• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Public Relations for Dummies

Faster horses

Well-known member
Public Relations for dummies – Part II
Commentary by Greg Henderson, Drovers editor |
Wednesday, August 18, 2010


In April I told you about a request I received to review a book called “Raising Goats for Dummies.” The e-mail provided plenty of fodder for me to make some wisecracks about raising goats, such as how I thought raising goats was for dummies, anyway. I also asked any potential goat raisers among you to not take offense, that I was merely taking the opportunity to poke some fun at the public relations person who sent me the request.

I also jokingly suggested that I write my own book and title it “Public Relations for Dummies,” with the central theme being that a good PR person should take the time to know their audience — in this case a cow editor — before they blast out an e-mail seeking publicity for their client.

That column drew a few “right-on” comments from some cattle industry folks who have earned their stripes in agricultural public relations and advertising. In short, the message was serious, but presented in a rather light-hearted way.

This week, however, I received another e-blast from a PR firm seeking my help in publicizing a product to the livestock industries. This release, unlike the one for “Raising Goats for Dummies,” wasted few words before my feathers were thoroughly ruffled. It began like this:

“Livestock farms across America have gone the way of Wal-Mart and the retail industry building superfarms at the pace Wal-Mart and its discount cousins build superstores.”

Well, if they were trying to peak my interest with that lead sentence, they surely did. It was followed by this blanket statement damning your business:

“But, the supersizing of livestock farming, while revolutionizing food production in America, has caused untold harm to the environment and public health.”

Really? “Untold harm to the environment and public health.” Hmmm. Tell me some of it, please. But, alas, they didn’t, the release merely jumped in to promoting their product by claiming, “Meeting environmental impact requirements will no longer be a concern in the livestock industry though” — with their new product.

OK, let me get this straight. In two short sentences this PR firm has made two wild statements about how “superfarms” (a nicer term for factory farms) are springing up across America creating a danger to the environment and public health.

Then, after this PR firm has thoroughly insulted me and my audience, they suggest that they have this new magic wand (their new product) that can be waved over these problems to make them all go away. The next 140 words or so of this PR release provides the benefits of this wonderful new product, including a variety of unsubstantiated statistics.

Finally, this PR release ends with, “Please let me know if you would be interested in learning more.”

Hmmm…

Yes, I believe I am interested in learning more. Let’s start with, “Where did you learn that livestock operations are “going the way of Wal-Mart?” Or, “What source of misinformation convinced you that animal agriculture ‘has caused untold harm to the environment and public health?’”

Such public relations/advertising releases written by people who do not understand agriculture are more common each year. I must assume that the misinformation campaigns by anti-agriculture groups such as PETA and HSUS are having an effect — even on people who should know better, or who should at least care enough to research their audiences before they seek help promoting a product.

Note to Drovers/Cattlenetwork readers:

To be fair, I will not name the product or the PR firm that sent me the release described in this column. In fact, it may be an excellent product capable of all the things they claim. It’s just that they did such a poor job of writing the press release that I’m now very skeptical of their product claims.

Note to PR writers who seek my assistance:

I receive dozens of requests each month. Please make sure your product or service is of legitimate interest to my readers. And please know that when you send me a press release one of three things is going to happen: I will either 1) hit the delete button; 2) publish the release online or in the magazine or both; or 3) I will write a column specifically about your PR failure, and I may include it as an example of what not to do in my as yet unpublished book, “Public Relations for Dummies
 
Top