This isn't exactly brain surgery, yet the fellow at a public relations agency called Rocket Science managed to violate Rule No. 1 last week while attempting to drum up publicity for Singlefin, which provides e-mail, instant messaging and Web filtering services to the likes of Juno and NetZero.

That his boss later pulled the underling's backside out of the fire - to some degree - gives this insider's tale a moral with broader implications than may be immediately apparent.

First, the underling: Rather than direct his PR pitch to the appropriate individual(s) here - oh, say our spam and security beat writers - the Rocket Science rep lit up the in-boxes of 11 Network World staffers, not to mention at least three others who no longer work here.

Now, it's not at all uncommon for PR professionals to spew their pitches at everyone on a publication's masthead - there are worse sins, though this one is way up there on any journalist's list of complaints. However, this particular agency underling also violated "Rule No. 2 when doing PR for an antispam vendor: Know how to use e-mail."

PR spam, artfully crafted, can go largely undetected because recipients can be duped into believing that they received the only copy within their organization. In this instance, however, the mass mailing was readily apparent to all because the "To:" field of the e-mail was populated by 116 clearly visible names - our 11 staffers, the three former employees and 102 others who I presumed to be journalists.

And if that wasn't enough to persuade every targeted "To" that he or she was getting a less-than-exclusive interview opportunity, there was this personalized method of address:

"Hello [RecipientFirstName]:"

All of which I might have let slide without remark if not for this final indignity: Nowhere among those 11 Network World addressees, three former employees and 102 other journalists could I find the name that matters most: mine.

"Rule No. 3 when doing PR for an antispam vendor: Don't dis the news editor who writes a weekly column and a blog.

(Note to the humor-impaired - and I mean some of you snipers over at Slashdot - that part about being left off the list is a joke; sorry I didn't include a smiley face in the online version.)

;(

OK, let's move on to the boss.