When PR irritates beyond belief

We've got a lot of time for Chris Anderson, editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail.

So imagine our joy a few weeks back when Anderson posted an article on his blog in which he named and shamed all the PRs who pester him with unsolicited press releases, product information and plugs.

And he did this by reproducing their email addresses!

The post has caused a merry stir in journalist and marketing circles. Frankly, it made us laugh quite a lot, especially as it came just a few days ahead of World Travel Market in the UK, when the tourist board press machines go berzurk.

Fast forward almost two weeks and PING!, an email arrives in the Travolution inbox from a reasonably big London-based PR firm which represents a string of technology firms.

[No "Dear" or "To"]

Following the controversial blog post by Wired's Chris Anderson criticising individual PR executives for sending irrelevant pitches, we wanted to find out from journalists how serious this issue really is.

We'd be very grateful if you would answer the five questions in this web survey.

We understand the irony in spamming journalists to fill out a questionnaire about pitch and press release spamming, so there is a crate of beer of your choice for the lucky journalist drawn out of a hat.

Thanks,

****** [we have deleted the sender's name]

Does anyone else want to fill it in?

Are all hacks lured into taking part in this drivel by a crate a beer?

Oh, maybe it's just us who despise these things...

NB: I am delberately tagging Neil Maclean here - he writes the Travel PR Blog, and it would be good to get his comments].

Kevin May, editor, Travolution