Opinion: Bad PR
On Tuesday, this interesting read on the Penny Arcade was posted. It is the exchange between one consumer and the PR for a company. When you’ve read it, join me below.
Read it? Good. I’ll start by saying that after ready that, my initial opinion was that this Paul Christoforo chap is a massive douche. Some time has passed and you know what? I’m still of the belief that he is a massive douche. His responses to Dave were entirely uncalled for and his blatant disregard for customers in general was sickening – oh, that is not to mention his grammar and spelling were also particularly horrible. Then Paul goes on to insult PAX too. Seriously? PAX is one of the biggest conventions on the games industry calendar and arguably the biggest that is open to non-industry types (re: the important people, you guys!).
There’s a saying; any press is good press. And it is when things like this happen, that I am reminded of it. Before yesterday, I’d never even heard of this guy or his company. I’m sure many people are in that boat, too. And of course, people are talking about it as a result (like this post… hah). But is this really good press? Some of the people that Paul name dropped, have since condemned him. His actions have cost the company he works for (re: the company that makes the controllers, not his PR company), the ability to have a booth at PAX. I’d be wanting to cut my ties with him pretty quickly if I were the ones that hired him.
So yeah, this guy is a self-important, moronic douche. I probably shouldn’t say that, I mean, he has 125 people dedicated to PR, ready to slander any and all that speak out! Or is it that he just has 125 split personalities? You decide.
Anyway, I want to hear from you guys on any bad experiences you might have had with bad PR in the past. Ready, set, go.
Oh and just a reminder: Leave a comment on any article on the site before January 1st and you enter into the draw to win a Humble Indie Bundle Pack #4 that includes ten cross-platform games! More info here.
HAHAHA oh my, I am glad to see that every now and then the internet does something good. Looks like Christoforo can be labeled as the man who brought down his company with a single hand (I mean that would explain the bad spelling/grammar) Go ahead and Google Ocean Marketing, The first five results are about this guy and how he has ruined the company. N-Controller has abandoned them, The Hand Media has dis-owned them, every name that was dropped in the e-mails has come out and stated they have no connection with them. I think its safe to say that this marketing firm will not be getting any big jobs in the next couple of years at least. I’m glad this happened however as this is a big eye-opener to all the Customer Service people out there that treat customers with little to no respect. The customer is ALWAYS right.
I honestly don’t think it would of blown up as much as it did if he hadn’t acted like a pretentious asshat. When you start name dropping and acting like an industry stalwart when you are anything but, you paint an even bigger target on your back than just plain being a dick to a customer.