically the gist of it is that they’re opening a new location near me this weekend so they contacted me in hopes that I’d mention the event here on DudeFoods.

Now, this email was actually pretty good from a blogger standpoint. It gave me a rundown of the company, mentioned their products and contained plenty of information about the new location. What’s hilarious to me though is that they mention how they’ll have a “blogger station” at the grand opening celebration so writers can blog about them during the event.

Does this seem crazy to anyone else but me? It’s a frozen yogurt place and they’re treating it like it’s an Apple press conference announcing the new iPhone or something. Do they really expect people to come and live blog the event? What would I even write? “Oh man, I just ate my way down to the layer of fresh strawberries I added to my yogurt and they’re even better than the blueberries I ate earlier! I wonder which flavor they’ll announce next! Oh my God, they have pumpkin spice yogurt!” Seriously, I probably get more excited about food than anyone I know, but I just can’t fathom the need for a blogger station at the opening of a frozen yogurt place….

Red Mango PR Email

10 Comments on Terrible PR Emails: Part One

  1. John
    September 27, 2012 at 11:50 am (12 years ago)

    This is great! You need to post more of these!

    Reply
  2. @eatRaleigh
    September 27, 2012 at 12:37 pm (12 years ago)

    This is how it is exactly…..

    Reply
  3. Michael Turk
    September 27, 2012 at 2:54 pm (12 years ago)

    I have a blog on which I once mentioned buying a car. For three or four years after that, Ford’s PR company, Burson-Marsteller, sent me constant press releases about the exciting advances in seatbelt technology and windshield wiper improvements in Ford products. That’s what happens when you pay big firms $400 and hour to do PR – they pay interns $10 an hour to actually do the work, and partners $200 an hour to throw buzzwords at you.

    Reply
  4. Rodzilla
    September 28, 2012 at 7:31 am (12 years ago)

    I’m glad you started this, I’ve thought about sharing a few myself, but being much, much less kind.

    At times the email is so generic it’s borderline offensive, and some of the promotion ideas themselves are just terrible.

    In their defense – a lot of the bloggers they contact are reall, terrible as well.

    Reply
  5. Ellecat
    September 28, 2012 at 11:32 am (12 years ago)

    Everyone wants free advertising these days – it’s a win for the company when the blogger posts a good review of the product and costs the company nothing in advertising.
    And I guess there must be heavy competition in the frozen yogurt biz.

    Reply
  6. Mickey
    October 1, 2012 at 12:45 pm (12 years ago)

    The blogger station is weird but actually becoming more common, PR people think that everything must be online NOW not later. Does not matter what kind of event. The thing I found most odd was the photo booth for taking a picture of yourself with your creation.

    Reply
  7. Zachary Jacob Zblewski
    October 2, 2012 at 3:34 am (12 years ago)

    Well, I guess you mentioned it, so… mission accomplished?

    Reply
  8. Robert
    October 6, 2012 at 5:00 pm (12 years ago)

    I see your point but it would be hard to judge without seeing how it was set up. If they set up a computer station and/or a photo station like mentioned above… and they were hoping that everyone who came to the event would use it, that might be a great idea. Not just bloggers, but citizens from all over that town posting on facebook and twitter where they are and including photos maybe. Maybe they even offered a free item to people if they posted about it. That could instantly create thousands of likes on their page or whatever.

    Reply
  9. @KristenZ
    October 8, 2012 at 12:46 pm (12 years ago)

    Great blog. Glad our outreach wasn’t generic or irrelevant! Marketers, take note.

    Reply

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