Has anyone ever seen KeepYouSafe.com exec Eric Wolbrom and public relations professional Steven Blinn in the same room together? I ask because the two men are either one in the same person, or they express themselves in remarkably similar manners … as in virtually word-for-word manners.
We met the two yesterday in this post about KeepYouSafe’s sensationally tasteless press release that attempted to exploit a buck or two out of the deaths of Anna Nicole Smith and James Brown.
This morning I awakened to find this comment, purporting to be from Wolbrom, attached to that original post. It’s one of those non-apology apologies that drive me around the bend but that appears perfectly natural coming from a company that trades in dead celebrities.
Anyway, a few hours ago I stumbled upon this blog post about an e-mail exchange between PR guy Blinn and a fellow named Dave Taylor, who had written to Blinn to complain about the release.
You can slog through the links or let me save you the time: Wolbrom’s comment on my blog and Blinn’s response to Taylor are virtually word-for-word the same.
So now I’m thinking that maybe it wasn’t Wolbrom who left that lame mea culpa on my blog, but rather Blinn the mouthpiece doing what mouthpieces do. The gentlemen can feel free to use the comments section again to make clear which of them actually wrote what.
But let’s presume the obvious, that it was indeed Blinn who posted the comment under Wolbrom’s name, since it seems unlikely that Wolbrom would be answering Blinn’s e-mail and writing to Taylor to defend Blinn (anyone who can follow that sentence will get a Buzzblog T-shirt as soon as they’re available). Is it accepted practice in the public relations field to post comments to blogs using the names of client executives? I wouldn’t think so, but I put the question to a friend of mine who is a longtime, respected PR pro.
“It leaves much to be desired,” he said of such subterfuge. “And I expect many others would think similarly. Looks more like a flawed approach to crisis communications. The blogosphere is supposed to be about authenticity and transparency – or at least that’s the goal. The Cyrano de Bergerac approach is counter to that.”
“Folks are sophisticated enough to understand there are times when discussions/strategizing takes place between an exec and internal or external PR counsel prior to a posting, but you either is or you ain’t the guy posting the comments,” he continues. “End doesn’t justify the means. Believing that is the right way to go about things smacks of the kind of decision-making process that prompted said agency/client to go the route of that press release in the first place.”
Can’t wait to see what they’ve got planned for Act 3.
