Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

In a reply to a publicist who contacted me recently on some subject or another, I surprised even myself when I wrote to her that I could not take up her pitch because she used the phrase “reaching out” in her email.

If memory serves, I actually went so far as to tell her it is my policy to say no to pitches in which the phrase “reaching out” or any of its variants is applied. It was a ridiculous, ornery reply to a well-meaning request for coverage, for which I apologize.

However, the “reaching out” phrase rankled me, and I am trying to figure out why. One reason is its overuse. This phrase -- “reaching out,” “reach out,” “reached out” or whatever form it takes -- is certainly overused in the p.r. biz today (and in many other places too)....

In Washington-speak, a "full Ginsburg" is when one person appears on all five major Sunday news programs in a single day.  The feat was first performed in 1998 by William Ginsburg , the attorney for Monica Lewinsky.  Since then, the trick has been performed about 18 times -- often by Presidential candidates.

If you are not running for office --and you are doing a Ginsburg, chances are you are running for your life. Even if one or two of the interviews is pre-taped, it is hard on a person to keep their energy up and their talking points down.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer logged a full Ginsburg this morning.  We'll leave to others to rate the substance of his answers -- but the way they were delivered was not impressive....

General Motor’s Mary Barra admitted this week that, “something went wrong with our process…and terrible things happened.”

And while that is certainly true and laudable for the new CEO of the auto giant to admit her company mishandled some safety issues for 13 years, saying she is deeply sorry is not quite enough.

Yesterday, she held what GM described as a news conference but, according the the WXYZ-TV report below, only handful of print reporters were invited, slamming the car door on  local Detroit stations and the national news networks.

There are times (particularly when dealing with good news situations) when companies can play favorites. But when you are in a hole like GM — you can’t afford to annoy major parts of the media....

Auto firm Tesla is giving a New York Times reviewer a car. The goal was to show off Tesla's "electric highway" of charging stations for its electric car between Washington and Boston. The problem was that the car didn't make it.