PR DISASTERS 2007 - BLOGSITE NOMINATES YEAR’S WORST PR JOBS

PR watchdog and blogsite www.prdisasters.com is now accepting media, blogger and public nominations for its annual Top 10 PR Disaster Awards. The scheme highlights the worst examples of bad PR jobs as well as corporate scandals and celebrity gaffes.

Blog owner Gerry McCusker, author of the provocative PR text ‘Public Relations Disasters’, says that 2007 has been another sterling year for botched PR jobs:

“Corporations and media personalities have featured large in many of the worst PR disasters: The Cartoon Network’s bomb scare marketing stunt; British Airways’ fuel surcharge fiasco and Johnson & Johnson’s decision to sue the Red Cross. Movie pin-up Ralph Fiennes, US radio broadcaster Don Imus, Aussie AFL footballer Ben Cousins and Heather Mills McCartney are contesting the individual PR disaster accolade.”

As stated in his PR disasters book, Gerry explains that to qualify, any incident must catalyse sustained, negative media coverage. Gerry also says that other nominations for the 2007 PR Disaster Awards include:

Fleishman Hillard – the PR specialists saw two of its ex-execs jailed for overbilling.

Dr Pepper – a product promotion almost caused the exhumation of an historic graveyard.

Ribena – had its vitamin C product claims debunked by two teenage science students.

Wholefoods – their blogging CEO praised himself using a fake online identity.

BBC – revelations that the UK broadcaster faked results of viewer phone-in competitions.

FEMA – had its staff pretend to be news reporters at a badly attended press conference.

The ‘PR Disasters’ blogsite monitors PR stuff-ups, offering expert commentary to help individuals and organizations avoid the negative publicity that damages their reputation.

McCusker says that ‘PR Disasters’ will collate entries right up until midnight on 31 December 2007, and announce the winner early in 2007. Nominations can be submitted via blog entry at www.prdisasters.com

Ends

Note to editors; ‘Public Relations Disasters: Talespin’, Paperback, Kogan Page, 2006, www.kogan-page.co.uk, www.amazon.com