Blog
07.23
When not to get a PR firm
I love earning new business.
It's not just for the new revenue either. I love meeting new clients who believe they are ready to take their turn playing 'King of the Mountain.' They are primed. They are ready. And they are giddy to get started.
That fuels a guy like me. So all that towing the company line to say that I'm usually the last to tell someone they don't need PR.
And then I heard the Jonah Shacknai story.
Now I, like the Coronado PD, don't want to speculate, but let's investigate this from a public relations standpoint, shall we?
- 1. There is a 911 call saying Shacknai's six-year-old son fell from the stairs and is taken to the ER, where he later died tragically.
- 2. Two days later, cops get another call to find Shacknai's girlfriend found butt naked, hanging with her hands and legs bound. And she was found by... Shacknai's brother.
- 3. Both times, dude wasn't home and "away on business", who just happens to be a Botox magnate who sweats in $20 bills.
- 4. Reports show Captain Botulism has been married twice before, and both marriages ended abruptly with claims of abuse.
Surely, no one is getting suspicious already, right? That is, until now.
THIS JUST IN: This cat has got a Beverly Hillbilles truckload of baggage as he thought it would be a good idea to hire a public relations firm.
No, really.
Sitrick and Company is happy to have signed this case. Certainly, the social media links are nice, as well as the residual "Who in the hell would advise him that this is a good idea" commentary.
Obviously, they didn't. And dig this from the linked story:
The firm hired by Shacknai is the best PR firm money can buy, with a client list 13 pages long and the founder considered "the king of spin."
The firm's clients included Michael Jackson, Paris Hilton and Major League Baseball.
An executive at Shacknai's company, Sitrick, said the pharmaceutical CEO hired them to help him as he grieves and takes care of two funerals.
I don't know about you, but I don't have many... well, scratch that... I don't have ANY clients that offer to pay HCK2 to wipe the snot from their leaking nose because they are grieving a girlfriend found hanging in the buff from their second-floor balcony. What am I going to do if that were the case? Write a marketing plan about his raggedy Kleenex and how to get said tissue on eBay? It's for the benevolence fund, of course.
MEMO to Sitrick: This is why folk hate us. Thank you for making our jobs even more difficult. I have my father-in-law's snot rag to send you. Don't worry, I have the address. It's in my marketing plan.
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