rebecca's pocket

Clueless PR Spam

This is an actual PR spam:

Hello Rebecca,

With award-show season in the midst of Winter and the Academy Awards having just finished, I'm sure your Rebecca's Pocket readers wonder, "How do celebrities keep their great tans?" It must cross everyone's mind at one time or another, and the answer? Stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Britney Spears, Matthew Mcconaughey, and Beyonce all maintain their summer sun-kissed looks through visits to the fabulous [name redacted] Salons.

Were you, dear reader, wondering that?

We may not have our own personal stylist and professional make-up artists like the stars, but we can give ourselves beautiful, healthy tans by simply stopping by a local [name redacted] Salon.

Think that tanning salons might be harmful? Exposure to ultraviolet radiation from a tanning bed, such as those at [name redacted] salons, result in the production of vitamin D in our skin. When vitamin D levels are stable, calcium and metabolism is preserved, which in turn reduces the risk of faulty bone development that can lead to osteoporosis.

Busy with work or your family? With over 60 locations nationwide, [name redacted] salons are open every day of the week, and with more than twenty beds at each location, you never need to schedule an appointment. Also, [name redacted] has childcare services inside the salon, so just bring the kids along with you!

Visit [URL redacted] to learn more about the quality of their salons and services.

[Name redacted], CEO of [name redacted] would have time next Tuesday or Wednesday to have a casual 10-minute conversation regarding his company as well as the quality of his products and services.

Which day will work best for you?

I look forward to hearing for you.

Best,

[PR Flack]
Media Contact
[URL redacted]
[PR flack email]

I'm guessing this email resulted from a Technorati search for Academy Awards, with (obviously) no further research done at all. I wonder how much poor Redacted is paying for this email campaign?

I wish there were a clearinghouse blog where we could just forward this kind of email. That way, organizations who were considering laying down cold, hard cash on a blog PR campaign could sample the wares, as it were.... / (1) Comments  / [ 03/12/06 ]

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I'm most interested in seeing what this does to my posting style. At the moment I'm composing in a text file as I always have, and then transferring entries one by one into the little form box. Ridiculous, no? But my process has always been to write, read, edit, and then arrange my entries against one another before posting them to the site. I'm not sure I want to give that up — and it would be impossible to do using existing tools. Where is the Ajax-powered WYSIWYG blogging editor that would enable me to really edit this page? Oh, wait.  [ 01/11/06 ]