Snakes and other PR People

If you have been in PR for more than a week, then you will relate to this story.

About a year ago I worked with a small company that made an ecologically pure product that was universally liked and used extensively.

I handled the PR and marketing and did it for peanuts because it was a rewarding experience. One day the little company decided it wanted to become a big company, so they asked me to find them a "Professional Marketing Team", so I went out, interviewed, asked around and did all the due diligence.

I settled on a medium sized group that was well regarded, and appeared quite professional. I coached them for the meeting, and helped them on their pitch. We have all been there, and we have all done that.

The big day arrives and they are flawless, it's as if they had been in the business for as long as I had been. And they got the contract to conduct a preliminary survey, a study of the market and internal review. A nice fee was extorted, and I helped them put it all together.

In the first meeting to present their findings they announced, much to my surprise, that the small company I had shepherded to an EPA award, gotten into several articles, promoted to three continents, had absolutely no media presence.

Yes, there was a cold wind blowing between my shoulder blades where the knife went in, A knife I myself had brought to the party and helped place.

Well, shortly thereafter I was informed that my presence was no longer required to handle PR, for some reason they had not received the attention they thought they deserved.

The really nice thing though is that since then, the company has never ever appeared again in any publication. And the marketing team that shafted me just called for my inputs into the European market, somehow I can never remember their phone number, age I guess.