another PR fail

Dear PR person,

You hunted down my email address and contacted me recently on behalf of a chocolate company. You generously offered me a goodie bag to give away to my readers and free tickets for a big foodie event.

Following the script for savvy PR companies who’ve done Social Marketing 101 you said nice things about a recipe I’d posted a couple of years ago on my blog.

When I promptly replied to your email with a query about the products, I never heard back from you. It was very polite and directly addressed a question I have for the company you represent.

Maybe you can clear up the confusion around the dairy content of your dark chocolate? With the change of packaging milk products are now listed in the ingredients. From memory this is neither the last in order, nor a case of "may contain traces of.." yet some (brand of chocolate) sources claim the recipe hasn't changed and there is no dairy in it? I'm confused.

But two weeks later I’ve not had a response.

I didn’t mention the event or the blog giveaway because as much as I once liked the brand you are promoting since the labeling changes I have stopped purchasing the chocolate. I have a dairy allergy and it’s just not worth risking the immune system crash that comes with it. But as there are Chinese whispers going on as to whether it contains milk products or mere “traces of” I’d love to clear it up.

So are you only interested in getting bums on seats (or more accurately product placements on blogs) regarding the event or are they genuinely trying to represent your client and promote the brand? I never expected you to be able to answer the question I posed but I did expect you to get back within 24 hours to say you’d forwarded on the email to the client. You might have even done another plug for the event you were promoting.

Surely the idea of using social networks to market a product is about creating a dialogue. You’ve picked up the ball, isn’t it time you learnt to run with it?

Regards,
AOF

quickie - old friends and new adventures

Not sure what happened while I was in Wellington recently. Due to family obligations it wasn’t exactly a holiday so sadly missed the final days of the very successful inaugural “Wellington of a plate”. I did however fall in love with a newish schoc flavour – bitter peppermint. The other (re)discovery was a love on cornflakes. Last night I had them as a post dinner snack with dried cherries, pistachios and soy milk.

Flan, frittata or bakes. I don’t care what you call it but I also got reacquainted recently with the joy of taking a bunch of vegetables (in this case Lucy’s lovely chard and kale straight from her garden), adding some flavours (onion, garlic and za’atar), something salty (olives and tuna) and binding it with a few beaten eggs. Twenty minutes in a moderate oven (as long as you’ve precooked your ingredients) there’s a lovely bake on the table for dinner.

Lisa Dempster has posted a great story on how Lord of the Flies dealt with her original musings on ”Lord of the Flies: still the best?". Is any publicity good publicity and did LOTF get social media right or wrong?

I’m popping out for a bit. Off to steamy Malaysia in one more sleep. Any tips on where to go, what to eat on the peninsula? Plans are rather open at the moment. Will acclimatise in Melaka for a few days then who know where we will go – food and rest are the only things on the agenda for a while.