How Not to Respond to Negative Press

'Actor' Threatens PR Blogger Over Critique of Press Release

Posted by Ken Wheaton on 06.22.09 @ 03:54 PM

This story combines some of my favorite elements: a horribly written press release; a blog take-down of said press release; and a clueless, threatening response from the person responsible for the press release.

Jennifer A. Jones, of JA Jones Consulting down in Atlanta, took some time out of her day a while back to critique a laughably bad press release extolling the virtues of a world-renowned (in his own mind) actor and cancer warrior. Seriously. Read it. But you might not want to laugh out loud at it. As Jones learned, you don't go tugging on Superman's cape. The actor in question -- who wrote the release himself, despite repeated requests from his own publicist not to do such things -- got wind of Jones' blog post, which must have been read by tens, maybe even hundreds of people. And then he threatened her, first with a National Press Release, then with violence.

Here at Ad Age, we don't reward jerks (or bad PR) with free Google hits, but if you're dying to know the culprit's identity, you can find it here.