The-F-Word.org

I’ve bitched here before about the avalanche of emails sent to me by clueless advertising flacks to review the latest diet book, sample the new “weight loss surgery in a bar” or amazing “zero-calorie” flavored water (isn’t water already calorie-free?) or post the latest studies showing how fat people are personally responsible for global warming and impending destruction of life as we know it. Seriously, I even received an offer from a primarily male-oriented company to try weight-gain protein shakes marketed to bodybuilders — this on an eating disorders awareness site authored by a recovered anorexic/bulimic! In fact, I get more offers to review products/books/services as a personal blogger than I do as a professional journalist! (Harriet at Feed Me! has the same problem).

I posted a pretty clearcut note to advertisers on my contact page, bluntly stating, in no uncertain terms, the kinds of products I am open to reviewing and those that I will never review. Because most public relations reps get their information from online media guides and publications, it made little difference in my inbox. I tried to respond diplomatically to inappropriate offers, explaining the nature of my site and inquiring as to which guide the sender had pulled my contact info from, so that I could have it removed or edited. After sending dozens of these kinds of notes, I received exactly one reply back (with an apology and the media guide source, which I had updated). I then tried forwarding the emails to the actual people whose products were being spammed or to higher-ups at the advertising companies expressing the inappropriateness and spam-like nature of the offer. The doctor who created the aforementioned diet bar responded quite apologetically and even invited me to review the language on his Website to ensure that it did not contain inflammatory or stigmatizing language about fat people (insomuch as a site promoting weight-loss can do, given its aim). But then the emails simply grew to be too much and for months I’ve been simply marking them as junk email and blocking the sender from emailing me again.

Public relations flacks send “PR spam” for several reasons, most of which can be summed up in that they’re too lazy, incompetent or both to do the actual research required to shill their product to audiences who might actually be receptive to such offers (Keep in mind that I did not opt-in for these offers and I have yet to come across one with an unsubscribe option).  It’s virtually the same operative as Nigerian scammers in the sending of poorly-phrased letters imploring recipients to help them move large amounts of cash. As a professional writer who has worked in marketing in the past AND as someone who is eating disorder-recovering, the PR diet spam has grown beyond annoying. It’s not the fact that I am being bulk solicited for products that may be off-topic to my site; I well understand the concept of casting a wide net for your pitches to be a common and sometimes effective marketing strategy. But there’s a vast difference in sending a blogger who writes about, say, gardening an offer to review your new! and amazing! skin care cream that’s better than Botox and sending someone who is recovering from a very serious eating disorder that nearly killed her offers to review, and in some cases, receive complimentary weight-loss products. I don’t see it as very much different than sending a bottle of wine to your local AA chapter or offering a suicidal person a loaded gun. I’m fortunate in that I am at a point in my recovery where I can see the futility in these products and am able to resist them, but I worry about those bloggers who are still vulnerable in their recoveries and might be tempted by these kinds of offers.

So, now I want to handle inappropriate offers in a different way. A blogger last year started a prspammers wiki for people to publicly out PR firms employing unsavory spamming tactics. I’m going to do something similar here in a series I’m calling the Scarlet S (for spammer).* The only way to stop irresponsible, lazy and potentially harmful behavior like this is to publicly hold marketing firms responsible for their actions. Kicking off the series is this note sent by Jelena Kovacevic of the firm Attention USA wanting to know if I would somehow be interested in sharing crash dieting tips and advice with readers who are recovering from eating disorders.  (Harriet did discuss the same story on her site, but I get the impression from the email below that Harriet’s isn’t the kind of discussion she had in mind.)

Hi there,

Hope you’re well. I wanted to pass along a link to the Daily Beast’s piece The Crash-Dieting Secret by Susan B. Roberts (http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-05-18/the-crash-dieting-secret/).

New research shows that when it comes to dieting, slow-and-steady doesn’t always win the race–reason for procrastinators everywhere to rejoice!

Thought you would be interested to share this story with your readers. Looking forward to your thoughts and let me know if you have any questions.

Best

Jelena

Jelena Kovacevic
Attention for The Daily Beast
532 Broadway, Fl. 10
New York, NY 10012
P: 646.736.0112
F: 212.625.1300
www.attentionusa.com
http://blog.attentionusa.com/

Note to Jolena: If I’ve somehow misconstrued your email, let me know and I’ll remove you from the blacklist.

* Specific product names and links, of course, will be redacted in most listings.  I kept the link intact above so that people can see exactly what kind of “research” was being shared and also because Harriet, to whom I link, also provided the link to and critiqued the article on her site.