Stupid PR Watch: Counting Obama's Chickens

As editor of now defunct dot-com trade publication iMarketing News in the late nineties and into 2001, I was forever telling reporters not to write glowing prose about companies that could be a source of embarrassment if the firms were to go belly up.

In hindsight, the philosophy served us well. We never once wrote a positive story about the now infamous Pets.com sock puppet.

And now, apparently Tappening, a movement aiming to get people to stop drinking bottled water, could use a dose of the same philosophy.

In true Dewey-beats-Truman fashion, Tappening on Friday e-mailed this newsletter a press release announcing a $225,000, seven-ad campaign congratulating “president-elect” Barack Obama.

“Tappening’s Newest Advertising Campaign Taps Into Today’s Big Issues: Economics and the new President,” said the headline.

“Confident of an Obama victory after he stopped drinking bottled water, congratulatory wild postings going up and online prior to election,” said the subhead.

The idiocy of connecting a presumed Obama win to his eschewing bottled water aside, what if he loses? Stranger things have happened.

If Obama loses, Tappening will look like complete stupes, pure and simple.

And there are so many simple ways around predicting how the race will end, and getting the same marketing message across,

Congratulating Obama for a historic campaign is one. After all, his campaign is historic no matter how it comes out.

Moreover, announcing an Obama win before the fact offers Tappening no marketing benefit. The release risks angering reporters who don't support Obama—granted 20% or less of most newsrooms—and risks a “please-don't-jinx-this” reaction from those who do.

During my stint as editor of iMarketing News, I had one reporter in particular who would resist my admonishments not to write glowing stories about companies whose prospects he could not possibly discern.

“They'll tell you anything,” I used to say to him. “And if they go out of business right after you write this fluff, you'll look like an ass.”

One day, a competitive direct marketing publication arrived on my desk proving my point.

“J. Peterman: Making the Seamless Transition to Retail,” said the cover.

Thing was, between the time the article was written and the magazine went to print, J. Peterman had filed for bankruptcy.

I understand the point of the Tappening release was to try and get ink for having made such a bold statement and that by the sheer nature—get it? Nature?--of its mission, most of Tappening's supporters will be Obama supporters, as well. But the risk of ridicule to the Tappening brand is just too high.

And believe it or not, there are people who think we should limit our intake of bottled water who don't support Obama.

Who do I support? As a business writer who believes entrepreneurship is what separates this country in a positive way from most others, and after watching Obama and John McCain take turns during one debate seeing who could bash business the hardest, to half my readers, I say: Congratulations; I hope you're proud of yourselves. To the other half I say: Yes, we can stay drunk all day, every day for the next four years and make them go faster.