- We get public relations pitches pretty much all the time, right? Sometimes they’re random. Sometimes really pushy. Sometimes they lead to great stories. And sometimes they feel like they came from bots.
Earlier this week, I asked for people’s best-worst PR pitches.
Here’s what I heard:
@kristenhare @Poynter My weirdest would be a pitch for an event in Sweden that called Santa the "master of his craft"…I write about tech.
— Sarah Kuranda (@skuranda) October 14, 2014
@kristenhare @Poynter My favorite are the, "Can you publish our press release? You can just put your name on it if you want."
— Kyle Hinchey (@KyleHinchey) October 14, 2014
@kristenhare This. https://t.co/HaGcpzDZXB
— Scott Hurley (@WLUK_SH) October 14, 2014
The title for that one, by the way, is “Final Advisory to Mankind Final Warning to All Human Beings.”
@Poynter Well, there was this https://t.co/rSYWuQjGS2
— Kari Cobham, WFTV (@KariWrites) October 16, 2014
A pitch that starts with "Hi [insert competition here] team"? Really? Deleted.
— Kari Cobham, WFTV (@KariWrites) October 10, 2014
@kristenhare Used to work in Goldsboro, NC. Worst were people who call/email pitching stories for Greensboro. Know where you're calling!
— Matthew Whittle (@mwwhittle) October 16, 2014
On Facebook, Catharin Shepard with The News-Journal in Raeford, North Carolina, wrote this:
Last week I received in the mail a roughly 100-page manifesto that, as far as I could tell, compared Scientology to the Third Reich and used information from various psychological institutes and authorities to make a case that it is not a real religion. However, it was difficult to tell for certain, because it was written in what I guessed was either German or Dutch. To put this in perspective, I’m a reporter for a small-town newspaper in rural North Carolina.
And Jen Kopf, a home and garden writer for LancasterOnline in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, shared the best of the best-worst:
“This week’s winner: ‘”Having trouble pooping?'”
I spoke with Kopf via email, and she’s digging through her deleted files for that pitch. I’ll share more when I get it. You are now free to make bathroom jokes. And send more bad pitches if you got ’em. I’ll keep adding.
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