This morning I woke up to find 35+ emails from Brody PR, a company that is apparently trying to help promote someone’s book. I don’t know whose book they are promoting and quite frankly I don’t really care at this point. The PR firm sent out emails to a long list of people that included:
- Shel Israel
- Francine Hardaway
- Om Malik
- Ken Wheaton from Adage
- and several others
Brody PR sent out a massive email to a giant list of people and forgot to use the BCC field. This means that when everybody started responding that they wanted to be taken off the damn spam list, that the whole list saw those emails. Quite frustrating as you can imagine. The geniuses behind this were Beth Brody of Brody PR and Michelle Brusyo of Digital Brand Expressions. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to work with people like this; avoid them!
Am I being to harsh? I don’t think so. The fact that a company chose to spam me and many others speaks volumes about how they do business and the fact they mistakenly included everyone’s name in the CC of the email is also not a good sign. You have to understand that I get several pitches and spam emails every single day and it needs to stop. I don’t spam all the PR people asking them to talk about me and they should have the decency and respect to not do that to me. It’s one thing to receive a few email pitches but I have now received over 40+ emails from one organization!
As I’m writing this I am now getting flooded with support ticket emails by Brody PR letting me know that someone from ourchurch.com is going to respond to fix the issue, oh joy!
I’m done writing about this, it sucks and they failed to build relationships with people. Spam is not the way to go.
Fortunately there are a few other posts that you can read on this:
PR, E-Mail, Social Media: FAIL
Public relations fail: A lesson and a rant
So…how’s your morning going?
It's amazing how many companies, big and small don't stop and think about simple thing like BCC vs CC when they send out mail, or to not have auto-replies go back to the entire list of names over and over again. There are so many “how tos” on the interwebs that these folks could read and do so much better. Instead, we get to deal with their ignorance.
I couldn't agree with you more Jack. Actually someone just joked around with me and asked if this is the same company that sends out all those Viagra ads, I think it may be! It's the small things that we often overlook that make a world of difference. Brody PR has been torn apart on the web because of this. Thanks for the comment Jack!
Simply unprofessional.
It was a mistake. It shouldn't have happened but it did. Their biggest mistake is with their lack of response when the proverbial hit the fan.
But “Agency of Satan”? Come on, Jacob – yes, you are being harsh. Maybe a PR agency that represented Hitler in his genocide of the Jewish nation, or Pol Pot and his “collectivization” of Cambodia, and you could use a term like that. But a PR agency that made a basic error? Not really.
Their biggest mistake was their entire approach to PR which was sending out a massive spam email to a bunch of bloggers. You should know better than anyone else that that's not the way PR should be done and if that's the approach they take then yes, they are PR agency of satan in my book. The along with forgetting to BCC the email list and then not having internal resources in place to keep me from getting support tickets further makes them little demons in my book.
sorry buddy, don't consider this a basic error at all
Of course it's not the way PR should be done and they're being punished for that by bloggers and people picking up on the story. And okay, let's say it is more than a basic error (and the standard response since then would probably bear this out). I'm just surprised you use such a sensationalistic headline, fella, and it's still one that I think (personally) is more than Brody deserve. But hey ho, we all have differing opinions… 😉
I used that headline because it's the worst form of PR that has I have seen personally thus far (and have been involved in). I'm sure if something worse comes along I'll have to think of another clever catchy headline 🙂
You say that you get flooded with spam emails every day. Why don't you out the ones that put you on the BCC list if you're so upset? Why did you choose Brody PR to focus your anger. Of course she knows about the BCC field. She obviously made a mistake. But the people who responded didn't. They all could have used the Reply button, but instead they consciously hit the Reply to All button to flex their anger and muscle, similar to what you're doing here. Read my post.
Social media “gurus” and bloggers are egotistical jerks
http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915
I addressed all of these points here: http://cometbranding.com/blog/brodygate-the-gre…
Read the post, then read the comments
Dear Jacob,
I have learned much this week. Some very wonderful people sent me valuable information which I have summarized here http://brodypr.blogspot.com/ in the hopes that others can learn from my mistake.
Beth Brody
Dear Jacob,
I have learned much this week. Some very helpful people offered me valuable advice which I have summarized here, http://brodypr.blogspot.com/ so that others can learn from my mistake.
Beth Brody
p.s. – I have not yet met Satan, although I think he is on the Internet.
You say that you get flooded with spam emails every day. Why don't you out the ones that put you on the BCC list if you're so upset? Why did you choose Brody PR to focus your anger. Of course she knows about the BCC field. She obviously made a mistake. But the people who responded didn't. They all could have used the Reply button, but instead they consciously hit the Reply to All button to flex their anger and muscle, similar to what you're doing here. Read my post.
Social media “gurus” and bloggers are egotistical jerks
http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=915
I addressed all of these points here: http://cometbranding.com/blog/brodygate-the-gre…
Read the post, then read the comments
I really like monkeys.. they are nice and hairy