Recently in Unusual PR Gambits Category

Dying Artform: The Zany Press Kit

By
Coury Turczyn
on January 16, 2009 3:16 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Long ago in the pre-Internet Age of Mail, publicity agencies would send bizarre objects to the editorial offices of publications in hopes of catching the attention of gullible editors. Most of them were completely useless and would be immediately dropped into the wastebasket (until one of them actually sent us a wastebasket, which I've kept to this day -- who doesn't need a wastebasket?). With the dominance of e-mail (and the decline of marketing budgets), this practice has all but died out. 

But then this came in the mail!

photo2.jpg
See what's inside after the jump!

Continue reading Dying Artform: The Zany Press Kit.

Free financial advice.... from the wise planners at Citigroup

By
Coury Turczyn
on January 2, 2009 3:34 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
For some reason, publicists still think it's a great idea to submit "articles" for publication that are "written" by their clients. Perhaps they envision a world of small-town, weekly papers run by simple folk who just don't know how to fill their empty pages: "The square dance report is running short this week, Ma. What're we gonna put on page 6?" "Well, by gum, let's run that free article on dog-grooming tips from Hartz Mountain!" PR agents seem to believe that readers will see these important articles and then think more fondly of their clients.

Maybe not so much with this article, submitted to us by TMGpr on Madison Avenue: "Top 5 New Year's Resolutions for Your Finances" from Personal Finance Expert Dara Duguay. Ms. Duguay works in Citi's Office of Financial Education. That would be Citigroup, which according to the New York Times, is "one of the biggest recipients of taxpayer money," having taken in $45 billion in government bailout funds in the current financial crisis. The government is also covering 90 percent of the losses on $306 billion in toxic securities after Citigroup absorbed the first $29 billion of losses. 

So, do you really want to take Citi's financial advice regarding your money? Yeahhhh.... well, if you do, it's available after the jump.


Continue reading Free financial advice.... from the wise planners at Citigroup.

Welcome to Our World

By
Coury Turczyn
on October 2, 2008 3:17 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
As a free weekly paper in a small southeastern city, Metro Pulse wields an uncommon amount of power over the hearts and minds of Knoxville's citizens. 

Or, at least that's what the world's PR people seem to think based on the mind-boggling amount of promotional crap they send our way. We get it all, from every corner of the Earth: press releases, manifestos, "free articles," alcoholic bribes, press kits, and in-office visits from milk maids. (Yes, the Blue Bell ice cream company sent a live milk maid to our office bearing cartons of free ice cream. She was not harmed. But it raised the question: Who makes milk-maid costumes these days, and why?)

Amid this constant stream of propaganda that we shield you from, there are certain items that float to the top. And this is what we'd like to share with you here at Weird Things People Send Us: the most bizarre things that come across our desks. Just so you know what we're dealing with.

To inaugurate this blog, we have this:

mythical-maidens.jpgThat's right: It's a postcard advertising a company that specializes in photos and DVDs of Amazon women riding horses. No, it's not pornographic, it's just plenty weird. Some of them have swords. 

Out of all the publications in the world, why did they pick us? We've not requested a review copy. Yet.

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