How far will you go for business PR?
I recently received an email inviting me to take advantage of a possible opportunity to promote my business, which had been sent to me via my sign up to the entrepreneurial women’s network Every Woman.
How exciting thought I, let’s hope my business qualifies! And you know what, it just might! Reading on, I discovered that this PR opportunity could extend to some exciting media – national press, women’s mags like Marie Claire and Cosmo and even national TV programmes like GMTV, Loose Women and This Morning. How fantastic to know that such prominent media are keen to cover stories about women in business and profile their companies. Fabulous! Not only that, but I could be paid possibly up to £1,000 as a fee! Wow, what’s not to like?
So now I’m champing at the bit – and all I have to do is to deliver a credible story Tom Richards at the “acclaimed” media agency responsible for finding the material, www.medavia.co.uk. Here are the “Business” subjects they’re interested in covering:
Sex
Relationships
Love
Betrayal
Weddings
Romance
Babies
Crime
Health
Phobia
Weight
…. Excuse me, but FFS! That is such a sad reflection of the lack of credibility afforded to us as women in business that it makes me want to weep. Do you think the same media agency pimps for stories from male MDs and CEOs by sending out a round robbin asking them if they want their business promoted based on their experiences of the male menopause, or premature ejaculation? And would the Chamber of Commerce or Institute of Directors, or Veritable Order of Funny Handshakes allow them access to their database to do so? To say I’m exasperated by this is a real understatement, it’s tested my sense of humour almost to breaking point… almost….
Anyway, I’ve come with a few story lines they might be interested in (I assume they don’t do background checks to establish the veracity of this stuff, I can presumably go on Loose Women and say any old guff, aint that right @McGiff?) So here we go…
How I Slept with My Bank Manager for my £25 Start Up Loan (Co-op Bank, obviously, would have to be the CEO for an RBS Loan)
Why Becoming a Plumber Made Me a Part-Time Lesbian (or should that be the other way round?)
I Fell in Love With My Very Wealthy Venture Capital Business Angel
My Business Partner Stole My Husband and My Cupcake Recipes
I Got Married Suspended Over the Mixing Vat in My Chocolate Factory
My Landlord Never Told Me There Was Asbestos in My Office and Now I’m Wheezy
Setting Up My Rubber Tyre Factory Made Me Allergic to Prophylactics
… I’ll tell you what, stuff my business, that little lot could be worth up to £7,000 and I haven’t even started!
What do you think Birds, should we start up a Patronising, Belittling, Meaningless, Vacuous PR Story Generating Factory? have you got some ideas we can offer to the media; it could be our entrepreneurial breakthrough!!
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13 Responses to How far will you go for business PR?
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I’ve had lovely chats with young Tom at Medavia, too, in my case about my cancer. He wanted a photo of my recent surgical scar, stoma and urostomy bag… I sent him a written piece about by cancer journey (upbeat, no scandal, no blood and gore) and all he was interested in was am I now looking for a man?
Based on your excellent selection of general business stories, here are a few that I suppose I should now be contemplating:
How I Lost 10 Kilos In Just 5 Hours By Having Most Of My Guts Surgically Removed…
After My Operation I Can Now Pee Just Like A Man Does …
The Day The Police Pulled Me For Emptying My Urostomy Bag In A Farm Gateway …
How Can I Have Proper Sex Now That Half My Vagina Has Been Taken Away? …
First My Left Breast, Now My Bladder, Womb And Ovaries – What’s Left To Chop Out? …
How I Beat Cancer By Having Most Of My Major Organs Removed …
(shall I go on? No, thought not.)
And here’s the surprise of the week – since sending the lovely Tom at Medavia all that hearty, positive stuff about cancer I haven’t heard a squeak out of him. He’s probably busy interviewing that nice lady Wendy Lewis who peed on a war memorial in Blackpool. I’m sure she would make a great interviewee on Loose Women…
Twitter: SuzeStMWrites
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You are so right Elaine, I cannot imagine Richard Branson ever being asked about his ejaculations as a business person, so why should the human aspect be the only interesting thing about a female business person?
Now you mention it, that Alan Sugar chap is looking a little lardy lately, he must be all of a 34 waist, has someone got him on a diet yet and told he needs to lose 30lbs? How come he has never been asked about his ejaculations and how that has affected his business?
It’s terribly sexist, perhaps there needs to be an in depth exploration of why businesswomen are treated differently from businessmen, and – no, I am liable to flip off on a rant… so will calm down
And you know Suze, the headline would be “I Lost 10 Kilos In Just 5 Hours By Having Most Of My Guts Surgically Removed… and I am still looking for love”. Ha, and no mention of your extreme bravery and what you and your fellow cancer warriors endure day in and day out, like sex and love are the only thing on your mind when you are a woman.
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It’s truly awful isn’t it! I completely agree with you Elaine!
It is incredibly sad at the end of the day. A few seem to decide what we must be interested in, and then people seem to flock in their thousands to read them! Why??? that’s what I would like to know! I suppose it’s the ‘shock’ appeal.
It really needs to change.
Twitter: NitaJoyDesigns
Suze, that makes me even more incensed, that’s outrageous. I have to believe that this is poorly informed decision making by the likes of “lovely Tom”, because I can’t get my head round the possibility that the hundreds of thousands who read these mags are actually more interested in these subjects than being inspired and motivated by positive stories of success and bravery. I personally believe that much of the traditional printed media’s decline is because audiences now have more choice about reading material with the expansion of the web – and that the traditional media are misjudging what we want to see and read. At least I hope that’s the case.
What would be really great, is for an intelligent journalist to read this and approach you about running the positive, brave story you have to tell.
It’s a stark comparison is’t it? t just doesn’t happen with businessmen – and I’d love to see some audience research that explores this; I just can’t believe that this fodder is what people want to read!
Quite right Anita – and I’d like to know not only why, but “if” they want to read it.
Okay, maybe I’m being sexist now but why the heck is Every WOMAN flogging its membership data to a media/ PR company fronted by a MAN?
Sorry but I just don’t see any spirit of sisterhood (that it just might be reasonable to expect from an organisation such as theirs) being demonstrated here…
Twitter: Linda_Mattacks
Quite right, Linda. If we don’t want to be affronted, we should simply ignore people like the lovely Tom. They will get the message eventually.
Welcome back Morag, we’ve missed you