Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Sometimes, when I boil down a piece of writing, I find nuggets of truth embedded within a matrix of jargon and bullshit. But sometimes, I just find nothing but platitudes, emptiness, and evidence of incompetence. That’s the apparent communications strategy of Revolt PR.

Here’s what the press release says: Revolt PR believes it can help you reach millennials, and it has a new web site. It takes 270 words to say so. And it’s a revealing exercise in why, if you have nothing to say, you should say nothing.

Should you REALLY invest in a PR Section on your website? We think not-- and here's why.The time has finally come: You can go ahead and get rid of that “Company News” section.

Nobody’s reading it. In fact, a recent analytical report compiled by Chris Scott of Headscape suggests that the fewer than 1% of visitors who DO read your press releases tend to leave your site shortly after.

So there you have it: your company news page – with all its press releases, employee event descriptions, award notifications and job promotion updates – is actually driving your prospects away...

Need a news fix? How about rack of goat; a score of new websites; 10% retail savings; a two-month old talk show appearance; NYPD Nudie cop; 50 year-old abs; aerospace engineers and car repairs; albinos in Tanzania; air hockey and better relationships; the end of a store sale?

We’ve got it all in the 2nd installment of our Bad News Releases feature.

Our first collection of bad press releases was our most popular post in 2010. We’ve got 25 brand new press release turkeys that will never get past the editor’s or reporter’s inbox.

Here are seven reasons why these news releases fail...

[Just in time for the holiday, an old favorite: 25 Press Release Turkeys ~ Jeff]

The practice of public relations is so powerful that the simple act of composing a press release can turn an ordinary citizen into a raving monster. This is PR Dummies.

Going WAY haywire!!! on subluxated flackery, every week.

The common practice of using current events as a "news peg" for press releases, no matter how tenuous the connection between the event and the PR item in question, is so ingrained that no level of national horror can stamp it out. So the Aurora Dark Knight massacre has brought with it a predictable and depressing wave of massacre-pegged press releases. But none have quite the savoir faire of this one, from a Minnesota chiropractor. (Our correspondent notes that an apology for this went out the day after she received it.)

[Stunning poor taste, insensitivity and a PR fail with this press release. Mind-boggling! - JD ]

Press release disasters? File this one in the “some posts just write themselves” folder.

Pity the poor editors and news directors across the country. Inundated every day with pitiful press releases containing horrible headlines, bad ledes, lame quotes, bluster, babble and an absolute lack of news. Most of them just bad PR.

No better examples than these 21 press release flounders...