UPDATED: And then the PR guy called me “a fucking bitch”. I can’t even make this shit up.

in blogging about blogging again, I am totally overrated, Marketing gone bad, rants, Sometimes I get Top Gun and real life confused in my head

SEE UPDATES BELOW…

I know I just posted a few hours ago, but I’m posting again because you all know how dedicated I am to writing about PR pitches (both good and bad) and this one just can’t wait.  I got a form letter email pitch (more than one, actually) about a Kardashian sister being spotted in pantyhose.

Actual line from email:

“The Kardashian’s once again show they are right on trend, and this is on (sic) Mommy’s are all going to want to follow.”

As I do with all unsolicited form-letters about celebrities-doing-shit-no-one-cares-about, I replied with my usual, simple response:

me: And here’s a picture of Wil Wheaton collating.

I got a response from the woman who sent the original email:

Hi there,
That wasn’t very nice. We send certain pitches out to people so they have the chance of getting more hits on their page. We’ll make note of this email in moving forward and remember if we have any advertising opportunities with any of our clients not to go through you.
Best of luck to you.
Best,
Erica

That sort of email might be threatening to a blogger who makes a living by getting advertisers who go through PR companies, but I’m not, and (as far as I know) neither are most people.  For the most part, my blog is supported by people.  People who are bloggers.  This becomes relevant soon.

I wasn’t going to respond, as she did have a point, but then a VP of the company (Jose) hit “reply all”.  With me on the reply-all.

Jose:  “What a fucking bitch!”

Wow.  I sort of felt bad for the guy (as I’ve accidentally fallen victim to the reply-all trap as well) and I considered just cowing down and remaining quietly chastened by this man, but then I remembered that this isn’t the 18th century and that I’ve never taken a high road in my entire life.

My response:

Hi. This is sort of why “reply all” doesn’t usually work well for
companies. Unless, of course, you decided that “What a fucking bitch” was
a great response from a public relations company. Personally, I preferred
the “Best of luck to you” one, which was much more honest and cutting,
while still being professional.

If you’ve read my blog you would know that a great deal of my blog deals
with the importance of public relations companies doing research before
sending form letters to bloggers. Specifically, I’m very vocal about
ridiculous pitches involving celebrities using products. So much so that
I made that actual Wil Wheaton collating paper page to combat this very
sort of thing in a quick and painless way. My blog has nothing to do with
fashion, the Kardashians or pantyhose…none of which I understand, to be
honest. Plus, you’ve sent me this form letter TWICE today. I only point
this out so you can delete this *ahem* “fucking bitch” from all of the
mailing lists you have me on, rather than just one.

Also, I apologize if you were offended by my email. Honestly, I’ve been
sending that thing out to PR people for the last year and this is the
first time I didn’t have someone respond with either a laugh, or with a
simple “No problem. We’ll remove you from the list.” In fact, many PR
companies have turned this entire thing around and sent really hysterical
exchanges to me, which I’ve used to promote their great work in
understanding (and working with) the unique personalities of the very
bloggers they’re trying to reach out to. Just a thought.

Hugs,
Jenny (aka “fucking bitch”)

I don’t know what I expected, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this:

Jose: I get it and I was out of line by saying that however you put way too much effort
into your approach. A simple “I don’t cover this, no thanks” or “Please remove”
would suffice. To go out of your way to be snarky and rude is a little
inappropriate. Again, I should’ve been less harsh – but I also feel like your email
was rude and unprofessional as well. We will do a better job to research who we are
pitching but maybe you should be flattered that you are even viewed relevant enough
to be pitched at all instead of alienated PR firms and PR people – who are actually
the livelihood of any journalists business. Don’t be offended, you started the
cursing game so maybe we should all just laugh it off and plan not to work together
in the future.

Wow.  Jose was sticking to his guns.  Sadly for both of us, so was I.

My response:

“You should be flattered that you are even viewed relevant enough to be pitched at all.”
You sure know how to flatter a girl. Are you even in
public relations? Am I on Candid Camera? Because I’m kind of baffled.

Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.

And then I tweeted to @BrandlinkComm to let them know that one of their VPs just sent me an email referring to me as “a fucking bitch.”  And many, many of my 164,000 followers replied and retweeted in the most clever and hysterically awesome ways imaginable.

And it was beautiful.

PS.  The reason I post this is not to have everyone go all angry-villager on the company.  It’s to remind other bloggers that there are some amazing and wonderful PR companies out there who will do their research and will make your life wonderful.  And there are other PR companies that will try to shame you into posting their irrelevant spam and threaten you with talk of not using you in the future for when they’re doing advertising.  Those PR firms are assholes and you should probably question everything they say.

You are amazing.  You are relevant.  Your work is worth protecting and standing up for.  And you will find wonderful PR companies to work with over time.

Even if you are “a fucking bitch.”

UPDATED: I love you people. Really. Thank you for always having my back and for being so supportive during this weirdness. Jose has apologized, and I’ve been assured by the woman in charge of the company that they are aware and are handling it the best way they know how, so let’s give them some air and let them have the chance to do that. *deep breath*

Now let’s all go have a drink. Make mine a double.

1,383 thoughts on “UPDATED: And then the PR guy called me “a fucking bitch”. I can’t even make this shit up.”

Read comments below or add one.

  1. C’mon, angry-villager is fun! Plus, I sell pitchforks.

    Jose needs to learn the power of a simple “Sorry”, and stop qualifying the fuck out of an apology.

  2. I’m cocking my head to one side and trying to imagine what it must be like to work in the most important PR company in the world – so important that they get to undertake the most Sacred and Holy task of schooling wayward, irrelevant bloggers.

    They’re doing a service, you see. Thank goodness for people like them.

  4. I hope Erica gets a promotion and Jose is sentenced to the far reaches of the basement where he has to spend the rest of his years collating papers. Also, you might be my hero!

  5. You totally win for your spelling of Kardashians. Putting in an unneeded apostrophe, like in the original pitch to you, is my pet peeve of the week’s.

  6. Thank you. I really needed this. Especially after posting a pic of a vagina on my facebook page and then worrying it might offend someone. Now I don’t care.

  7. Can we send Jose a “You are the Best Kind of Fucked Up?” Maybe it will help remove the stick up his ass.

  8. I know you said not to, but I just got a new pitch fork and I’m kinda feeling stabby.

    Either way, what bitches

  9. I’m just glad I’m not relevant. I hope him insulting strangers he’s never met for not doing his job for him count as his asshole deed for the year, sheesh!

  10. Um…are they serious? “You should consider yourself lucky”? Has Jose forgotten that they emailed YOU?!?! Classy, Jose. He should run for his life, you are going to go all Twitter-shame on him. If not you, your readers will!

  11. I’m not sure how you started “the cursing game” here. Very odd. Please keep us updated on what the boss has to say.

    I have to say that *I* would be flattered to get a PR pitch from anyone, but you have standards and are clearly very awesome. You go, Jenny!

  13. I’m sorry I called you a fucking bitch, but here’s why you deserved it. No, Jose, that’s actually NOT an apology.

  14. “Again, I should have been less harsh–but I also feel like you made me do it. You asked for it. You with your snark and cursing and proper use of apostrophes.”

  18. What douche canoes…

    Everyone that I know, knows who you are Jenny (thanks in part to my shameless plugging); but I’ve never heard of “Brand Info Asswipe Whatevertheirnameis” and no one else that I know does either.

    So there…. That’s gotta mean something

  20. Not sure if Jose has actually read a real blog…and it brings to mind my new favorite bumper sticker I saw recently:

    I may be a bitch. I am just not YOUR bitch.

  21. They send out grammatically incorrect nonsense pitches, and YOU’RE the fucking bitch?

    Honestly, I don’t get their tactics at all. You being a mother is just part of your blog, which means they just have crawlbots picking up “like MOTHER Teresa, only better” and the link to “Good MOM/Bad MOM” and somehow decided this was a mommy blog. Furthermore, what do the Kardashians have to do with mothers, anyway? And how did you “start the cursing game” by sending your Wil picture?

    This guy is just pissed because he finally got caught using his office email to badmouth people, probably even his coworkers. He doesn’t understand blogging or women and thinks that we’re all aspiring to have Goodyear boobs. Then some “fucking bitch” who gave Christmas to those that had none and inspired others to do the same DARED to step out of the kitchen and question him. What a great PR guy – for douchebags.

  22. Your Wil Wheaton collating page is seriously awesome and funny. And btw his cussing was WAY worse than yours. His was a direct attack against you and yours was more in general cursing. You are my hero anyway. Screw stupid PR firms.

  24. Jose, VP of “PR firms and PR people – who are actually the livelihood of any journalists business” isn’t the livelihood of his PR firm today…

  25. If I could have figured out a way to reply to your tweet via my phone I would have called that guy a “twat” right to his Twitter account.

    What a total moron.

  27. So. Freaking. Awesome. I get both mad AND scared at those spammy emails. I hate getting junk in my box… Wait.

    Tweeting this post!

  28. I am all over this shit! Because I am an unconventional born again Christian Mommy who did not get your blog the first time I came here. Oh my gosh, they need to read more or they are missing the point!

    XOXO Fuck that PR dude, he was all swish swish, no you DI’NT! But I don’t think he KNOWS WHO YOU ARE!!!

  29. Wow, what a horribly unprofessional person. When you make a terrible mistake like that. all you is apologize. Nothing else.

  31. “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.”

    If he’d had any clue who you were, his heart would have stopped right there.

  37. Just a few thoughts.

    1. Dude needs a copy editor. Seriously.
    2. That’s like saying “oh, you’re mad that I got my man juice on your shirt? you should be flattered I find you attractive enough to rub up against at all!”

    Say whatttttt? Also, I look forward to reading more on your views of “journalists business”

  38. Does Jose even know what the letters ‘PR’ stand for? Unbelievable! I guess he’s not worried about good PR for his company. But they’ll probably be happy that you considered them relevant enough for a blog post.

  39. I think Jose is just mad because he got sand in his vagina.

    Hugs and best of luck to you in your job search, Jose!

  41. Jenny, you are the most amazing person I “know” and it makes me wish I REALLY did “know” you in real life. And even though we’ve never personally met, I love you and you make my days brighter. Love, a fellow Texan 🙂

  42. Of course. I can see that replying with a link to Wil Wheaton collating paper is equally as offensive and unprofessional as calling someone a fucking bitch. Congrats Jose. You win the logic award of the day. Your prize? A slew of annoyed bloggers. Yaaaaaayyyy!!!!

    I admit, I would be flattered to get a PR pitch from someone- but let’s be honest, who actually cares about the Kardashians and pantyhose? (Oh, I suppose that’s why the PR agency was even sending out the pitch…)

  43. I’d just like to say that Dogsondrugs provide an inferior brand of pitchfork. Buy from Honest Mike’s – “worlds sharpest tines – mega pitchforks”. As used by all of the Kardahsians and all other races in the Star Trek universe while wearing pantyhose. Get in quick. Our Taiwanese slave workers can only put out 200,000 per day….

  44. Indeed, “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy”… that’s badass.

    I think it’s safe to say that today is going to be a bad day at the office for Jose.

    I almost feel sorry for him.

    Almost.

  50. Wow. That’s really really absurd. Here’s to hoping dear Jose gets fired.

    Also, you should be flattered? Do they know who you are? You had a bathroom built for you!

  51. Um, I guess I’m stuck on why you would ever send an email to coworkers with the term “fucking bitch” in it…? Am I living under a rock? Maybe Jose also dabbles in dog breeding?

  54. lol @ them being the “livelihood of any journalists business”. I should hope a journalist would opt for somebody who knows basic grammar rules regarding possession.

  55. Wow!! Jose has amazing people skills….if making people want to stab him through an email can be considered a skill!

    Someone needs a prozac pinata…..

  57. I think the fact that Jose fail at PR. Is enough to stop us from going all mob on the company. I mean really the guy works for in PR send out an email to a blogger where he insults her and doesn’t automatically apologize?!?! He didn’t see this coming? Also the fact that he hit reply all, who is he sending this to in first place?

  58. LOVE IT!!!! I have some people who have pissed me off….I think I need to study you more closely so I to can deal with them this way…..love it!!!!

  59. Wow, I love how companies act like dicks and don’t think that there will be repurcussions (sp). Jose is the company. Companies should know better. Unless they are all assholes.

  61. I worked in PR for many years and not even once internally, did I or my coworkers EVER called anyone who turned down our pitch, as a fucking bitch. Just.move.on. Jose clearly has a stick in his ass. Dickwads like him are exactly why so many good PR firms and practitioners are misunderstood.

    Women should run PR, period.

  62. It’s amazing that they don’t understand they are the equivalent of junk mail and telemarketers when they send those SPAM pitches. I hope he’s flattered that he made it into a Bloggess post – and he didn’t even have to collate.

  63. How did you start the cursing game? I found Will Wheaton hilarious. It was/is a nice approach.

    Jose needs to understand that being a drama queen may get you a following on Twitter, but will get you fired in a heart beat.

  64. Sounds like Jose doesn’t have a sense of humor. And he pretty much sucks at using Outlook. I know that we’re not supposed to go all angry villager on them, but I sent them a polite email suggesting that Jose should be retrained on email etiquette.

  65. Anyone who can read and can receive your Wil Wheaton Collating email and not end up laughing hysterically with tears running down their face is a sociopath and should not be pursuing a career that involves the written word.

  66. I’m going to stop wearing pantyhose in solidarity. Maybe panties, too. I’m definitely not going to wear any Kardashians.

  67. Cheezits. You can NOT convince me the economy is in the shitter when tools like Jose have jobs. Come ON! Speaking of fucking bitches, they never tried to solicit ME! WTF JOSE?! When your wrong, your wrong!

  68. I got the exact same pitch today too. I blog about food. How do these people even get our email addresses, it’s so pathetic. I just clicked “delete” on the email but now I’m tempted to send them the same response you sent. In fact maybe all of us bloggers who got this pitch should send out the same response, just to tickle Jose.

  70. Wow. It seems like every day the interwebs bring us a new example of PR/marketing/advertising people being rude/useless/incompetent. I promise: there are some good ones out there. And even some with a grasp of basic grammar.

  71. Sometimes you can judge the quality of a person’s character, by the type of person who judges them to be a fucking bitch.

    Congratulations, Bloggess. This seems to indicate you are doing very, very well.

  72. Does anybody (ANYBODY?) want a PR firm that can’t spell or use proper grammar? Really?

    The random celebrity-object proximity thing is completely incomprehensible to me. Coupled with bad writing? wuh.. wuh… why?

    :sigh: I do visit your WIl Wheaton page with odd frequency. I like to think it’s the reminder that Snark Lives that heartens me, but perhaps it’s RCOP after all. Shit.

    Maybe if the Discovery Channel did Snark Week instead of Shark Week I wouldn’t have to worry any more.

  73. Dear Fucking Bitch,

    Only because I spent most of my adult life in PR, OK, the “life” part is stretching it, and the “adult” part as well, must I ask with great gusto, nay, demand, that you marshal your global forces and get photos of:

    – Ass Hat Erica
    – Douche Canoe Jose

    Then post the photos along with their contact details and any porn vids they have starred in. (Mr. Zuckerberg’s new privacy setting will make this dead easy).

    During above mentioned payback, please don’t mention the slutcanoe k sisters by name, else Jose and Erica will include in their media infections, er, impressions.

    Note: In Houston, a movie called “Erica the Slut” ran from when I was 13-16. Sadly, I never saw it, nor did I know that Erica moved laterally from porn into PR. The skills are certainly transportable.

    Final thought. If you find the Rattlesnake, could you courier it to: Erica (“the PR Slut”) and Jose at Douche Canoe PR.

    Mwah.

    (Told you I had been in PR).

    Bill in Nu Zillans

  74. I really don’t understand why anyone would hit reply all and say “what a fucking bitch” It shows incredible unprofessionalism. I would never hire a company to do my PR work if I got an email like that or even heard they sent an email to someone that said that. But what do I know I’m just a regular consumer with a job and money. Seems like I won’t be buying pantyhose anytime soon.

    Thing like this just boggle my mind. The thing that really bothers me is he still thinks it’s ok.

  75. Oh! When I started to read this i thought Jose was talking to YOU about Erica. I almost felt badly for him, as well. But wow. This is about the funniest shit I have read in a while. Professional my eye. Seriously. I am curiious about the resoonse you get. Amazed at the stupidity of people, and in awe of how people just do not know how to spell or punctuate sentences.

  76. Oh Jenny, how do I love thee… let me count the ways!
    From one “Fucking Bitch” to another.

    Much Love & Zoloft –
    Jennifer

  77. A. I don’t comment often, but I have to say that what’s truly baffling here is that whoever wrote the original form has no grasp of the English language. How can they effectively relate publicly when they can’t spell or use an apostrophe?

    2. Jose is a moron. Jose is a moron who likely will not have a job for very long.

    C. Sorry, my number 2 really got me laughing. Poor, stupid Jose. I think I’ll take his response to the chair of the business department at my university so she can pin him on the “what not to do” part of the bulletin board in marketing class.

  79. Huh.

    Evidently THIS is why I never went into marketing. I mean, I’m all for calling people fucking bitches, but shilling for pantyhose? That’s just nasty.

    (How do I miss when you go viral? Stupid life, getting int the way.)

  80. “Stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.” is gonna be my new catchphrase. Please make t-shirts.

    Thank you for showing how it should be done.

  81. You so totally rock. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to find you. All hail the Bloggess.

  84. It’s really impressive how little a sense of humor Jose has. Gives Jose’s a bad name everywhere.

  85. I went to check out the Twitter frenzy and, Jenny… I think you broke Twitter. I can’t even log in because it’s over capacity.

    You Fucking Bitch!

  86. Wow. Just…wow. Funny how anyone in PR would have such a hard time understanding blogs, and really, social media. Sigh.

  89. I can’t get over the fact that he’s VP of a Public Relations company and can’t use spell check. I mean, it does check grammar too. I don’t see why it’s so hard to insult someone properly. If you’re going to be an asshole, be an intellectual asshole.

  90. From the Brandlink website:
    “We come from the senior ranks of large firms, but here at Brandlink, we actually do the work, not just manage it. ”
    “At Brandlink you get senior thinking, not just senior project management.”
    Yeah, right, assclowns. Apparently you can’t manage your way out a a wet paper BAG. Senior thinking? Are you kidding me? THAT’S something to brag about? Asses.

  91. PS: I’m noticing that Jose’s past work (listed on the BrandLink website) is pretty extensive. Emphasis on “past work.” Sounds like most work for him is soon to be in the past.

    PPS: I wonder how many comments Jose can get before he just loses his mind?

  92. I didn’t understand the “you started the cursing” part of this either at first (this is for the commenters (sp?) who also didn’t get that ). Then I clicked on Jenny’s link in this story that just says “And here’s a picture of Wil Wheaton collating.” THAT’S when it got even funnier and made sense. Still no excuse for his behavior, but at least now that statement made sense.

    Is there a fax number where we, your loyal followers can send him something—-I don’t know what, maybe recycle all those unwanted spam faxes that flood the work fax machine and waste all the fax toner? I want to do something techno-stabby to Jose.

    Best comment so far—Deidre’s about your having missed the opportunity to say “No way Jose.” Priceless!

  94. WHOA!!!
    Going to look through my emails – this sounds a lot like an email I got asking if I wanted high-res images of various celebs on scooters. The, “Mommy’s are all going to want to follow.” was the wording. OMG!
    Really? Cause Moms get off on lame photos??
    WTH??

    Nice to meet you bitch, I guess I am too!!
    Smooch!!!

    .

  95. So, in this guy’s profile on their website (copied and pasted below) something stood out to me – this guy is a total douche bag. Okay, maybe it doesn’t say that in his profile, but read between the lines. I also think they need to update his website profile – last line should say: “Most recently, Mr. Martinez called The Bloggess a fucking bitch, a new and innovative PR technique that Jose will soon patent in his climb up the ladder to his ultimate goal of wiping Donald Trump’s ass.”

    Love you, Jenny – you rock!

    Jose Martinez

    VP, Media Director

    Prior to BrandLink Communications, Martinez served as West Coast Vice President at Fingerprint Communications for over two years spearheading media relations on behalf of the agency’s LA-based clients. While at Fingerprint, Martinez worked on clients such as Muscle Milk, 42 Below Vodka, the Malibu Lumber Yard, W Hollywood Hotel, Eva Longoria’s BESO restaurant, Polaroid and Dr. Rey’s Shapewear and managed events for Maxim Magazine, Details Magazine, Rockband, and Oakley, to name a few. Before joining Fingerprint Communications, Martinez oversaw PR campaigns at London-based Freud Communications for Details Magazine, Soho House and The Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Las Vegas. He also spearheaded special projects for Elle Magazine, Helio, Moet & Chandon and worked with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Marv Films, American Idol: Idol Gives Back and Bauer Publishing titles Life & Style and In Touch.

    During his 5 year tenure at Harrison & Shriftman, Martinez oversaw media campaigns for Los Angeles- based clients. Martinez helped craft publicity, marketing and influencer campaigns for consumer brands, luxury lifestyle products, hospitality properties, as well as managing the agency’s special event division. While there, he worked with Fox, Playboy Magazine, Imagine Entertainment, Cartier, Glamour Magazine, Premiere Magazine, Motorola, EA Games, Teen People, Mr. Chow, Grey Goose vodka, Corzo Tequila, Ugg Australia, Converse, Nintendo, BlackBerry (RIM), Helio, Juicy Couture and Porsche, among others. Martinez started his PR career at independent film consultancy Clein + White.

  98. I am pretty sure a bitch who doesn’t fuck would be kind of boring anyway . . .

  99. Under Transportation, they boast the Mayflower as one of their accounts. The Mayflower. Hee hee.

  100. While I love your response, I can’t help but feel that you wasted the perfect opportunity to use the phrase,” No way Jose,” in a real life setting. 🙁

  105. Shit, I can’t get past the misspellings in the original email. And if bloggers all know to research our research before we hit send why don’t the marketing assholes who are getting paid the $ I need?

  107. For reasons I can’t fully explain, I, for some reason, am repeatedly stunned by how fucking idiotic some people are. You would think this wouldn’t surprise me by now. But it does. Thanks for making it a fun surprise.

  108. see now if they had sent you info on how the kardasians had a new line of shoes designed for paper collating

  109. A simple “My Bad” on his part really could have saved him a lot of embarrassment. But since he insisted on going the douche bag route I am popping some popcorn and pulling up a seat. Can’t wait to see what comes next.

  111. I used to work in PR and have several friends that still do consumer PR, regularly reaching out to bloggers like yourself. I am embarrassed for the entire profession for Jose’s behavior. The sad part of it is that there are several people out there who act just like Jose – they somehow think because they represent a company (or individual) that they are somehow important. As if the relevance transfers. I’m glad to hear that in the past you’ve dealt with good PR people too – sadly too many bloggers only get to interact with the worst of the profession which is why PR, in general, has such a bad reputation. And um, that apostrophe mistake? Makes me cringe. And get angry.

  112. These people are in PR? These emails sound like they were written by third graders, emotionally AND intellectually.

    VILLAGERS! GET THEE TO THY PITCHFORKS!

  114. Oh my goodness.I cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, imagine how a PR person can get by with an attitude like that. And while I agree that reply all is a tool created to trap people, the very fact that he wrote such a message speaks volumes. I am not saying he can’t have an opinion—but one thing is to say something out loud, and another thing is to write it down. You rock for how you handled it— as always!

  116. Well, I know I’M flattered to get mass-mailed PR pitches asking me to promote things, in exchange for high-res images (me) and actual money (the PR company)! I don’t know what YOUR problem is! It’s as if you don’t judge your self-worth in the currency of mindless anonymous mass promotion! Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to be moving forward.

  118. I just want to clarify that I am not the Erica who writes poorly-phrased and badly-composed replies for a PR company.
    Also, I am not Jose, thank all the powers that be. I rather hope he accidentally strangles on a pair of Kardashian hosiery this evening.

  119. Waaait…your response originally was just the pic of Wil collating, right? How is that rude? I’m soo confused by that whole situation.

    I like responding to emails where people mistakenly include me in the reply all with comments like that with a simple “I can see this, you know.”

  121. Fuck yeah. It’s nice to see a post about these annoying PR emails. I received one today from a firm about “presidential neckties”. The email essentially said, “We notice that you’ve mentioned Obama in a post. Could you talk about this line of neckties?”

    What!?!? Fuck you and your neckties.

    I must admit, though…I received a note from a representative of another firm this week. Based upon her email, it was obvious that they had been following my site. They quoted numerous posts over the last few weeks, and used language that told me that they were readers. In a situation like that…I’m more than happy to take a few minutes and exchange a couple of emails back and forth. Otherwise, it’s the online equivalent of “cold calling”. I did that in my early twenties. Can’t stand those slimy eels.

    Until now, I have simply deleted the emails as they have come into my inbox. Perhaps I should reply in the same fashion as you do. Maybe with a picture of Morgan Freeman holding cotton candy? Automatically deems negotiations null and void.

  122. Let’s not lose sight of the original topic- the Kardashians and their hosiery. I can’t rest until I know more.

  125. oh poor sweet moronic assholish Jose. The Fans of The Bloggess are gonna make you THEIR bitch for being such an asshat to our Jenny.

  126. Fucking Bitches Unite!

    “Most recently, Mr. Martinez called The Bloggess a fucking bitch, a new and innovative PR technique that Jose will soon patent in his climb up the ladder to his ultimate goal of wiping Donald Trump’s ass.”

    LisaD you are awesome (you, too, Jenny)

  127. Sorry if this has been addressed BUT:
    “maybe you should be flattered that you are even viewed relevant enough
    to be pitched at all instead of alienated PR firms and PR people – who are actually
    the livelihood of any journalists business.”
    I gotta be honest, as a journalist, PR people are NOT the livelihood of journalists.

  129. I think you should give Copernicus Jose’s address. I heard he had some new tricks up his sleeve. Something involving duct tape, razor blades, and nipple clamps.

  130. Wil Wheaton just twittered (is that a verb?) this post. He has 1.8 million followers. Simply awesome.

  134. >Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.

    That’s my favorite part. I may have pumped my fist in the air.

  135. i have not been able to visit your blog or follow your tweets lately and all i can say is:

    MY GOD, HOW I’VE MISSED YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    you rock, Jenny. period.

  137. Dang!! Just when I got off my meds enough to really go angry-villager on someone and get away with it! Curses!!!!!

  138. I don’t know if you watched Gilmore Girls, but please know that, in my head, I am having a Lorelai Gilmore “Did you ever know that you’re my hero…” moment. A very big one.

  139. My favorite line of Jose’s was this: “To go out of your way to be snarky and rude is a little inappropriate.”

    Doesn’t he understand that being snarky and rude is not “out of your way” at all? It was totally appropriate.

  140. As someone who used to work for a PR company, I would have been thrilled to get as creative a response as this to a bad pitch. People have no sense of humor.

  141. Oh Bloggess, let me count the ways I love you!! You bring a smile to my face even on those days when my smile wanted to take the day off.

  142. LOVE this: “stand by for demonstration of relevance”. You. Rock. And Jose? Well, he’s a fucking bitch.

  143. I feel it is a tiny bit less inappropriate to quote Jesus here, since you are The Goddess of Blogging*…

    “They know not what they do.”

    *That IS what “bloggess” means, right? Should be.

  144. You are amazing. I laugh out loud every time I stop by here and this is a classic example of why. You say and do all those things many of us think of too late to actually do.
    Keep up the good work!

  146. Wow. I curse freely, and many in my office, including my bosses do as well. But there is a limit, and we do not put that into writing, and certainly do not hit reply all showcasing our unprofessionalism.

    I’m shocked that someone in PR with a title like VP could be so wilfully ignorant and offensive. Dumbass deserves whatever slap on the wrist they give him for that. Something like that could get you fired where I work.

  148. Damn. You really are a fucking bitch.

    But you’re the best fucking bitch I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading!

    Wonderful reply to an idiot PR VP!

  149. Wallaby (comment 99) is on to something genius. There are so many Jose jokes we have yet to make. Also, what an asshole. Dear PR professionals: You wonder why you have a bad reputation? I’d like to introduce you to Jose.

  150. I can’t wait to hear more about this exchange! I hope Jose has to ACTUALLY apologize *smirk* and that you graciously share with all of us “Fucking Bitches”. I’d also like to point out that Fucking Bitch is capitalized. To prove a point. What’s the point you ask… well I’m not sure but it’s a good one 🙂

  155. New pitch: A picture of Copernicus strangling Jose with the Kardashians’ pantyhose.

  156. You are the best and you are relevant, but that PR company is not. How could they be in the business of pitching to bloggers and NOT know you?? Clearly they don’t know they market they are pitching to. What an incompetent group of idiots.

    Sorry, but I am heading to Twitter to join the other angry villagers. How could I not? Way too much fun!

  160. Here is what I am wondering: HOW ON EARTH is it possible to become VP of a marketing company when you do not have the spelling, grammar, and basic punctuation skills to write a single sentence? The number of errors in both the pitch and the email should be enough to mortify a fifth grader, let alone the VP of a marketing company.

  161. Wow. I work in PR. Glad to know I now have a blueprint for how to climb the corporate ladder if I so choose. Thanks, Jose, for helping my career take off! I’m off now to reply all to some e-mails I got today. Maybe I can even use Urban Dictionary to really come up with some zingers.

  162. “Too much effort in your approach”…?

    So, because you have a brain, and some level of integrity, it is viewed as too much effort? Too much for “Jose” I suppose.

    There seems a lack of understanding, not only of bloggers and blogging, but of human nature as well.

    Love this post. Keep them honest! Keep them accountable!

    Mwah!! xx

    P.S. Is it wrong that I am cutting my toenails while typing this? Men can multi-task!

  163. (On the other hand, he seems quite capable of spelling “fucking bitch” — so maybe he should be taking out the trash at the marketing company, rather than writing its official emails?)

  164. I actually commend you on your restraint in not pointing out that neither of these “PR professionals” seems to understand the difference between a plural and a possessive noun. I probably would have responded by sending them to the Strunk and White for some much-needed grammatical instruction.

  165. “PR firms and PR people – who are actually the livelihood of any journalists business”

    Is it just me, or is that a very 20th-century view of journalism? In the modern world of free blogging, youtube and google-enabled research at everyone’s fingertips, aren’t people like this just a little pissed that they’re becoming a little obsolete?

  166. Jenny,

    You rock. I love that you wrote back and didn’t back down. I also love that you are sharing this with all of us because that is the beauty of this information age we live in. I get completely irrelevant form letter solicitations for my blog from companies that claim they love my blog but have obviously never read it’s actual content. This is perfect. I may just have to recommend that we all start sharing your link as well! : )

    I also love that you signed your letter to Jose, “Hugs” : )

    Fondly,
    MaryLea

  167. If you could, I would recommend leaving Beyonce on his doorstep. Knock knock….

  168. I was going to make fun of his bio, but someone already did that. I think he needs to install a “douche bag” jar in his office and promptly deposit a couple grand to be donated to homeless animals or something. They may have sort of forgotten that while you have 164k in followers, you regularly converse with people that have MILLIONS of followers. Oops.

  169. Dang! I had my pitchfork all ready… I love “Angry Villager” flash mobs!

  171. I’m pretty sure being called a “fucking bitch” by a nimrod like him qualifies as a compliment.

  174. Thankfully I didn’t get that Kardashian email as anything to do with them makes me insane and not in a good way. I’d take Wil collating over a K-girl any day.

    That aside, regardless of the original “reply all” snafu, for Jose to keep trying to make you look like the rude one in all of this just shows his lack of professionalism. Self-important idiots like that just aren’t worth it, imho.

    Rock on with your bad “bitch” self. =)

  175. Has anyone helped the sweet girl from the original email file a lawsuit against JOSE for using the phrase, “fucking bitch,” in an inter-office email? Does she have to put up with that? Can she reply to all with, “Oh yeah? Oh yeah? Well you’re a cock sucking subway-pissing dick leak!”

  176. I want a T-shirt that says “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.”

  177. Ya know, I come here every day. Sometimes, three or four times a day. Why? Because I am looking for pictures of a Kardashian in pantyhose. ANY Kardashian. Even that mystery one that never gets on TV (what’s her name? Gummo? Whatever.)

    Thwarted again. Damn it! But it sounds like these Brandlink people have some. How do I get enough relevance for them to talk to me?

    (Oh, I just looked Kim up on Wikipedia. She is involved in something called the Cookie Diet Lawsuit. How is that woman living my bucket list?)

  178. Yeah, a fucking hysterical bitch. I am having fun thinking about what fun it would be to come to your blog one day and seeing a serious post about what the Kardashians are wearing.

  179. Dear Jose,

    Knock, knock, Motherfucker! It’s the angry villagers and I don’t believe you know who you are messing with here.

    Be nice, or I’ll stab you.

    Jane

  180. I feel sorry for the folks who work with this tool. Who in their right mind sends that phrase in an email? In 2011? All I know is, I just got my very own Beyonce today, and that to me is more relevant than Jose will ever be. Love ya, Jenny!

  181. Wow, Jose is an asshole! My jaw dropped when I read the following “you should be flattered that you are even viewed relevant”. Geez aren’t you glad that your considered to be “someone” because your on their list.

  182. Did anyone else notice that Brandlink’s twitter page truncates its profile? Not to mention the missing apostrophe — looks like that’s a recurring error. My 11th-grade English teacher would have something to say about that.

    BrandLink
    @BrandlinkComm LA, NY, MIA, CHI, DC
    BrandLink Communications. Builds brands with ROI strategies Leverages its relationships with media, influencers and talent to ensure a clients messag
    http://brandlinkcommunications.com

    I agree with the earlier comment that relates Jose’s “You should be flattered” attitude to harassment/assault. Way to fail, dude.

  183. On what planet are the Kardashians relevant?

    Or their pantyhose?

    And lol at getting traffic for posting about it 🙂

    Oh, am I not being very nice? Maybe I should just call you a fucking bitch and be done with it.

  185. I know you didn’t want us to go all angry villager on him but gee, Jenny, don’t hate me for loving you. Please forgive me, Bloggess, but I was just feeling so stabby……..
    Copy of email I just sent to his company with subject line of “No way Jose.”

    Big mistake, Jose. Bloggess may as well read “Goddess” to so very many of us, her loyal followers. You should count yourself lucky to be found worthy of her even mentioning your name and company on her blog. I guess you’re counting on the old adage that even bad publicity is still free publicity. So sad. Good luck in your NEXT job.

    P.S. There is a really cool feature on your computer called spell check that actually checks your grammar as well. Maybe it is time for you to learn to use it—like maybe when you find yourself updating your résumé.

  186. BTW, I see Wil Wheaton has jumped into this fray on Twitter. I don’t envy the mailservers at BrandLink — that guy is more than a collator, he’s a damn Twitter force of nature.

    Get Felicia Day to retweet him and Jose will envy the dead.

  188. BrandLink Communications. Builds brands with ROI strategies Leverages its relationships with media, influencers and talent to ensure a clients messag

    Do they not proof the crap they put out there about themselves?

    Shouldn’t there be a card for when you’ve replied all in error?

  190. REAL P.R. people know how to spell and use proper grammar. Assholes do not. I have to say, though, that I wish Erica had ended her message with the all-encompassing curt closure, “Good day to you. (I said GOOD DAY!)” Jose is a douche of the highest order.

  191. Who could find Wil Wheaton collating papers offensive? This guy needs to catch a sense of humour. Maybe he can find one in the classifieds while he’s looking for a new job.

  192. Seems like they are spamming a lot of bloggers. If you were really keen to get one back on them, report them to their isp for unwarranted spamming. They will have some explaining to do!

  194. I know we all *said* we wouldn’t get pitchforky– but honestly- that dude is a fucking cuntzilla and really doesn’t deserve to have ANY clients, at all.

    Perhaps he needs a lesson in what REAL PR is, via The Bloggess

  195. Clearly he’s in the wrong (omg.. I send snarky remarks to our helpdesk in regards to emails but I NEVER use reply all.. however sometimes I worry that the helpdesk is going to send my response containing not only my helpful advise but my amusing curmudgeonly snark with THEIR response)
    but yeah, I digress..

    He must think awful highly of himself to assume that you got a copy of a picture of Wil Wheaton collating paper and constructed an email JUST FOR THEM. It’s a form letter, dude. It just happens to be a fucking hilarious form letter.

  196. OMG brilliant!! THanks for sharing this story!! stumbled upon it thru a retweet from a friend!! keep up the good work!!
    I have retweeted and shared on facebook!

  198. I’m watching the demonstration of relevance over on Twitter. The whole thing is just hilarious. Job well done. Maybe you should make this a weekly occurrence; pick some jackass on the internet (we’ve sure got enough of ’em), tell us why, and turn us loose. We’ve already purchased our pitchforks, after all.

    Cheers.

  199. Blame it on Mental Illness Week. Jose celebrated by skipping his meds and being his true (f@#$n a**hole) self. He must have Tourette Syndrome amongst other illnesses so let’s just send him a National Mental Illness Week card and forget this ever happened. Except no one will forget… we’ll just pretend to forget… or maybe we will because we’re fricken crazy!

  200. classic asshattery. i for one can’t wait to see the t-shirt that comes out of this one. *scans comments*

  201. Perfect example of what my father always told me….”Joke ’em if they can’t take a fuck.”

    Jose, you are a Douche Bag, which could be overlooked by many. But you also have no sense of humor for which we cannot forgive.

  202. It’s a good thing you’re not relevant. Otherwise they might start to get annoyed by all those irrelevant tweets! 😀

  203. Even though i’m one of the “good ones”, i somehow feel obligated to apologize on behalf of that putz…oy!

  204. Y’know, it occurs to me that karma usually takes longer to come back and bite someone in the ass. But not Jose! He might as well have bit himself and just got it over with.

  205. I would think that anyone would be fucking tickled pink to get a photo of Wil Wheaton collating papers.

  206. I don’t tweet, but I hope that one of your loyal Twitter followers also tweeted this on all of Brandlink’s clients’ Twitter pages. Chances are, this asshole VP has similar unfiltered rants about his current clients. He’s a klassy guy.

  207. Oh lordy, “please stand by…” is one of the best things I’ve ever read on here, and that’s really saying something. Especially when you can actually turn ON the anti-PR firehose.

  212. When you put your responses in the grey boxes, I (and presumably others) can’t read it on the iPhone bc it cuts off the right side of the box. 🙁 we just moved and don’t have Internet yet so I can’t even look up this post on a computer! When, oh when! am I going to get to read this post?!?! It looks like its really funny. Love you bloggess! Happy Mental Illness week!

  214. Have you ever heard of a band called Saffire, The Uppity Blues Women? They had a song called “Bitch With a Bad Attitude.” It’s awesome. Until I found you, I thought they were the funniest women on earth. Anyway, in that song they say that bitch stands for “Being In Total Control of Herself.” They also proposed that the next time somebody calls you a bitch you should say “Thank you very much.” I’m just sayin’…….

  219. This has become the highlight of my week! Thanks for sharing! I never knew PR was the perfect fit for my anti-social personality, now I know what types of jobs to start chasing.

  220. Once again, you prove that not being a neuro-normal is a lovely, creative state of being.

    E.

  221. This….is why I read. You say all the things I wish I had the guts to say.

    Can I be you when I grow up?

  222. I hope that Jose learned that when you feel forced into making an apology that you don’t believe in (and he clearly didn’t given the amount of justification and backpedaling that went into it), you should keep it short and sweet lest your pants actually catch on fire.

  223. “you should be flattered that you are even viewed relevant enough to be pitched at all instead of alienated PR firms and PR people” is especially hilarious to me seeing as how all I have to do is go to one trade show, sign up under “media” and suddenly I’m on at least 50 email lists (many from “PR companies”) about stuff we don’t cover…hmmmmmmm….

  224. Heh, and now Wil RT’d you.

    If I may coin a phrase? “Tweet, tweet, motherfucker.”

  225. Two things:
    1) “My blog has nothing to do with fashion, the Kardashians or pantyhose…none of which I understand, to be honest.” -I love this more than any boyfriend I’ve ever had. (And a few relatives.)

    2) If anything, I feel sorry for Jose. He’s like that socially-awkward co-worker who’s trying to save face after the lame photoshopped image of his boss holding a penis fell into the wrong hands.

  226. Seriously? I am beyond flabbergasted. What is beyond flabbergasted? Befuddled? I don’t know…

    That douchecanoe is seriously one of the most arrogant bastards ever.

  227. Jose should learn not to diss the Bloggess, nor her fans. Poor English and grammar? Pro writer? NOT

  228. i fucking love how their twitter has 986 followers and you have 165,210 followers and growing (i swear it was 164K-something when i started this comment)! dumbass. maybe he needs to take the week off even though his problem is clearly stupidity and not mental illness…. i’d love to cut him (i thought of ending the sentence there, lol, but no, i won’t) a break and say he’ll learn from this but he doesn’t seem to want to learn. if he did, he’d’ve looked at your blog a little more closely before defending his stupid self.

  230. For one nanosecond, I considered becoming a Twit solely for the purpose of re-twittering this whole shebang. However, I’m lazy and it’s just not worth the effort (though I’ll let my FB-Twit friends re-twit it). Amaaaazing act of douchbaggery. To be fair, anyone w/ an ego this big is capable of immeasurable harm to the human race. Maybe, by taking the wind out of his sails now, you’ve prevented Jose’s eventual, inevitable transformation into a modern day Hitler-Stalin-Paris Hilton-type person. Pretty much, YOU’VE SAVED THE WORLD by exposing his DB-ery. Well done, you.

  231. Dear Jenny,

    It’s in situations like these I just feel the incredible need to scream WOLVERINES! make sure everyone hears about a big ginormous fail.

    I also find it incredibly scary that “ginormous” was actually on my spell checker.

    Retelling Like I’m Wil Wheaton Collating Paper

    Love at ya!!
    -Tony

  232. The Bloggess: Not just hilarity and irreverence with occasional heartfelt honesty, but actual usable lessons I can apply to my often-all-too-serious real life job.

  233. Very enjoyable read, and good job on the viral tweet! I’d just like to point out that there were two apostrophe errors in this post. EG: It should be VPs not VP’s. I’m not trying to be a grammar nazi but I’ve noticed this over a few of your posts so far!

  234. You know what amazes me? That there are PR people out there who HAVEN”T heard of you or Wil Wheaton collating and still send you pointless pitches. I would think by now that your legend – which is legion – should have spread far and wide. But that’s just my opinion. Stupid, stupid Jose.

  235. That is fantastic, and is a fine example of why one has to be oh so careful when replying to emails.

    🙂

    Bravo!

  236. Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy. – definitely my favorite part. Kudos for standing up for bloggers and bad PR pitches everywhere.

  237. Ok, so no pitchforks ( said dejectedly). Can’t we have his email so we can all email him a jpeg of Beyonce at the front door? Sort of a polite non-threat? Knock knock motherfucker, indeed.

  238. It appears as though written communication isn’t his strong suit.

    “We well do a better job of who we are pitching.” Don’t you mean pitching TO? Otherwise, who ARE you pitching? Are you saying that you’re throwing someone? And also, is he saying that you should be clamoring to be pitched?

    “instead of alienated PR firms” So, you’re alienatED PR firms. (Don’t you mean alienatING?)

    And there’s an apostrophe missing in the word journalist’s. Poor, sad, left-out apostrophe.

  239. Among all of his other failings, apparently Jose is unclear on the meaning of relevant…

    Villagers with pitchforks – sounds like a grand idea actually.

  240. So great putting @brandlinkcomm in the search box and then just watching the “New Tweets” number climb!!

  241. I. Love. You.

    (and I mean that in a “you make me look at the world like it’s a joke…and laugh, and laugh, and laugh, not cry” kinda way)

  244. In my head, I imagine that “Erica” is probably a ditzy, young, gorgeous, single lady. Jose is a frustrated single guy, much older than Erica. In an attempt to woo her with his manliness, he is expressing his deepest emotions about how he wants to protect her from the big bad world, guard her, stick up for her when the big mean bloggess sends her a picture of Wil Wheaton collating. He does so by replying in his manliest voice, “that lady’s a fucking bitch”.
    Then he goes into the men’s room for a few minutes. IfYaKnowWhatIMean…

  245. I was SO offended just reading the subject of the pitch (which I received too) “Our Favorite Mommy! Kourtney Kardashian” – SERIOUSLY??? – Thank you for for not being bullied and tackling them. That guy?? what an A$$!

  246. Jenny,

    I think we should feel sorry for Erika and Jose. Her pantyhose were slipping down around her ankles, making her legs look like an elephant’s, and his are too tight. The crotch barely comes up to his knees, and it’s SO annoying. Forgive them, they know not who they insulted.

    Hugs!

  248. This same thing happened to me as well. The guy in the situation didn’t apologize either.

    Too much pride, not enough penis. It happens.

  250. oh.my.gawd. did they actually take down the “our people” page and email links to employees?!?!?!?!? i seriously love that either they took it down so he’d stop getting angry pitchforks or they were too defunct to have a properly working page to begin with. what a fucking douche. pitch on!

  253. Like the Kardashians even wear pantyhose…or underwear, for that matter.

    It’s not a good day to be Jose. Maybe you can offer to help him update his resume?

  254. The real question is – did you utilize the “reply all” in response to Jose to let everyone else he works with hear your thoughts?

  255. I got this ridiculous pitch today too. I’ve been hankering to send it back full of red pen marks, but then I’d have to print it out and would hate to waste the stamp.
    Nicely played!

  256. I predict that tomorrow will find the following on monster.com:

    “PR firm looking for VP. MUST NOT BE DOUCHE-CANOEY.”

    ~EdT.

  259. I *LOVE* when people do this:

    “Don’t be offended, you started the cursing game” which REALLY says, “But but but, you started it, it’s not MY fault. I don’t know how to take blame for MY own actions….**Crying like a BABY because he’s in A LOT of trouble and got called on his bullshit!**”

  260. I can’t wait to see how the company handles this. Pre-web 2.0 it would’ve fizzled. This, however, could be epic.

  261. I’d rather pay money to read your blog entry on this fantastic PR debacle than read a FREE article on why Kardashian’s wear fucking panty hose. (psssst… it’s to hide the leprosy scars)

    p.s. I love you. And I’m sure Jose beats off to your photo, too.

  262. Jose: Polite and professional: Yer doin’ it wrong.

    Jenny: Never, ever change.

  263. Who the hell wants to know anything about Kourtney Kardashian? Yeah, I know there’s all those shows about this family, but I don’t get it. I think if you advertised her and her damn pantyhose I’d stop reading this blog.

  264. This is the best thing I’ve read today, and I’ve read a LOT of stuff today.

    What part of “I don’t need your punk-ass PR firm to make a living” did they not understand? Perhaps the thousands of retweets would help solidify your stance. I wonder if Jose still has a job?

  266. Eek. I’m guessing Jose is sans employment. I was about to ask a really stupid question, but then I remembered that I’m on pain meds for this condition – don’t worry, it’s not contagious – and I decided it was too stupid to type, but by then I couldn’t even remember what it was in the first place, so I was like, Guess it doesn’t matter anyway. What. Am. I. Saying? *(fucking bitch)*

  267. Don’t forget about @brandlinkjose – he’s now trying to defend himself!

  268. For some reason the letters are not coming up properly on my screen. However I still get the Essence of his doucheness (is that a word? Doucheiness? Hmmmmm….).
    I’m feeling stubby on your behalf. Yell out if you need a spare pitchfork.

  269. You’re my hero of the day. As is Wil Wheaton. I honestly don’t know why I don’t make time to read your blog every single day. I’ll add Google Reader to my phone and read your stuff in the john if I have to.

  270. I feel irrationally angry but I’m trying to keep in mind that Jose is probably 19. And extremely stupid and unusually ugly and hopefully cring all the way home in his mom’s passenger seat.

  271. what hose (typo and it stays because he’s an absolute douche hose and needs to get hosed) is thinking: “this won’t come back to bite me. i’m a PR firm and my clients won’t care about a blogger.”

    what is really happening: tens of thousands of followers and readers are looking at their client list http://www.brandlink.com/ourwork.html and sending their clients notes about their PR dude.

    tee.hee.motherfucker.

  272. As a PR person, I have to say that I’m embarrassed for the profession when I hear these things! I’m so glad that you recognize we’re not all like that… in fact, many of us are bloggers or former journalists, producers, etc. and greatly respect our media contacts and value the relationships we have with all of you!

    Thanks for sharing.

  273. I think we should take up a collection to send Beyonce to this PR firm’s front door. With a stack of papers to be colated.

    “KNOCK KNOCK, MOTHERFSCKER.”

    ~EdT.

  278. I do marketing work in my “real” life and blog as well. All I can say is what a stupid asshat. Would it be okay if I link some of these PR folks to your Wil page as well? It would be awesome.

    Thank you!

    PS. I promise to not pitch you stupid shit or call you a fucking bitch!

    ; )

  279. you’re like the dirty harry of the interwebs.
    fyi, i’m totally stealing ‘Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.’

  281. But you’re our kind of effin’ bitch, and that’s the best kind.
    PS–I was already laughing hysterically after reading your post, but I fell out of my chair when I read Diedre’s comment (#35)!!!

  287. It’s not really an apology when Jose feels the need to qualify the hell out of it. He was WRONG, but he’s trying to punt this back on you because you made him look like an asshole in front of all his colleagues. Maybe dumbass Jose should be in a different line of work if this is how he deals with people with a legitimate question. I’m thinking his hostility needs a more appropriate outlet.

  288. Doesn’t he know crazy fucking bitches get the week off for MIAW?? How rude to impose on your downtime.

    I ducking live you Jenny 😀

  289. I just got calls from 4 clients praising my defense of their brand. Ill be fine. But thanks for making me so important. Xoxo

  291. the devil made me do it. Here is a copy of submission on their contact page.

    folks,

    Your VP Jose cannot get away with calling The Bloggess at f**king bitch without stirring up a wee bit of controversy. So let me explain this to y’all in words easy for even PR people can unnerstand

    Women who blog do so because they have something to say. Treating women who blog with disrespect is nothing more than a mirror held up to your own inadequacies, dick size notwithstanding.

    Someone from your august organization might want to have a little sit down with Jose about use of the reply all button as well as his apparent disdain for anyone whose agenda does not dovetail with his. And if you are loathe to have this conversation, you may wish to call his mother. I’m sure she will be happy to explain it to him.

    Respectfully submitted,
    The Wifely Person

  292. Jose – “Don’t be offended, you started the cursing game…” I would have pointed out that before you even responded with anything more than a pic of Wil Weaton he was the one who called you a “fucking bitch.” Both curse words if I remember correctly. And since I use them all the time, I do remember. He might want to learn what “first” means since he opened the door on cursing. To bad he won’t walk into said door.

  293. Do they even KNOW who you are!? You’re the freaking BLOGGESS for goodness sake! You are the GODDESS OF BLOGGING. I’ll remember not to work with this PR company in the future.

  294. That was fucking sweet. I was scared for a minute there, and then realized I wasn’t Jose and you weren’t going to exfoliate me with broken glass. WHEW.

  296. You are a god send. I had someone do this to me this week, in a similar fashion threatening blah blah because I stood up for myself and I just walked away thinking he was a twat. I really REALLY wanted to say more, but it was too hard for my head. I now know what to do if it EVER happens again. I bow deeply from Australia x

  297. You had me at hello. And then again at knock-knock. And now this? Don’t ever leave the internets or my heart will break in a thousand pulpy pieces.

  299. As a newspaper’s managing editor let me just say pr people are not the fucking livelihood of journalists’ work. They are fucking pains in the ass that send out “our client’s too fucking cheap to buy an ad so run this shot no one cares about for free” and them they call 40 times because the first 39 hangups and hell no’s were too vague. Fucking douche bags. Vp of sucking something other than a pencil tip is all that jackass is.

  300. I know a Jose and you sir are no Jose! Wait, that didn’t come out right. Yeah, Jose = dickhat

  301. But…can I still go all angry-villager on them? I kind of want to. My friends and I think you’re awesome. So much so, one time I sent you a still-drunk-the-next-morning-after-girls-night (where we got to talking about blogs, and eventually how I love you so) e-mail and you responded and it was kind of the best morning of my life. Minus hating life at work.

    end of story: you’re awesome? Yes. And Then Some.

  303. WOW. This is unbelievable. You can’t make this shit up. WHY did these people happen to you all the time? Do you have some kind of asshole magnet on you? Or as my good friend Elly told me about this term, you may just be a born Wrangler of Assholes… I LOVE the 1st comment. Indeed, an apology is not an apology when you try to “qualify” it. Now I am absolutely convinced: there is no need for me to learn more about Kim what’s her name. In all honesty, I still have no idea who she is and why we should care. Remember that picture that was shared around facebook about how a book died when you watch Jersey Shore? Well, to me this Kim whatshername and people that are associated with her kill human souls.

  304. We do PR and marketing, and we send form letter emails. Not obnoxiously, we do.

    If I ever got something that creative back from someone I would be laughing my ass of and probably trying to figure out how I could hire you in some way. For sure I would be hitting the subscribe button on your blog…like I will be oding right after I Finish this…lol.

    Bravo. Kudos. And all those other kinds of pats of on the back for a “fucking bitch” like you.

    Awesome.

  306. Posted at their twitter at about 10pm EST:
    “Ironic that today would be the day that technology would bite me in the butt, lesson learned. All hail @thebloggess”

  307. Man, it’s sure is heartwarming to see the Twitter mentions go up. They seem to have someone on their FB page hitting the delete button a whole lot of times. I wonder if they’re going to get any overtime out of this.

    Know what I like best about this, though? I’d never heard of this blog (er, sorry) until Wil Wheaton made mention of the sitch on Twitter. Thanks, Jose! You really do know how to bring people together.

  308. Jose is dumber than a teenager kept in a basement for seventeen years — and I hope the same coddling, never-say-no, oh-so-privileged parents that raised him in such a way that they told him he was special, they always complimented him, and had him convinced that he was the Chosen One exception to everything, the parents that enabled him to become a human being that cannot possibly conceive that other human beings have worthwhile thoughts, feelings, and desires, I hope those parents die in a car accident, and I hope it is very painful, and I hope, for once, that Jose cries over something, and feels overwhelmingly horrible.

    — that is the sentiment I feel when I read this post of yours. 😀

  309. Damn, what a tool! Maybe he’ll pull his head out in time to see all the tweets. And use “reply all” more judiciously.

  310. Aww, dyou see that? Jose just commented about how he got four whole phone calls praising what a good boy he’s been.

    I’m sure once his bosses are done mopping up after him, they’ll be very proud.

  311. Jose…When your wrong, your wrong.

    Just sayin’….

    Shit nuggets I wish I twittered like the rest of you hipster types!

  312. I was laughing so hard at this post [mainly because you write like I think]. As a Pro Blogger, it’s always amazing to me the lengths people will go to to tick us off. You would think the phrase ‘pro blogger’ in our bios on social media sites would be taken as a warning as much as anything else.

    The best and most hilarious aspect of this is that the VP of the company is getting a practical lesson in the use of Social Media as a marketing tool. And really that should make the CEO of the company pay you. I mean, look at the wonderful advertising services you are rendering to them. Perhaps it’s time to throw together a bill and use that handy ‘reply-all’ button once again.

    But that would be unprofessional too, right?

    Always reading and laughing,

    Allison

  313. Knock,Knock Jose….Wil Wheaton is retweeting. The Bloggess is a rocking, fucking bitch. Thanks, Jenny…keep ’em coming!

  314. Their Twitter person just responded….

    Ironic that today would be the day that technology would bite me in the butt, lesson learned. All hail @thebloggess

  316. This was a really helpful post. I know it was meant to also be humorous, as you always are, but it gave me some info I was looking for! Thanks!

    Jenna
    callherhappy.com

  317. “@BrandlinkComm BrandLink
    Ironic that today would be the day that technology would bite me in the butt, lesson learned. All hail @thebloggess”

    Bwahahahahaha. Guess someone blinked.

  318. There’s something about that Twitter “apology” from them that doesn’t sit right with me. Where are the random apostrophes? More importantly, what do the Kardashians think of this?

    (Does anyone else get the red squiggle for “Kardashians”, a suggestion of “Balderdash” from their spell check, and find that hilariously appropriate for the situation?)

  319. Sarcasm is a lost form of artistic expression. If you can’t laugh at yourself? Don’t laugh at all as you are most assuredly boring and a liberal.

  320. That’s why I don;t even waste my time responding to those ridiculous pitches. They are lucky you deemed them relevant enough to even hit send on the Will Wheaton collating page. Jose’s a fucking asshole!

  321. As someone who just finished working in the PR field (not for that company, thank goodness), I apologize on behalf of my people. We aren’t all so awful.

  322. I hate “reply to all” but in this case it was awesome. What a dork! Good for you! He didn’t know who he was messing with!

  323. Jose sounds like the fucking bitch. Tell him you are going to pretend he is an angry bird named Jose and slam him against every tree and building you can find. Then collate him. I am glad you contacted his company on twitter. Beside…who cares about a Kardashian in pantyhose. I could live without ever seeing a Kardashian.

  325. and I thought my read between the lines that you are an idiot email from a PR company today was bad! 🙂 At least they didn’t accidentially hit reply all to tell me how awful I was.

    I think your PR page is hilarious! 🙂

  326. Its been a Bad Day for poor Jose. He got up this morning and thought he was smart. And then he found out, its not exactly smart to call Jenny a fucking bitch. Cause she can make that into a title of pride and turn your little unknown PR firm into a vortex of bad PR.

    Good on you Jenny! I do love it when people get called on pretending to know what is going on. He clearly never did research you, even after you responded to him and called him out on the research thing.

  327. Well, really…you should be ashamed of yourself. They were obviously offering you a legitimate opportunity, which they determined would be in your best interest after carefully reading your blog. They are clearly the most heartfelt and sincere of all PR firms, and rather than thank them for choosing *you* (and I am sure, only you), you dared to reply with wit.

    Horrifying. Simply Horrifying.

  329. Well, they did get you to inform us that Kard-what-the-hell-ever-is-her-name wore some pantyhose. ROFL

    I am more likely to run out and buy some paper to collate though.

  331. THANK YOU for making my day. BTW, i work in PR. Jose is a disgrace to the profession. What a mega-douche.

  332. Just an observation…
    You have 164,696 followers on Twitter. Jose & Co. have 992.
    Oh Jose, Jenny has 164,696 reasons why she is more relevant than you’ll ever be.

  333. And Neil Gaiman just retweeted this whole thing, too. He has 1.6 million Twitter followers. Relevant much?

  334. Oh poor poor stupid Jose. Pretty sure he now knows how fucking relevant you are now. Hope the door didn’t hit his big clown ass too hard on the way out. Good girl Jenny!

  335. As a former PR professional… his response was beyond ridiculous. Honestly, I’m wondering what kind of company he works for if he’s a VP. There must be 3 people in the company – Him, the CEO, and the Assistant. I’ve never, EVER witnessed any reputable PR people using their work email to exchange profane-laden email messages.

    Your responses were perfect 🙂

  338. I too am viewed as a fucking bitch by many, I AM SURE. I turn down lame requests for link exchanges with all sorts of places, I turn down affiliate program invitations because I know better and know that it’s pretty much free advertising for them, as is this press release shit. It brings more hits to your blog to post that crap? Really??? No way Jose.

    heeeee.

    No way Jose.
    hehehehehe.
    sorry. I’m 20 minutes into my Klonopin. I find a lot of things funny right now.

  339. You rock. End of story.

    Okay, and I’m still dumbfounded that he didn’t double check the Reply All… but then again, it doesn’t sound like he’s having a good day at all. 😉

  341. It was probably painful for them to see you tweet that to 164k followers. It will be much worse when they realize it was retweeted by Neil Gaiman to 1,400,000 followers! Yikes. That’s a bad day for a PR firm.

  342. Wow. That’s one of the most ridiculous thing ever.

    But I really commented to relay a dream my fiance had.

    The other day he was dreaming that he was driving home from work. Then Beyonce the metal chicken was on the roof of his car. Then his car started flying.

    I thought you’d find that hilarious.

  343. I love that Neil Gaiman retweeted you… And I absolutely LOVE your Wil Wheaton collating paper photo. And these idiots you’ve blogged about need to take a refresher course in PR.

  344. Oh, Jose… Jose… Jose…

    “Reply to all” can be a very bad thing. A very bad thing, indeed.

    Not manning up and apologizing? Way worse.

  345. Researching the bloggers might be wise….. Don’t they know you have found a missing rattle snakes and you already have everything needed to ship a box or diseased Cobras? What kind of fool would mess with that?

  346. This whole thing was hysterical, but I can’t get past the sad spelling of the PR company. “Kardashian’s” and “Mommy’s” ….those are plurals! Not possessives. On instead of one? Yikes. Call me nit-picky but…it’s a fuckin’ PR company! Learn some manners than go learn how to spell. hmph.

  348. I officially LOVE your brain SO damn much! Thank you a million times for writing what needed to be written and saying what needed to be yelled, um said. You rock.

  349. Jenny, you are a Hero
    /hug to you for by showing bloggers everywhere that it’s ok to have standards by actively standing up for yours.

  350. And Neil Gaiman just re-tweeted the post to his 1.6 MILLION followers… I don’t even know anything about PR, blog professions, or Jose, but I would say he’s failed as a PR VP.

  351. We should all feel sorry for poor LITTLE Jose. He’s clearly over compensating for areas he doesn’t feel “relevant” in.

  353. I love you because your response was awesome and spot on, but I love you even more because you used it to bolster us with words like amazing and relevant. That shit can make the difference to a blogger like me, between staying true to yourself or accepting the bullshit out of fear that the Man won’t come knocking on your door with fistfuls of dollars, Klout points and relevancy.

  354. Well, if Ashton Kutcher and Anderson Cooper want in on this, we might actually turn this into some sort of Twitter black hole. Eep.

    I just saw Neil Gaiman’s RT (mentioned above already) and did a double-take. Damn!

  355. Considering how much WORSE your reply could have been to the original email (I think the Wil Wheaton page is quite harmless), I don’t see where the “Fucking bitch” comes in. The women in his life must be damn near sainthood if what you do qualifies for THAT type of name-calling.

    I don’t usually indulge in schadenfreude, but I do kind of hope his poor manners and stupidity at LEAST result in a formal warning. Heh.

  356. OMFG – – nuff said! Don’t even twitter, don’t care what is on their legs!

  357. He went with the “you started it” argument? I’m impressed that he got the PR job in the first place, but I’m hoping they take the “reply all” button away from him, clearly he can’t even figure out that his argument was incorrect as well as juvenile. His retort makes me feel all stabby.

  358. 1. I work in PR and pitch bloggers. Please continue to call out turkeys like these as loudly as possible. They’re about as valuable to our industry as one-legged contestants in an ass-kicking contest.
    2. Bloggers ARE the media. They’re more trusted and transparent than traditional outlets, and smart people (your readers) get it. Write on, sista friend.
    3. WHO DOES THAT??? HOE-SAY … Can you see … that you should lose your job? What so proudly we hailed … oh, wait. That’s not how that goes.

  359. I think you should send Jose a cookie tray or something. What great fodder for a very funny post. He takes self importance to new levels.

  361. Oh my god, I can’t believe what a total asshole The Bloggess is. Thanks for hosting this blog, Jose. We really needed a place where we could talk shit about Jenny Lawson without her being able to see it.

  362. So, I was wondering if you changed the names but then I went and googled and there was Jose Martinez, 3rd one down on the Who We Are page of Brandlink Communications, VP, Media Director which I guess is a different title from the woman below him who is VP, Director of Media. Hmmmmmm. . . . . this company looks posh too, but then, the interwebs often make things look shinier than they actually are.

  363. What I want to know is how some douche-y, unprofessional and unskilled dude can have a job that probably pays quite well and has also apparently done stuff for all those great places (as listed in his profile). Who the hell does the hiring for firms like this? Does his daddy own the company or something? I’d bet there’s a helluva lot of unemployed people out there who’d do a damn sight better than this Jose guy.

    You fail, Jose… You so awesomely fail…

  365. i always sort of take it as a compliment when some stupid butt monkey calls me a nasty name. it’s probably because he feels inadequate and powerless when confronted with awesomely powerful women.

  367. First-time reader here, and this is exactly the right way of approach I’d expect from a blogger. I hope he has learned his lesson. Well done, Jenny! 🙂

  368. Just saw this-
    From their twitter-(brand whatever)
    Haha- you win Jenny- awesome!

    “Ironic that today would be the day that technology would bite me in the butt, lesson learned. All hail @TheBloggess “

  369. All I can say is WOW! I love you Jenny. I was a victim of the “reply all” when I said “damn, she is like a dog with a bone”… resulting in meetings of me, my boss… the “dog” her boss and the boss’ boss… I won the battle, but it took a long time to win back my position with the big boss… but it was SO worth it! PR companies suck and I am sick of the cardashians… or whatever their names are!

  370. Did Jose really have the balls to comment on this post? (comment 286) What office does he work at? I think we need to pay that fucking bitch a visit.

  371. The Kardashians wear pantyhose? Oh yeah, just saw this tweet by Jose to Wil Wheton:
    “I was defending you! If you knew the whole story”.
    Umm. The whole story? You mean the one posted here. That’s pretty much whole story for you.
    Douchebag.
    Pantyhose.

  372. Gotta say, this “Mommy” couldn’t give a rat’s ass about anything the Kardashians or any of their vacuous ilk are doing, but man, I sure don’t mind looking at Wil Wheaton collating paper (-:

  373. bwahahahahahaa
    ::falls off chair laughing::

    Good for you!
    Just today, I posed the question on my FB page if I am being unreasonable for asking something in return for posting shit on my blog for *brands* or companies…more and more they are asking me to do that – for nothing in return. I only got two responses…I’m not terribly relevant it appears…but at least they both agreed with me! 🙂 This post solidifies that fact that yep…I was right!
    xxoo

  375. I guess Brandlink is going to find out whether there’s really no such thing as bad publicity

  376. I actually, literally LOLed at Deirdre’s “no way Jose” comment. She’s right, Jenny, you slipped up on that one. Because I’m SURE he’s never heard it before, which would make it super fun.

  377. Oh my. I hope he’s learned a very big lesson from this one. He sure didn’t realize who he was dealing with.

    And on a more serious note, can I say big “Thank You” for taking such an important stand with PR companies and doing it in the most hilarious way so that we can all laugh and laugh and then laugh some more. Only you can get away with all that you say… and for those of us that only wish we could say it, we thank you.

  378. Not sure if you saw this, about an hour ago….

    BrandlinkComm BrandLink
    Ironic that today would be the day that technology would bite me in the butt, lesson learned. All hail @thebloggess
    1 hour ago

  379. If you ever knife (it’s a VERB! I iz an Englitch majpr!) Victor to death, gimme a call.

  380. Refraining from using my pitchfork (but definitely holding my torch for non-stabby emphasis)… and laughing heartily.
    Love it 🙂 Hope you hit reply all when you responded, lol.

  381. Now that Wil Wheaton and Neil Gaiman jumped on board, that’s how many MILLIONS of people reading this? GREAT STUFF! And Jose is trying to defend himself from his twitter…and then he’s thanking GOD for being blessed, and saying TGIF even thou it’s still Thursday in his timezone. I think he is getting dumber by the minute.

  382. I haven’t been called a bitch yet, but I’ve had a PR who told me I HAD to cover what he sent me and he kept getting increasingly annoying about it. Maybe if I hadn’t blocked him, I could have eventually made bitch status. I don’t understand these PR people. Is it that easy to get a job in PR that you can resort to playground antics? Maybe that’s how they got the job, “I’m going to hold my breath until you give me the job.” I know some professional PR people and it doesn’t seem like they had it that easy. They’re all well educated, well spoken people. Most of my friends work in real life capacities, not with blogger or Internet relations, but why would anyone even hire a lower caliber of person to promote their company?

  384. I’m so confused at what they were pitching. Are people supposed to be have frothing haunches for pantyhose now because a Kardashian wore some? Is that the thing? Why am I doing here?! what?

  386. Please, please, PLEASE, put this on a T-shirt:

    “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.”

  387. Why we love you, Jenny.

    I’ve had the kindest people get back to me and say, “thanks for letting us know.”

    And I”ve had crazies say, “your loss.”

    They have NO IDEA, do they?

    That is sad.

    How easy would it be for them to click on and see number of comments you get, number of followers on twitter: SO EASY.

    A caveman could do it.

    xo

  390. If I were you, I think I’d be more psyched at being “a fucking bitch” than worried about being relevant to someone like that PR doofus. Seriously amazing…

  391. I think Jose needs a mental health day, but he doesn’t get a pinata or a card…

  393. They have 1000 followers on Twitter, so obviously, they’re “big”. Sigh.

    Jose should be fired.

    And? You really should consider yourself lucky 😉

  394. Jenny only you could get me to tweet obscenities – but how could I change that title?

    I walked away to have dinner and came back to find you had gone viral again. Not surprising that Wil has the sense of humor to see why your response is funny and to share it.

    Also not surprising that someone at @Brandlinkcomm thinks it was *technology* that bit Jose in the ass and not a) poor business practices, b) the inability to apologize properly, c) the tendency toward biting the hand that *really* feeds you, or d) the lack of decent writing skills. Yeaaaah.. That wasn’t technology that bit them in the ass, it was hubris. (Pausing while Jose and Erica go look that term up.)

    I don’t doubt that Jose will retain his job – he will. It’s not like his employers don’t know about his arrogance or will be surprised by his swearing (as if this were the first time.) They will blame the technology and “uppity bloggers” who don’t want to earn money for their PR firm while being treated as if that were an honor.

    The good news though is that someone *with* a clue, working in PR in L.A. will be smart enough to point this out to the Kardashians. No matter what I do or don’t think of them or pantyhose? They’ve never struck me as stupid enough to stay with the moron who mishandled this SEO & PR nightmare. Good on you, savvy PR firm that steals away the Kardashians and pantyhose! Now just *don’t* make the same mistake of underestimating the exposure of the blogger you are trying to get to promote your client’s brand.

  396. This is beautiful:

    “but then I remembered that this isn’t the 18th century and that I’ve never taken a high road in my entire life.”

    I think that’s my new motto for my life.

  397. You are my idol and hero. Blogging for a chance at a coupon bullshit for people who don’t even get your name right is exactly why I went to university.

  398. Thank you for no taking the high road. This guy needed to learn his lesson, sure hoping that Jose loses his job over this. I don’t care what business you’re in, what the customer did, how much they may have provoked you. “Fucking bitch” is NEVER an appropriate answer. Ever. Well done!

  399. Love the power of the Internet….

    BrandLinkJose Jose Marino Martinez
    @wilw I was defending you! If you knew the whole story!

    wilw Wil Wheaton
    “@BrandLinkJose: @wilw I was defending you! If you knew the whole story!” Keep going, Jose. You’re TOTALLY not making it worse for yourself.

    wilw Wil Wheaton
    I have concluded that the only thing more hilariously awesome than #PRFail is #PRFailDamageControlFail.

    scalzi John Scalzi
    by wilw
    We know this: @BrandLinkComm brought this doucheageddeon upon themselves.

  400. Jose is currently suggesting, on his own Twitter account @BrandLinkJose, that he was defending Wil Wheaton.

    Because, I guess, the Wil Wheaton collating meme is disrespectful to Wil Wheaton.

    That’s his damage control strategy.

    HE GETS PAID TO DO THAT.

  401. So wait, I’m confused, is his email attitude the hospitality portion of Jose’s Twitter bio or the Marketing/PR part? Or, no wait, it’s the ROI, right? Because what a return!!

    Also? “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.” is just brilliant!

  404. omg, you made me laugh – what an achievement with the week i’ve been having!
    I, too, thought at the very beginning that Jose’d been referring to *Erica* and accidentally included everyone…. hahahehe!
    Thank you for your response – thank you for sharing. Like button isn’t strong enough…

  407. Surely @brandlinkjose’s Twitter account can’t be real. Can it? CAN IT? Oh my goodness. If he’s the VP I’m going to apply for Empress of Brandlink- I’m definitely qualified. For one thing, I have a firm grasp of the conventions of written language.

  409. Now Wil is really in it because Jose is claiming he was defending Wil. It is WAY past my bed time but I just can’t turn away. It’s better than a soap opera.

  412. Dude. You are awesome. Tip of the hat to you for keeping a cool head. And this Jose is way out of line if he thinks PR people are a journalist’s livelihood. I’m a “real” journalist, and I assure you, I throw most PR emails I get in the trash. I don’t need the news manufactured for me, thanks. And his PR company really need to learn how to write emails before sending. “on (sic) Mommy’s?” Really? Does a first grader own that company?

  415. I like the picture of Wil Wheaton collating. Sounds to me like Jose is one of those people who just CANNOT apologize or acknowledge that he did something wrong. I live with one of those, the only way to deal with them is to tell them to fuck off.

  417. I was really hoping to meet a guy with a really big pitchfork at the angry villager’s social and after party. Can we please still have it? I’m in need of new friends; the last ones were run out of town on a rail.

  418. Wow! By the time I get through all the comments ahead of me I almost forget what the original post was about 😉

    Of all the comments I read (I only got about half way down) I really connected with:
    Desertbell
    Internets, meet Jose. Jose, meet the Internets.
    Do not make the Internets angry.
    You would not like us when we’re angry.

    So true, and so succinct!

  420. Note to self “Never trust a guy named Jose who claims to be a PR person! Instead, schedule to meet over coffee and bring a pitchfork……and a mob of angry Bloggess followers!”

  421. “…maybe you should be flattered that you are even viewed relevant enough
    to be pitched at all instead of alienated PR firms and PR people – who are actually
    the livelihood of any journalists business.”

    Beyond the bad attitude and horrible treatment meted out to The Bloggess here, I see a couple of errors, both in the next to last word. First of all, there should be an apostrophe between the t and the s. Also, the entire word should be in quotes. Because no true journalist actually depends on PR folks for their livelihood, no matter how much PR folks may want to tell themselves that. They depend on PR folks for finding something to fill in the extra nooks and crannies left in the day’s news hole after they’ve put in as much actual news, found through their own hard work and cultivated sources. Also, even if said reporter is working to fill in the gaps and going to PR folks for help, they don’t get to call themselves an actual journalist if they’re actually responding to pitches that involve what sort of leg coverings reality TV starlets are wearing.

  422. Wow… comment #411… do I even bother? LOL

    A couple of things… from now on it’s simple… use the line my old rowing partner and favorite party girl used back in the day… “Do you know who I am?” And just leave it at that. Because clearly they don’t.

    Secondly, I am considering myself super lucky now that I have a piddly shit little teeny tiny insignificant blog so that I don’t ever have to deal with asinine crap like that. The grammatical errors in the initial contact alone are like nails on a blackboard… and name-dropping “Kardashian” makes me want to vomit.

  423. Maybe Jose was having a bad day and needs a hug. You should send him a Copernicus card and a reference for his job search.

  424. I saw @BrandLinkJose tweeted to Wil Wheaton. @TheAngelForever & I wondered if this was a real account, so I checked it out. As I looked back in his tweet-stream, I saw he retweeted this RuPaul Tweet:

    “Loving Yourself 101: When U bad mouth someone, UR actually bad mouthing yourself, since we are all one – we look separate but we are not”
    http://twitter.com/#!/RuPaul/status/98132929821151232

    Perhaps he should have taken the advice he retweeted a couple of months ago instead of doing some very public name calling!

  426. Wow. Keep on fighting the good fight.

    And keep on telling us about it.

    We’ll be ready to go angry villager if and when the time comes.

  428. I think my very favorite part of this is that Jose failed to send even a single email (and he had plenty of chances) that was entirely free of grammar mistakes.

  429. really Jose? You posted AGAIN? (#286 & #389) And you didn’t have anyone check your spelling or grammar before hitting “send”? And you boasted having as many as FOUR of your 1000 clients back you? And it’s OK for you to send irrelevant e-mail pitches, wasting the time of countless people but receiving one humorous response wasted YOUR time? Your mother must be so proud. Since you can’t apologize worth beans, you need to just shut-up. Seriously. You have been humiliated and outclassed.

  431. This is just fantastic. Instead of offering a simple apology Jose keeps digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole. I love seeing stupid people like Jose fail epically. As an added bonus now there are thousands of bloggers who will completely dismiss anything Brand Link emails them. Thanks for making my night.

  434. Oh My GAW! This post makes me so happy. Jenny, you are awesome. And Jose, welllllll, maybe public relations is not the right place for you.

    And him calling you snarky is a whole helluva lotta pot-kettle-black.

  435. Jenny,

    PLEASE keep us informed of any more “dialogue” you might have from Jose. I am SO hoping this blog post goes viral and then Jose will have to PR his way out of huge shit storm that he created. Keep the pressure up in this guy and we will soon see who is *relevant* and who is not.

  437. I wouldn’t assume that the posts by “jose” are by the actual Jose. There are these things on the internet called trolls…

  438. The only thing that’s coming to mind is – “BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE.” Jenny, as a PR pro myself, I have no fathomable idea why someone would behave this way. Insane. You were SO right to respond the way you did.

  440. We appear to have destroyed Twitter. Pretty big accomplishment for an irrelevant blogger and her nonexistent followers because she refuses to blog about drivel.

    Also, I’m really hoping that “Jose” here is a joke. Because making illiterate asshat comments and then LINKING YOUR EMPLOYER’S WEBSITE TO SAID COMMENTS is beyond stupid. If they didn’t get the infamous email, they can now receive physical evidence of your rude-assed incoherent attitude.

  441. I’ve attempted to ponder an explanation that Jose may offer up to his employer when questioned on his written reaction:
    1) diarrhea of the digits …. an uncontrollable urge to type shit;
    2) someone peed in his breakfast cereal;
    3) his frontal lobe was damaged after his head stuck a urinal, when he was rise from a kneeled position;
    4) he is a misogynist who’s mother made him wear dresses in the house; and finally
    5) he is a self-loathing, POS, without any means by which to relieve his frustration other than a garage sale vacuum cleaner and a jar of dollar store petroleum jelly!

    Your spunkiness rocks!

  442. WOW, Jose is a special person, huh? I hope he looses his job. I now that if I emailed out from my work email anything including the F-word I’d loose mine!

    Good job Jenny! Good job, I love you! You are my hero!

  444. “Journalist”?? Who calls themselves “journalists” anymore anyway? Way to keep up, Jose!

  445. @Patti,

    If that’s even Jose and if he really got 4 people supporting him, then I think the score is 4 for him and… let’s see… Um, Twitter is down (did we bring it down knocking the PR firm?)… but from memory Jenny has about 160,000 followers and Wil Wheaton has over 1.8 million.

    Even if we assume that all of Jenny’s followers are included in Wil’s, that’s 4 for Jose and nearly 2 million for Jenny. Is that score close enough for you Jose?

  446. Did you just use this to break twitter? I’m not even sure I can wrap my head around that many levels of awesome.

  447. Wow, some people cannot get it and cannot even be taught to get it even if you explain it to them several times. How many followers does Jose have on his blog?

  448. I. Love. You. Bunches.

    No “angry-villager”? Bummer. (funny phrase, BTW!)

    And THANK YOU for the heads-up on PR peeps. I’m clueless about PR corps. Of course, none have contacted me. (No, Jose, that’s not a fucking invitation.)

  450. Good grief! I spotted more typos and grammatical errors in my post than were present in Jose’s email…. Damn iPad and autocorrect! Smart technology is sometimes not smart… Or I wasn’t paying attention….. Or it’s Jose’s fault for pissing me off!

  452. Wow, I had no idea how lucky I was to be “relevant” enough to receive their Kardashian fashion updates several times a day too! I feel so special now.
    Yeah, not really.
    If they had an unsubscribe link on their crappy spam they could have saved themselves a lot of trouble. I totally plan to send an email demanding they unsubscribe me. I might sign it “fucking bitch.”

    Also, who broke the twitters?

  453. Apparently nobody ever told Jose not to e-mail anything he wouldn’t want his mother to read. I say that to my boys all. the. time. Maybe I’ll have my kids read this post in the name of digital citizenship. Thanks Jenny.

  456. Never has the Beyonce ‘Knock Knock, Mother Fucker’ card be more appropriate than for poor Jose. His little world is about to come crashing down.

    Also, my chickens tell me that they will be happy to lend me the pitchfork I regularly use to clean their coop. I’d still be using it on poop, after all.

  457. Wow! Jose had FOUR whole clients call him!!! FOUR!!!!
    Forget your 165k+++ followers (many of whom retweeted) and Wil’s gazillion followers (who also retweeted), Jose had FOUR clients call! What’s a million or so unimpressed consumers to his FOUR clients?!?

    GOD!

    P.S. I teach Business Etiquette in my Business Communications class. May I use this as an example of really fucking stupid behaviour by a “professional”?

  458. I’m not sure what’s more offensive, “fucking bitch” or thinking “Mommy’s” would “follow” the Kardashians.

  459. @TechyDad (#437) She’s also been RT’d by Neil Gaiman who has many thousands of followers as well.

  461. My wife and I agree about something. Twitter dies under the strain of the BrandLinkComm issue and Jenny’s site chugs along with no discernible issues. I think Twitter needs to contact Jenny’s web hosting company for some stability advice. 😉

  462. On behalf of the PR industry, I apologize. Kind of sick of apologizing for all the douchebags and wish they would just stop. But until then, sorry.

  463. I also very politely posted a comment on their Facebook page, and my comments got deleted. Wow. What a company.

  464. As I was reading this I felt like this might have been the Jose I used to work with on a launch event back when I did PR. Sounded like the kinda guy I recalled getting annoyed with when he wouldn’t do the work and then blame poor results on others. After a bit of digging turns out I know EXACTLY who he is! Have to say it feels SO good that he FINALLY got what he deserved! Wouldn’t be surprised if his name mysteriously disappears from the companies website next week. 😉

  465. Damn. I typed a comment of which I was pretty proud, clicked to see what the “haven’t forgotten” thing was about, expecting a pop-up box, and got taken to my own website and my comment went poof.

    Sigh.

    If #389 is really Jose, he needs to put the bottle down and ask a friend – someone female, and not in PR – to explain to him why he is so completely wrong and needs to simply SHUT. UP.

    If #389 is someone pretending to be Jose, WELL DONE.

  466. Poor Jose. He probably meant that ‘Klone’ Kardashian was a fucking bitch for trying to bring back pantyhose. He probably had a raging yeast infection and can’t bear to go through that again. But once you called him out on it, he couldn’t turn on his own client, so he had to pretend he meant you. Or maybe he meant Erica. She is, after all, the one who said “that’s not nice” about you sending a picture of Wil collating papers. So he WAS defending Wil.
    Jose, as my dad was known for saying, “boy you really stepped on your dick this time!”

    I love you, Jenny! BEYONCE FOREVER!

  467. This is to funny. I LOVE the “you should be flattered” thing. They make it seem that they actually look at the blogs to see if they think they are deserving of the PR attention….I haven’t been blogging for a while. My site is still up so that my readers could grab all the recipes on it, but I removed all contact info. I STILL get these PR pitches although it clearly states on my FRONT PAGE that I am no longer blogging. Not only do they still send these pitches, but they got a hold of a private email address and send them there to! Now, I might like to pretend that I was so GREAT that they still think I’m deserving of their attention, but in reality, they are just sending the same email to anyone who ever post anything anywhere LOL.

  471. Unbelievable. I’m floored that his response was so rude and brush-offy when he got caught doing something really, really unprofessional and should merely have apologized and kept his mouth shut.

    But since he didn’t, and therefore laid the groundwork for disrespect, I will say this: Dude needs to learn to spell. He works in PR, which, you know, uses words and all.

    Also, I’m dying to be a fly on the wall when they figure out who you are.

  472. Curious why Carol Bell is apologizing (on Facebook she says she sent an email) and not Jose?

  474. Somebody said exactly what I was thinking: Jose is forever going to be famous because he will become a verb. “Wow, you totally pulled a Jose!”

    Also, I have had a defunct blog for months and months and months and I *still* get occasional form letters like the one you received. Kinda blows the “relevant enough to be pitched at” argument right out of the water 🙂

    Jenny, you are the shit!

  475. I’m just impressed you resisted the urge to correct all their ridiculous grammar issues in your responses to them. I think there would have come a point I would have just sent them a redlined copy of their email(s) with proofreading marks. Dipshit moron weirdos.

  476. You are hilarious! Okay, I don’t want to sound like I don’t know what is going on but who the heck is Wil Wheaton and why is he collating?!? I just started reading your blog so I might be a little behind.

  478. Those last 5 sentences. I mean I was loving this post from the beginning, but the last part? It makes me want to marry you.

  480. Damn girl, I think you broke Twitter. “Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup.” Hiccup on this Jose.

  481. “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy” and then, you broke twitter. You deserve a crown and I think Jose needs some Jose Cuervo tonight!

  484. Congratulations Jenny for starting a Twitter war, which is a much better kind of war than any other. Also, I am claiming the title of “fucking bitch” for the weekend, because I’m prepping for surgery on Mon. by drinking only clear liquids – three days of that. Please tell Jose. As a former English teacher, I would be happy to engage him in email grammar lessons. That is all.

  487. Maybe this was all a clever ploy.

    From their Social Media & Viral Marketing services:
    “We have also been instrumental in creating unique viral videos, as well as mobile device applications which we distribute through a network of tastemakers, ensuring that the content reaches as wide an audience as possible, thus elevating the profile of a client’s brand and products.”

    What’s more viral among bloggers and their followers than being a douche canoe to The Bloggess! William Fucking Shatner couldn’t handle it!

  488. Let’s recap:
    You were the recipient of:
    — Two (count ’em, two) copies of the same ill-targeted pitch (containing grammatical errors).
    — One somewhat snarky reply.
    — One egregious “reply all” response.
    — One additional (and also poorly written) serving of snark.

    This incident, and the ensuing fallout, will make a darned fine “what-not-to-do” PR/communications case study. Fantastic.

  489. Well, there is one person above the VP and that’s the President. I would ask to directly to talk to him. That is wrong and VERY unprofessional.

  490. Wow. Fuck ’em up the meatsleeve.

    I hope this snafu gets Mr VP in some serious horse shit, cause, wow, way to put yourself out there as a “PR” company. NOT.

  491. This PR person thinks your response to Jose and his teeny, tiny pseudo PR firm was brilliant. And the Tweeting? Best part. Good for you.

    Sadly, the PR industry has lost a lot of its polish over the last few years. Mostly due to covering insignificants and irrelevants such as the Kardashians and their pantyhose.

  492. I think being a fucking bitch in these situations is so important to showing the blogging world that we all shouldn’t be cookie cutter blogs to please douchebag PR firms that don’t value us or take the time to research what we do.

    Thank you for being a fucking bitch!

  493. Could y’all just take a hot second and read some of Jose’s latest tweets? You really CAN’T make this stuff up:
    https://twitter.com/#!/BrandLinkJose

    BrandLinkJose Jose Marino Martinez
    BIG day tomorrow @work. Sweet dreams! Xx
    2 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply ? Proxlet
    **If he only knew. Carol from Facebook has clearly not contacted him…*

    BrandLinkJose Jose Marino Martinez
    Today was a good day. Blessed to be alive healthy and loved. I love you my friends! We know what’s important. #commonbond.
    2 minutes ago

    BrandLinkJose Jose Marino Martinez
    Thank goodness daddys a lawyer. These armani boots I bought online for the trip are cute!
    7 minutes ago
    **You’re gonna have LOTS of free time to take these trips…”

    BrandLinkJose Jose Marino Martinez
    Tired but looking at the website for ibiza. Can’t wait for this trip. Nothin like sand and sun!
    1 hour ago
    **Just stay in Ibiza…**

    BrandLinkJose Jose Marino Martinez
    We raised so much for breast cancer awareness today! We need to unite and take care of eachother. #breastcancerawareness
    1 hour ago

    BrandLinkJose Jose Marino Martinez
    Fun night out with friends over coffee and dinner. Tgif!
    2 hours ago
    **Does he realize it’s Thursday?**

    BrandLinkJose Jose Marino Martinez
    @wilw I was defending you! If you knew the whole story!
    **Right, because Wil didn’t pose for that picture on his own…**

  496. I would start questioning the relevance of his presence at the company where he so easily burns bridges…
    I’d probably bring the size of his penis into question as well. 😀

  497. I fucking love email wars with morons. Why?

    1) I always win.
    2) They’re still morons.
    3) Everybody laughs. (well, except for the morons.)

  498. too funny; and reminds me of 9-12-2011; the 5th annual “Cock Gobbler Day” where we celebrate the anniversary of the day; five years ago; that one of our principles called a customers employee; wait for it…”a Cock Gobbler” – classic!

  499. I think Jose must work for one of the banks I am dealing with – that is about what I am getting from them – thanks for the chuckle, the laugh out loud that my family looked at me like I had lost my mind and most of all – for sticking to your guns – you make me proud to be in good company “another fucking bitch”

  506. Thank goodness you are a fucking bitch, because it makes this blog so funny!

    I can’t believe you didn’t point out to Jose how crappy their work is. If they’re going to cover D-List celebrities and the stupid panty hose they wear, they should at least provide an error-free press release. My g_d, the friggin thing was short but had grammatical errors on top of the typo. They should be embarrassed.

    Really!

    Jose’s conduct was not professional at all. He should take his poor writing skills and just find another profession. Like teaching emailing techniques.

  508. PR Guys are like Politicians, Self Serving Arrogant assholes who really DGAF about what the general public need or want.

    The best kind of PR is normally that done by the individual like the two London Indians I saw years ago before the internet, digital cameras or mobile phones. They were standing by their PLUMBERS van, in turbans, with the logo on it: “YOU’VE CALLED OUT THE COWBOYS, NOW TRY THE INDIANS”

    Best PR ever and not an asshole in site

  509. Please make a t-shirt out of this. Anything. A hoodie, a turtleneck, a half shirt.

    I need something to wear with my pantyhose.

  510. Just stumbled upon your blog through a Twitter RT and am laughing my ass off at this post along with the collating post. How is it I have not heard of you? How is this possible. Too funny! A new reader.

  511. “Stand by for demonstration of relavency”

    Bloggess followers tweet & retweet & facebook
    (slow clap)
    Retweeted by Will Wheaton, King of all Geeks
    (clapping builds)
    Retweeted by Neil Gaiman, King of All of the Things
    (cue standing O)
    Retweeted by John Scalzi, Lord of the Nerds
    (syncronized foot stomping)
    Instant viral sensation? Priceless
    Because it’s not just who you are, it’s who you know. Isn’t networking, like, PR or something?

  512. I kinda shot this to a contact of mine over at PR Weekly. Shit? If you can see the fan for the other shit that’s already accumulated on the fan, I would like to let you know you are cleared to hit the fan.

  514. Just. WOW.
    My iPhone used 11% battery life to scroll through the comments!
    What an asshat.
    I must say most of the PR pitches I’ve gotten are good and I’ve even used a few. But I’d never use that firm. So unprofessional.
    I’m now heading to twitter to read the shitstorm there!

  515. Jenny,
    The previous commenters have said everything else so well. Thank you for the P.S. in your post. As one of the many, many tiny bloggers who receives annoying, offtopic, and often borderline rude PR emails weekly (along with the follow-up, vaguely threatening “why haven’t you replied?” emails) I appreciate you taking the tiime to call out bad PR practices. Hopefully, some of the firms will listen and care.

  516. So. I was on comment 487 some 4 minutes ago. and it’s now — at least 2 minutes ago on comment 514. poor jose.

  517. Go Jenny! “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” … and we only get better with age! Ha! Hope to still be reading you when you’re my age! You’ll probably still be blogging, but do you think Jose will still be in PR?

  518. Oh, goodness. I’m so sorry, and I hate to disappoint everyone, but that’s not Wil Wheaton. That’s my cousin, Neal Wheaton. He works for us at our family business, although really, we keep him at the office, only to keep him out of trouble elsewhere. He sometimes gets in trouble.

    And he’s not collating, he’s ‘counting.’ Counting the number of sides to that stack of papers. He likes to do that. Besides, he’s not allowed to collate. Not any more.

    I don’t know how he got himself into this mess, and caused all this trouble.

    Oh, Neal.

  519. You have made my morning. I get emails every day from inept PRs trying to get me to advertise/promote my competitors etc. I think if I ever have to have a lobotomy my next career move will be into PR …

  522. Dang it! I was so mezmerized by the unending flow of comments that I totally forgot to watch Project Runway! I blame Jose.

    p.s. Add my name to the list of people who want to order a t-shirt 🙂

  523. You, as well as we who love you, are a tsunami. Jose, and his PR ilk, have no chance. And he knows it. He is not sleeping well tonight.

  527. I think I figured out the twisted labyrinth of causality behind this. See, they saw the picture of Wil and assumed that you would totally be into pictures of Cardassians in pantyhose….

    What do you mean, not those kind of Cardassians? What other kind are there?

  528. Let us help by replying to @BrandLinkJose ‘s tweets, correcting his punctuation.

  529. You just keep firing right through their greedy hearts Jenny. There are many of us [elbow to elbow] out here doing our very best to give the Wii advert wankers, the right proper shellacking their flabby asses need. Oh hi acid-tongued angel… press on toward our infinite spank!

  531. Lawd above, what a hot mess. I’m *almost* tempted to join the twitter just to see what all the fuss is about. Anyway, you’re relavent to ME, Jenny. Fight the good fight!

  532. I was going to go to sleep hours ago, until I read this post and the flood of comments. If this PR Company has an HR department worth anything at all then Jose should, and most likely will lose his job. And justifiably so! His conduct is so unprofessional, even without hitting the “Reply to all” button, in any workplace.

    Jenny, you put an enormous smile on my face, and fill me with belly laughs every single time I visit your site. Keep up the great work!!!

    The best line from that entire exchange was unquestionable, IMHO, “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.” And then you broke Twitter. HAHA!!!

    Stevo
    Ft. Worth, TX

  533. To be fair, you did start the cursing game, if they read the text of the WW post. But you didn’t start the name calling.

  534. My God, I love you people.

    Just FYI…After the shit-storm started I got a (sort-of) apology from Jose. Not posting it here because I think it will just add to the massacre, but he’s free to leave it in the comments. His boss, however, apologized and is looking into the situation. I’m not sure if she’ll be able to give us any details due to confidentiality issues, but it’s nice that someone is actually taking it seriously.

    Now if we could find a way to make change happen this quickly for everyone who doesn’t have a great platform and a dark, but fabulous army waiting to right wrongs…

    PS. In the interest of fairness, I have no idea if the person posting here as Jose really is Jose or if it’s someone pretending to be him. I’d take it with a grain of salt.

    PPS. Thank you. Honestly. I am so lucky to have you.

  535. Thank you. WOW. I cannot believe this!

    Not only did you demonstrate your relevancy, you let this be a lesson for soooooo many other PR companies and their bcc generic messages. I am sure, quite so, that THIS incident right here will become a teachable lesson on so many fronts…

    I <3 you for this post.

    You have made my night… THANK YOU

  536. Wow this will be in PR text books. LOL Right under the relevance of bloggers chapter in the cautionary tale section. I almost feel bad for the guy. An apology will not undo it.
    It might have been better if he said, oh damn, my bad. I pressed reply all on accident but to go on defending your actions is baffeling.
    As a form of damage control they should just set everything ablaze and start all over

    You should make a t-shirt: “Yes, I am THAT fucking bitch”

  537. I’m sorry I called you a fucking bitch. Perhaps in the future, if you could refrain from displeasing me, I wouldn’t be forced to do it again.

    Classic. Comedy GOLD!

  538. Wow.

    i just got hooked onto youre blog. you are absolutely amazing and funny.

    this post made my day. its HILARIOUS that you went straight to twitter with it!

    keep up the hilarity

  539. I just gotta say.. who can be offended by a picture of Wil Wheaton collating?! Honestly, who can look at that little smug collating smirk and not giggle just the tiniest bit?

    Someone whose soul has been devoured by harpies, that’s who.

  541. So this is what you get up to while I’m at work. And then I don’t know about it until I get home and it’s all over. You really need to DM me on Twitter if you are going to start a virtual lynching. You know. So I can join in.

  542. LOVE IT. I’m so glad I have something to watch while I should be sleeping 😀

  543. OMG! You are AMAZBALLS! My brain is exploding from all of the awesome coming off this page.

    A company that can not 1. show common curtesy and 2. Takes themselves too seriously are not worth your time and energy. I work in finance and the majority of my time is spent in customer contact. If I received your reply email I would have laugh myself sick then called all the girls around to laugh some more. We would declare you hilarious and would foster a client relationship built on mutual humour. Not call you names and DEFINATELY not send the responses you received. My boss would kick my butt!

    Good on you for finding the humour in life and sharing the giggles.

  545. I’m curious what Brandlink’s clients’ response will be. Their names are getting tangled up in all this negative SEO. I was going to go to bed hours ago, but this is too entertaining.

  546. So I spent most of today (technically yesterday but I don’t count it until I sleep) being weepy for no goddamned reason except that I suspect the nurse put something in my flu shot– either that or all the dead flu viruses they stuck in me were pregnant and now I’m having pregnant-flu-hormone reactions — and basically I just wanted to be curled up in bed and trying to think as little as possible when a friend directed me to your blog. I’m still crying now but it’s from laughing so I’m calling this a win. Thanks!

  547. So, let me make sure I’ve got this straight, Jenny…

    This brainless buffoon is giving a lesson on relevance to YOU? I mean, to the original, one-and-only, genuine article bloggess… as in *The* Bloggess? The matron extraordinaire of online snark?

    You are the archetype, the seminal one, the often-mimicked-but-never-matched master of what you do. Not to mention the RULER SUPREME OVER LEGIONS OF ONLINE MINIONS.

    Anyway, my point is this: Did I miss something? Because the schooling on relevance should be going in the other direction here.

    At the intersection of ignorance and arrogance, we find Jose, perhaps the worst PR guy in the history of ever.

  548. If you are a “fucking bitch” for that, I would hate to see how many women he demeans on a regular basis. I would also love to see who he categorizes with the c-word, the misogynist’s best friend. Yeesh.

  549. Despite the epic gongshow Jose spurred on, I’m almost more distressed by his tweet that it’s “ironic” that today is the day he suffers from a sudden awareness or what technology does. How is this ironic? Was he a very close, personal and relevant friend of Steve Jobs? Is this the anniversary of his purchasing a computer? Was today the very first time he posted his own tweet? His grammatical errors, lack of worthwhile content, wildly inflated sense of self-worth and general lack of class are tremendously disappointing: however, for some reason it is that one incorrect usage of the word “ironic” that’s bothering me the most. (Granted, I wasn’t the one accidentally forwarded such a delightful email. If I had been the recipient I would definitely have more relevant and important things on my mind, like the Kardashians’ pantyhose situation or whatever spectacular situation they decided you were worthy of being pitched).
    Doesn’t Jose know it’s not polite to be so obviously idiotic when you’re tying to enjoy a nice, relaxing Mental Health Week? So disrespectful.

  552. You know what this all boils down to right?

    YOU’RE the woman with the hot off the press will Wheaton collating photo! Sending it to him was like shoving it in his face that you can get more hard hitting and PR appealling photos than he can. He’s taken one look at the photo, burst into tears that he is in fact a crap PR person and then defaulted to evil words as a way of deflecting his pain. Poor him, he can’t help being so crap.

  553. A PR company in Edinburgh, Scotland just tweeted your story!

    “The importance of relevance in PR pitching…and a lesson on the perils of ‘Reply All’!”

    I LOVE IT!!

  554. Jenny,
    Too bad Erica, Jose and their most excellent PR firm (what is that name again?) couldn’t help you get more hits on your page. I don’t think you need her luck. Sadly, though, more people have visited the BrandLink website and twitter account today than I’m certain, EVER before.

    Thank you for helping me with my #FF. I was struggling. It won’t include @brandlinkJose @brandlinkcomm any Kardashian with or without pantyhose (it’s not their fault, but no). I will proudly suggest #FF to @TheBloggess @wilw @neilhimself.

    The Bloggess, her followers & readers, Wil Wheaton, Neil Gaiman, ‘reply all’ = A big #, a REALLY big #
    Jose the VP, Erica, BrandLink, The Kardashians, pantyhose, ‘reply all’ = 0

  555. Ok, 1) Wow, I swear the shit that happens when I sleep, just amazing. 2)I really kinda wish I knew how twitter worked so I could see the shit storm. I can’t find any of it when I clicked on the link for the PR’s twitter page. I see like, 1 post seemingly related. Bah. At least I can swim through the comments here to enjoy some of it.

  556. From Erica’s original response: “We send certain pitches out to people so they have the chance of getting more hits on their page.”

    In this, they were successful. Beyond their wildest expectations.

    ~EdT.

  557. Hi there, long time lurker first time post-er.  I love this post because it shows how people in either a positions of authority (Pres, VP etc.) or in the celebrity world think they are so much better than the rest of us little people.  It’s like Mr. VP thought you should LOVE his form letter because he was giving you access to the ever so secret world of the Kardashian’s.  What he fails to remember is that his company generated that form letter to pimp out their clients to the rest of the known world. 
    It’s really kind of sad that millionaires need pimps these days but I guess that is part of the price of fame. Oh wait, there are people who don’t give a shit and don’t WANT the masses to know they took a crap today?  Astonishing. 
    What a bastard. 
    See I could have said – fucking bastard- but I would hate for people to think I am in PR. 

  560. I love that they are now sucking eggs on their twitter feed with the comment ‘all hail @thebloggess’… Boooo yeaaaah!

  561. Two thoughts in addition to what everyone else has said.

    1. PR is NOT the lifeblood of journalism. As a journalist, I take offence to that. We are capable of coming up with our own ideas and making our own contacts.

    2. PR agencies don’t decide where their clients advertise. That’s usually controlled by the media agency.

  562. I think you should send him a link to this post.Maybe it will make him feel “special”…say,like…..a Kardashian 😉

  565. Really?! Really?! This dude needs to be visited by a group of psychotic sock monkeys with sharp instruments sewn to their little cloth hands. What a total d-bag! Please, oh please tell me Jose got fired and is now living in the same box he used to clean out his cubicle.

    Your response is exactly why you deserve the title of THE BLOGGESS!

  566. «Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.» Priceless! I’ve stumbled upon this entry via Twitter and of course RT’d it myself. I’ll share it on Google Plus to my 2000+ followers when I find the time later today. Oh, and I’m sitting in Germany BTW, so this PR debacle is officially an international one. 😀

  567. Oh. My. Word.

    I wonder if Jose still has a job.

    Usually when you play with Tarbaby nobody wins, but if I’m not mistaken you just took him D.O.W.N.

    There should be a prize for that.

  568. Rule #1 in PR (and life in general): Don’t be a dick. Rule #2: If you ARE going to be a dick, don’t do it in front of the whole world.

    P.S. I love Wil Wheaton right now.

    P.P.S. That rule #1 above is even in the Bible, though I believe it’s phrased a little differently.

  569. Awesome.
    This is a PR firm that did no research, they should have owned that from the start.
    Several of us mommy bloggers in NYC share invites and it is amazing who gets what and how unrelated pitches are to blogs.
    We, with you at the lead, are changing this!
    Yay!
    Mitch

  570. If Jose had done any research, he would have known that you were the woman who took on Captain Kirk in the battle for “hearts and minds” and won! Some petty product pusher in LA is no match!

  571. What truly baffles me about this is that ANYONE could get annoyed about a pic of Wil Wheaton!? That’s like getting pissy because someone sent you a cupcake carried by kittens.

  572. Wow. It’s Friday and there were two Bloggess posts waiting. 😀 Do you think Jose ever expected that responding like he did might lead to his last day at work? I can’t imagine in this economy that he’s going to find another job anytime soon, especially if he applies with a PR firm who can Google his name and find this. They’d have to be beyond morons to hire him. Well, unless he applies for a janitor job. Dude has no brains! I do hope they make him grovel and apologize profusely before canning his sorry butt! Then again, they sound like a place that is enjoying all the negative PR from this. Stupid jerk will probably get a promotion out of this. That’s just sad.

  573. “but then I remembered that this isn’t the 18th century and that I’ve never taken a high road in my entire life.”

    My new motto

  575. What can I say? Your blog is now in my favourites, and I’d never heard of you before today.

    Word of mouth: Best PR there is.

  576. “Don’t be offended, you started the cursing game so maybe we should all just laugh it off and plan not to work together in the future. ”

    Apparently Jose thinks “collating” is a cuss word.

  586. Gotta love that PR. Powerful stuff.
    Can we please have pistols at dawn?… He can have the dollar-store water gun.
    As my kids used to say: “Woozer.”

  587. I got the same pitch and responded:

    Thank you, but I do not blog about fashion or Kourtney Kardashian.

    I am SO tired of being sent info to throw up on my blog. And I’m tired of publicists not knowing what I write about before sending me stuff to throw up on my blog like I have no editorial considerations.

    Anyway, I never heard back from Erica or Lauren but I’m quite sure I was called a “bitch” somewhere, either verbally or elsewhere.

    Good for you!

  588. @ Jose (comment 289)…. Did you really wake up yesterday hoping to become the the Mel Gibbson of PR? Newsflash…no one will care or remember you in a day or two. However, we will all still be reading The Bloggess…. Time to crawl back under your rock.

  591. This is why I need a life re-do. I went to bed laughing while I followed the email war w/comments and woke up wanting to know how it was progressing. Did you know that Neil Gaimon retweeted the link?…yea…in my book that was the ‘Game.Over.’ for dear, misguided Jose.

    Way to Rock a Thursday night (and now Friday morning) Jenny!!! Love you!

  593. Becky, you say, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?” and it sounds right. Heck, it’s been, what, a hundred and fifty years or so since Oscar Wilde said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about” and you’d think it was as true now as it was then.

    Except for one little thing: this may or may not be true, but I understand a happy customer tells an average of six people about their experience while an unhappy customer tells an average of thirteen (which may be the origin of triskaidekaphobia).

    But this is a PR firm. In other words they thrive on attention, good or bad. So, yeah, for them any publicity is good publicity, even if the publicity they’re getting makes their employees look like semi-literate jerks.

  596. Sounds like we both get the most irrelevant pitches ever. The other day a PR person named “Dj hardy” emailed to asked me if I covered condoms on my…wait for it…beauty blog. Really Mr. HARDY? You just answered your own question. I’m so tired of the people who don’t read the About Me page first…or even my contact page that says what I cover. (Ps. his name and relationship to condoms was not lost on me.)

    Thanks for making this public so that PR firms understand that most of us don’t give a shit about which celebrity was caught eating a pizza, but we do give a shit about being pitched appropriately.

    –Shannon

  597. An very similar thing happened to me in March. This post was also cross-posted on Ragan.com were I am a contributor and guess what? I got a lot of criticism from other PR people who thought I was much to hard on these spammers! PR people need to learn how to stand up to bad PR! That is the only way to save the profession in the long run. Thanks for the great post and the laughs.. Claire

    http://www.publicrelationsprincess.com/2011/03/pr-spam-case-study-the-truth-be-told-you-should-be-outraged.html

  599. Hey Jenny,

    Now I am totally confused if I should still send you the pitch to promote the reality show I’M producing called: “Skinny Rich Women Yelling At Each Other.” 😉

    Jenny, you’re still the best kind of fucked up, but you’re no one’s “bitch.” Hugs.

  600. Seriously, as a new blogger, reading this gave me chills. Thank you! Jose OBVIOUSLY didn’t do his research and completely missed the bar when it comes to “relevancy.” He doesn’t understand the social media world we operate in and, well, just got SERVED.

  601. You know until now I’ve resisted twitter. This exchange might just tip me over the edge just so I can join the fun. Best laugh of my day so far 🙂

  602. LOL

    What an arrogant piece of work (him not you). Not only was his original response “unprofessional”, his qualified pseudo-apology was equally unprofessional.

    I’m guessing he’s an old-school codger who lacks an understanding of the internet, blogs, and social media.

    Kudos to you.

  604. I see a UNITE T-shirt coming……

    Fucking bitch’s UNITE!

    Or at a minimum a bag. 😉

    Now, Fucking bitch’s UNTIE would be good to go with my mug “When your wrong your wrong”.

  606. I cleanse from Twitter every October just to remind myself that I still have some sort of will-power to resist social media left in me, but for this, it’s worth caving… Who needs will power anyway!

  609. I think I love you. Laugh out loud excellence.

    Wish I’d seen this before I hosted an event on this very subject last Wednesday – an excellent example of terrible PR. Makes you value the good ones 🙂

  610. I was feeling a bit stabby myself, but instead decided to use this post for EDUCATIONAL purposes and encouraged my professor pal to include it in today’s college JOU/PR lecture as a case study on how NOT to approach a popular blogger. Heh heh.

  611. Thank you for blogging and tweeting about this – it’s a story that had to be told and will make a great urban legend among PR professionals about the importance of respect and professionalism.

    Andrea Smart @ThePRLab

  612. If by “Fucking Bitch” they mean “Totally Brilliant”, then yes you are!!

  613. OMG, that is a different world. I run a charity in Africa and never read things like this but I was hooked. What a dumb-ass, didn’t the dude know you have hundreds of thousands of followers? –wow Anyhow, this is not super relevant to my work but it was fun to read, glad you shared, :).

  614. oh the stupidity of some people! I’m sure by now, well over 2 million people have seen or retweeted. if he’d just taken the time to get to know you… typical fail on a “I’m better than you” PR company’s part.

  615. John Scalzi pointed me this way. And I’m glad he did. I’m totally subscribing.

    Also, WIN for understanding social media before pretending you know how to make money off of people using social media.

  618. Didn’t have time to read the other 600+ comments, so please forgive me if it’s been mentioned, Jose’s “apology” reminded me a bit of Judith Grigg’s “you’re lucky I even gave you credit rather than stealing your work outright” response to an author’s objection to having her article used without permission.

    It really seems like there are so very many PR people bombarding bloggers with junk mail that they should expect some people to get fed up and be a smart ass about it. Nobody likes getting spammed.

  620. That might possibly be the worst PR firm I have ever, ever seen. I don’t think I have EVER seen such terrible spin control.

  621. wow. i thought i respected you when you made beyonce an overnight celebrity. this… THIS is truly amazing.

  623. 1) obviously these folks haven’t read your blog. ever.
    2) i don’t think you are any kind of bitch. your blog has been a great help to me. i was recently diagnosed with depression but due to finances, was unable to get the help i needed. during this time of limbo, there were days when the only time i smiled or laughed was when i read about your shenanagins. my husband would always say, “are you reading that blog again? it’s good to hear you laugh.” so if being a “fucking bitch” means that you helped me when i was lost in the fog, then god bless you: i dub thee HRH Fucking Bitch. i’d give you a tiara but i don’t have one to spare. thank you for your gift; it means more than i could ever say.

    p.s. i recently was able to recieve help in managing my depression. i’m not out of the woods yet but at least i’m on the path.

  625. You know, the email is bad enough. Then he had to add incorrect grammar? Too much. ESPECIALLY for a company that makes a living writing and talking.

    Oh, and the “You started it” thing was awesome.

  626. Jose and I have something in common. Both getting fired today. Jose for being an idiot and me for staying up all night watching a Twitter war instead of getting work done. #soworthit

  627. Coming back again this morning just to read these comments. I wish there was a like/share button by some of these! Your readers are an absolute hoot! Is it sad that I just want to sit here all day and follow every single one of them for bringing me so much laughter to this situation?

    Who cares if Jose’s daddy is a lawyer? He was the one who “replied all” using expletives about a blogger that has like 164k Twitter Followers and told HER that she should be happy to be pitched to. I think he has earned the “PR Idiot of the Year” award.

    I bet you have rocked his world all the way to the unemployment office!

  628. @brandlinkjose has just tweeted again
    “Happy Friday all. Can’t wait for tonight’s event!! Woohoo”
    He has learnt punctuation over-night. Although I really wonder what event he’ll be attending. I also wonder why BrandLink haven’t told him to shut his mouth.

  629. That was awesome. I’ve only just started getting hit on by PR firms. I will keep your response in mind for the more persistent and irrelevant pitches.

  631. Such a beautiful response to such rude characters. This calls for a “You are the WORST kind of fucked up” card 🙂

  632. Seriously, who hired the guy who would react like that, and then share it as an e-mail? Is that proper company protocol? If so, they have way bigger problems than Jose.

  633. “We will do a better job to research who we are
    pitching but maybe you should be flattered that you are even viewed relevant enough
    to be pitched at all instead of alienated PR firms and PR people – who are actually
    the livelihood of any journalists business.”

    TYPOS galore! Ugh. Permission to clown punch him, please.

  635. Dear Bloggess,

    I love you. You are the friend I need in my life. Thanks for giving me a laugh. Happy Friday!

    Blog on.

  636. wow that pisses me off. talk about unprofessional. where does Jose come from? the barrio? i just found his company website and sent a disgruntled email. i may have cussed. but he started it.

    I adore you Jenny!

  637. I love this. I love that you never give up and defeat asshatery just by being you. You are a superhero. (Just remember, no capes.)

  638. Today might be a day for Jose to stay in and watch Kevin Smith’s Jersey Girl.

  639. I’d say if nothing else, 616 comments makes you very relevant. This “PR Company” must have 4 employees other wise your response would have been lost in a sea of “remove me” emails.

  640. ” To go out of your way to be snarky and rude is a little inappropriate.” jose interprets it as such because that’s what he is. it’s one of those things that says more abt the person interpreting it than the person it is being said abt.

  641. I’ve been reading the comments on their facebook wall and am disappointed with Carol’s attitude. She’s just going to forgive him because he “is a very well respected publicist and beloved by so many in the media”.

    PR really is a joke, anywhere else would fire someone who did what Jose did. I wish I had a Chase account just so I could close it.

  642. The internet is an amazing place! Look at all the information you can find by just using Google:

    Brandlink Communications
    Jose Martinez
    VP, Media Director
    Jose@BrandLinkCom. com
    212.338.007

    Y’all have fun now!

  643. Now I guess I need to go get involved in twitter. Been avoiding it, but you’d make me do it. You made me buy a big metal chicken for my 14th anniversary too.

  644. OK – I recieved this same pitch yesterday and I RANTED about it to a friend for about an hour – because REALLY? As if there is some connection between education and the ‘A-B-C’s’ on Kourtney Kardashian’s tights?? (because that was the pitch!) I thought about responding or doing a video about it… but then there is YOU – YOU actually did it. I love you. Really. I just ranted to a friend about how absurd it was. Well done. xoxo

  645. You are awesome! I love the angry villagers idea. But, seriously, not everyone has the guts and ability to say what needs to be said. I’m glad you did!

  646. *stands up and applauds* Wow. Just, wow. With the unemployment rate as high as it is, I’d think the PR company in question could do a helluva lot better than a narrow-minded, unapologetic, PR NIGHTMARE named Jose. What an asshat. And Jenny? You are fucking amazing. Good for you for sticking to your guns and showing that douchebag who rules the internet!

  648. Latest tweet from @brandlinkjose
    People are so bored and silly – it appears my twitter was hacked! Like one of my amazing bosses says “keep calm and carry on!”
    What? He is making no sense. ALthough he is still managing to correctly punctuate his tweet. I wonder if he thinks his amazing boss (desperate attempt at sucking up?) coined that phrase. I also wonder if he is setting the stage for his defence “My email was hacked.”

  649. Wow! You and your commenters are handling this so beautifully–the whole PR and rudeness aspect, etc. I am also troubled by the basic lack of command of Standard American English, grammar, and usage in the messages from a PR company. I would not want them to work for me…

  651. This story was just discussed on Chicago morning talk radio WLS. Relevant? I think so.

  652. Wow thats a PR fail if I’ve ever seen one. They should have maybe checked your Klout score, or at least your follower count on Twitter, before they treated you like a nobody. Ah the power of blogging!

  653. My itty bitty comment is going to be all lost in your myriad comments (I’m so impressed; Holy Caw!), but because my tweep in Hong Kong said, “Jayme, you’re gonna love this,” I had to respond and say, “Indeed.”

    And, as I was reading and wondering why the firm was being protected, lo, it no longer was. I’m so embarrassed when my “peers” do shit like this. No way are they researching blogger one, and since when is blogger outreach tied to advertising? Baffled? Me, as well.

    This type of work is just plain old spam PR and that guy believes journalists rely on that. #Fail

  654. I read your blog all the time (Beyonce brought me in) but never comment. This situation called for feedback. Just wanted to share my comment to the company thru their website. Thanks so much for making another Texas girl’s days a bit brighter. A lot brighter. 🙂

    Brandlink:
    What the hell? Mistake after mistake after mistake. What the hell were you thinking? You don’t need to kiss ass to smooth this over, you need to seriously reflect and assess where you are emotionally and where you are career-wise. You may be in the wrong business for even thinking some of those things *let alone* putting them in writing and actually *sending*. ‘Flattered you’re even relevant’. Jesus.

  655. I’m not a blogger, but I AM a journalist. And I take great offense to this, in particular:

    “… PR firms and PR people – who are actually the livelihood of any journalists business.”

    No, Jose. PR folks (while there are a *few* great ones out there) are actually the bane of our existence — especially the ones who think they’re indispensable, who spell common plurals with apostrophes and who omit the apostrophes from possessives (as in “any journalist’s business”).

    Even if I wanted to use the drivel from press releases submitted by people like Jose, I have to do way too much editing and cleaning up the copy. And if I sound bitter it’s because Jose gets to sit in a cushy office and draw probably double my salary, yet he’s in the communications business and has a sixth-grade-level writing ability.

    People like Jose make me sick and deserve all the pitchforks they have coming.

  656. (dripping with sarcasm —-> ) Gee, I wonder if it was the same person who “hacked” Anthony Weiner’s account?

    Oh, wait. That’s right. No one did.

    Way to go @BrandlinkJose – that one’s been done before.

  657. Good for you! What is with people these days? They have NO service skills, no real people skills. This guy works for a PR Firm? I think not! That would be impossible.

    I sooo enjoyed this post! Now on to Twitter to check out all your followers responses!

  658. Latest tweets from @brandlinkjose
    To address the situation with @theblogess, who I have appologized to. I am sorry to have made bad judgement and offended her
    Or her followers. There is a little more to the story but I do regret it and am sorry. That’s all I can say or do now. Thank you

    Jenny, I love that you really, truly have a twitter account @TheBlogess!

  661. Looks like two new tweets from @BrandLinkJose this morning:

    “To address the situation with @theblogess, who I have appologized to. I am sorry to have made bad judgement and offended her”

    “Or her followers. There is a little more to the story but I do regret it and am sorry. That’s all I can say or do now. Thank you”

    I think someone got called into the boss’ office first thing this morning and got an earful. (In my best kids’ voice): Ooooooohhh, he’s in TROU-bleeeeee!

  662. I hope he put “waxing eloquent” on his list of skills for his resume. I’m a little disappointed that “fucking bitch” was all he could come up with 🙁

  663. I got the same pitch and hit delete. I love her comment about getting more hits. What a load of crock maybe if they promoted bloggers I would have posted but there is no quid pro quo with pitches like that.

    Good for you.

  664. Jenny-

    My husband & father-in-law are in PR. One’s a PR director for the NEA and one is a business development manager for a union.

    The PR world is redic. They are ass kisser & assholes all in one sometimes…. (CAN I PLAY DEVILS ADVOCATE?)

    While they should have researched more… Can you look at the perspective that you may have been number 10 that sent them a rude/unsatisfying email and you happened to be the one that got the anger. It’s kinda like telemarketing… Who can be positive after hangup number 10…

    Jose might have had a bad day…

    ON ANOTHER NOTE….

    He kinda won…

    You put up what he was hoping to get you to acknowledge… His company, the Kardashian, and pantyhose.

    (My husband’s response – OMG, SHE IS MY HERO!!! That was amazing.) He obviously doesn’t defend his field. LOL

  665. the thing is, your profession is being snarky and making fun of people who do dumb things in public. So I think your response was the height of professionality. Is that a word?

  666. Dear Jose, is your office located in the back of an empty warehouse that just consists of you and Erica spamming innocent people while sitting on milk crates?

  668. Sitting here in an office of Fucking Bitches and we Applaud you! Thanks for the courage to continue being Fucking Bitches all day long 🙂

  669. Jose just tweeted again and *surprise* has typos! It’s @TheBloggess moron!
    “To address the situation with @theblogess, who I have appologized to. I am sorry to have made bad judgement and offended her”

  670. I just had to post a comment when I saw that currently had 666 comments.

    Won’t want you stuck there so Jose could say that not only are you a “fucking bitch”, but you are OBVIOUSLY also the Devil’s handmaiden.

  671. *snerk* I missed this all yesterday, but checked this morning and saw this tweet from them: “Ironic that today would be the day that technology would bite me in the butt, lesson learned. All hail @thebloggess”

  672. What’s kind of hilarious and sort of shocking is his snarky sign off yesterday. After his shameful and ignorant statements were blasted to over 3 million twitter users, he could still seem to care less. And how did you cuss first? Did I miss that memo? And him trying to plead to Wil Wheaton? I’ve come to one conclusion ….PAINT CHIPS …he must have ate a lot of them as a child.

  674. Wow, this sure is a cluster F of a community with literally no one thinking about the consequences of what you’ve posted here (I’m guessing you haven’t either). The fact is that you have over 160k followers on twitter and this firm seems pretty small and unknown.

    Now, you started the snark, harmless and funny as it may be, and you received what was supposed to be an internal response about said snark. Do you have any idea what kind of office community they have? I’m sure almost everyone who deals with clients have said these kind of things (probably worse) to coworkers before about them. There’s really no harm in it (reply all button excluded of course) and in fact it can help and office community band together in humorlessly deriding the people that give them work.

    Yes you should have let it go and understand this is what teams of employees do (I guess it’s hard to break out of the egocentric universe of you that is blogging for a career). But no, you’ve rallied your entire community against them (unintentional or not) and now good people may have their jobs threatened because I can easily see this PR firm being blacklisted in the community.

    Maybe think about the consequences of your actions next time.

  677. “there’s more to the story”
    Great thing about this whole blog post…. we see the entire story already. There is NOT more to the story.

    “my Twitter was hacked”
    Really? Your e-mail, too? I have only one good scenario for why some sixth grader is sitting at your computer hitting Reply All, and it is straight from a Tarantino storyline. Which works here, because what happened is a Twitter massacre. (a Twittercre, but that doesn’t really work)

  678. My client sent this blog post to me this morning. I about spit my coffee out on the screen. WTH? I’ve been doing publicity for 20 years and guess what … “reply all” is very dangerous so don’t be talking smack about anyone — especially bloggers. I had to remind my jounior staffers of this once. Geez. Reminds me of a good PR story I heard once. You’ll love this. So, at a huge PR firm in Cincinnati (that will remain nameless) two married publicists were having an affair. Before email there was just voicemail. (Remember?) So … after a night of hot and heavy petting, the lovers exchanged some illicit voicemails… something like, “Last night was awesome [kissing; heavy breathing sound effects here]. Unfortunately, the lover hit the command button, “Send to entire company.” Needless to say, after that, two divorces took place. I think the lovers are still together, though. Have a great day everyone and I’m going to thank my very cool client for sending this to me today. Hopefully he knows I’m professional enough NOT to send scatological language to my target media contacts. Oh! And publicists out there … get with the times. STOP sending photos at all. Get a freakin’ online press kit so you can link to resources.

  679. One of the best compliments I ever received was being called a bitch by someone. I love being a bitch and plan to continue until it no longer suits me. I know he is getting BLOWN up on twitter! Hahaha

  680. My client sent this blog post to me this morning. I about spit my coffee out on the screen. WTH? I’ve been doing publicity for 20 years and guess what … “reply all” is very dangerous so don’t be talking smack about anyone — especially bloggers. I had to remind my junior staffers of this once. Geez. Reminds me of a good PR story I heard once. You’ll love this. So, at a huge PR firm in Cincinnati (that will remain nameless) two married publicists were having an affair. Before email there was just voicemail. (Remember?) So … after a night of hot and heavy petting, the lovers exchanged some illicit voicemails… something like, “Last night was awesome [kissing; heavy breathing sound effects here]. Unfortunately, the lover hit the command button, “Send to entire company.” Needless to say, after that, two divorces took place. I think the lovers are still together, though. Have a great day everyone and I’m going to thank my very cool client for sending this to me today. Hopefully he knows I’m professional enough NOT to send scatological language to my target media contacts. Oh! And publicists out there … get with the times. STOP sending photos at all. Get a freakin’ online press kit so you can link to resources.

  681. An apology does NOT come with a “but” or a “however”… this guy is a jerk. Thank god for people like the Bloggess who call him on his crap!

  682. I feel like I should bow down before you, my hero. You ROCK. Wow. You handle things with much more flair than I do. (although, when I recount my PR stories, I sound just like you. LOL)

  683. sweet sweet baby jesus on a ritz cracker…that was brilliant! I love people who just unilaterally DECIDE they’re going to be in PR (or a singer, or a teacher, or dragon slayer) without ever having any background, education, life calling, skill, or frankly, any goddamn idea what it is they’re doing all day long. Not everyone is cut out to do whatever they THINK they should be doing. Jose, por ejemplo, might reconsider his PR gig and go into accounting or something where he won’t have to deal with humans on a daily basis. Also, there’s probably a lack of fucking bitches in accounting.

  685. Finally a woman who stands up to PR bullies who thinks they can push their bullpoo all over us because were are irrelevant pawns in their quest to make their paycheck bigger.

    Way to go Bloggess!!!!

  687. Sending this post to my bro, who just started working in a social media company. He’s smart, but I dunno about the st of them.
    It sucks they called you a bitch, yet it doesn’t. Who else could rock it like you do? Thanks for a step up in the validity in bloggers and the importance of research in PR. You’re the wind beneath my blogging wings today.

  689. Jenny, Thank you so much for addressing an issue that so many of us little fish
    are facing but don’t feel we are big enough to discuss in public! Some of the canned
    pitches I get are totally wrong for my site, I try to be polite if it’s clear the PR rep has
    tried to know at least a little about me (my name) but have been treated to some really
    crummy responses in return, being accused of not caring about my readers for declining
    to work for free or being told that I should be grateful they even asked me seriously pisses
    me off! Thank you,thank you thank you for tackling this one head on!

    Btw, can we have pictures of the otters?

  690. I loved your responses to him! Sounds like he deserves to be pulled down a peg or two. I applaud you!

  691. Oh my, how have I missed you?!?! New to the blog world, just started mine but my alienation in the country and the funk my new hubby has endured could have been avoided by your funny nuggets! Happy ton have found you! Give em he’ll you fucking bitch!!!! Haha

  693. This guy can’t get fired or demoted. His “firm” is probably a one man operation, working from some coffee shop with his friends and pretending they have majah majah clients. You know, like Kim Kardashian’s panthyhose. Majah.

    Seriously, this pitch, and the entire “agency’s” website is a huge joke. This is not a PR firm, it’s a group of clowns running a spamming operation from their basement.

    This coming from someone who has worked in *actual* legitimate PR and social media agencies. So don’t let this get you down about the PR biz – like The Bloggess says herself, there are many good PR agencies and freelancers out there. With legitimate clients and good use of the English language. Unfortunately there’s also an infinite number of people out there who think they can suddenly turn into a “VP” (ha!) with a simple email blast.

    Ridiculous. And hilarious.

  695. According to the Brandlink website, Jose had his twitter account hacked. One would think Rep. Wiener taught the PR companies what not to do.

    Too bad he didn’t send you a picture of his wiener.

    WIENER, WIENER chicken dinner?

  696. I cannot fucking believe I missed this. Fucking time zones. I will never sleep again!

    I think the most hilarious part is that dear Jose actually thinks he’s defending Wil Wheaton. Dude, it would have saved you so much trouble to just read the blog. Maybe you would have grown a sense of humor as well.

  697. It is kinda funny because I have been getting the feeling that the pr people I have been dealing with lately just have no love for the blogging community and just deal with us because they have to. This is a classic display of disrespect and I hope even as a VP he suffered from some form of disciplinary action (even if it was taking away his free lunchtime).

    The funny thing is that your methods worked (as I looked at their twitter account and this is what I immediately found)
    48BrandlinkComm BrandLink
    “Ironic that today would be the day that technology would bite me in the butt, lesson learned. All hail @thebloggess”

    I bow to the bloggess for holding your grounds and hope that many of us will rise above the take what you can frame of find and dig our heals in.

  698. Wow! Dang it. I got the same pitch and i ALMOST had responded that i thought they were ugly hose (the leggings not the person *cough*) but I decided to delete the email instead. Now I am just in awe that I was one of the “very selected few” that received that pitch.
    Lord thank you for your post lol.

  699. I can tell you that getting ridiculous PR pitches is a problem as a magazine editor as well, which is infuriating because it is a waste of time and resources, and the PR reps clearly aren’t doing the leg work for their jobs when their pitches are so off base. Earlier this year a PR company representing an airline and major travel destination planned to fly a group of travel writers to said destination but failed to contact writers as the date of travel approached. After pressing the company for answers, I finally go a reply that the company was going to have to cancel the trip. There were no apologies, no efforts to reschedule, nothing, despite the fact that I had cleared my schedule to make the trip possible. If I were the company’s client, I would have been very angry—but the irony is that the same PR company was one that previously hassled me while trying to cover a local hotel. The PR company, based in Florida, didn’t see the magazine as a fit or important enough to warrant gratis statue. The hotel manager, who had spent years in the business and knew the hotel’s region and media well, saw the magazine as exactly what the hotel should be featured in to attract more customers. In the end, I did the story with a gratis stay and our magazine is now in every room of the hotel per the manager’s request. The PR company I haven’t heard anything from lately.

    I don’t know what happens in the PR industry as to make so many of its workers sleazy marketers. Much of it seems to originate from the fact that, as a whole, we are driven by commercialism. Someone out there really does care that Kardashians are wearing pantyhose—that’s a problem in and of itself. Judging from the general lack of grammatical and self-awareness demonstrated by BrandLink Communications, the company and its employees are part of this contrived, commercial world in which so much is flippantly disregarded, including responsibility, accountability, respect, and attention to detail. I regret to say that I do not think any lessons will be learned from this situation within BrandLink; however, conversations generated in other PR firms and in PR classrooms hopefully will impact the industry—even if just a little bit—so that public relations and marketing become less synonymous with sleazy palm greasing and spin doctoring and more aligned with the principles of quality customer service, which those in the industry who are to be beloved and admired already practice.

  700. Some people get the VP title because they are wise and competent.

    Some people just get the title.

    I’m sure that one day, Jose will thank you for teaching him the far reaching relevance of a blogger.

    I’m thanking you today for making me smile.

  701. lol @ the guy basically getting told and trying to come back at you like it was your fault… what an ass…. and you rock!

  703. Oh. Also, “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy” needs to become an epic line in some sort of big-budget action blockbuster. Someone make this happen.

  704. I just wrote a post on my marketing blog about this incident and how PR firms need to learn how to properly pitch bloggers.
    But I was re-reading you post and I found this to be Jose’s most disturbing remark: “PR firms and PR people – who are actually the livelihood of any journalists business.”
    Heaven help us.

  705. Holy hell. What a grade-A douchebag. How fucking dumb is this asshole? He should be fired for this offense. I’ve never wished someone to lose their job, but JESUS. He should be fired for a fuck-up like that.

  706. To Brittani, I understand what you’re saying, but there is no excuse for being so unprofessional. Ever. I am in PR too, and if I was so stupid as to 1. call someone a “fucking bitch” in an email and then to 2. hit reply all on such a message, my response on being called out on it would be “I’m sorry.” Not “be happy you’re relevant enough.” But then, I would not do that in the first place, because I actually am a professional, unlike Jose.

    Jenny, I love you, and in a totally non-les way.

    Mostly…

    🙂

  707. Why does Jose keep insisting “there’s more to the story”? What story? Does he think he has a legitimate excuse for swearing at a potential customer? Is he going to claim he was having a bad day? Did Jobs’ death hit him personally? I think he’s just so used to writing teasers and taglines that he has to have the last saucy word. Either that, or he thinks we’re all as misguided as he is, and we rallied around you because some guy called you a fucking bitch without actually finding out what was happening. Nope. Unlike you, Jose, we did our research.

  708. What an asshat! Who apologizes this way? Jose, you hit “replay all”. At what point are you absolutely mortified at your unprofessional goof. Jenny, response was classy. I probably would have threatened to burn his house down.

  709. Best part?? “To address the situation with @theblogess, who I have appologized to. I am sorry to have made bad judgement and offended her”

    He STILL doesn’t know her twitter ID.

  710. First of all, in what kind of company is it okay to send an e-mail that refers to someone as a fucking bitch? Seriously? Second, I am on the same bullshit PR mailing list as you and that makes me feel good. Like I just achieved some high score or something.

  711. Wow, someone had a case of the “mondays”. Can you imagine if you’re one of his staff and you piss him off ? PR gone very very horribly wrong.

  713. Jenny – you are a real treat! Classy answers to a jerk who got caught but is still too dumb to admit it.

  714. All hail @thebloggess indeed. And if Jose is really in PR, he needs to learn how to write snappier copy. As far as I can tell, “What a fucking bitch” is his best work.

  715. To be honest … my biggest complaint is that the original email included the term “Mommy’s” which is both incorrectly spelled and grosses me out as a word. Not sure why, it just does.

  716. At this point I just feel kind of sad that this kind of company, run by these kinds of people can make money at all.

    No one at BrandLink seems to understand the basics of grammar or good writing. Even the senior partner, Catherine Bell, confuses ‘then’ and ‘than’ on the company’s Facebook page. Spelling and grammar aside, their attempts at communicating are just terrible. Erica is passive aggressive, Jose is an arrogant blame-shifter, and Catherine plays the “I have the flu” victim /excuse card. These are not grown-up, professional ways to communicate.

    The only thing I don’t understand is how these people are making (presumably good) money during an economic recession. It’s depressing – do we value good character, professionalism, and basic literacy so very little that anyone with a pulse who can flog a picture of a Kardashian can earn a decent living?

    It just reinforces the fact that reward in, our society, is not equal to merit.

  717. A wonderfully fun read for the morning.

    Also wonderfully fun to go to the company website and tell them they have a complete moron for a VP.

    Yes I’m sure he is apologizing, sorry Jose too little too late. You should have started with the apology, not finished with it.

  718. #289 comment. I cannot believe Jose came and commented and obviously did not repent, instead he was in full taunting mode. Seriously? At this point I have gone from being indignant for Jenny to being absolutely fascinated. W.O.W. Maybe Jose will get on a TV reality show. Those shows are full of people like him.

  723. Ugh. Yet another reason to dislike PR peeps. Thing is, that is my profession, and I’ve made a career being good at it. Media, including bloggers, are as important as your client. If you don’t have that relationship, you are toast. And the entitlement? Did you note that tone? Puhleeze.

    Sure, I’ve done some dumb things but nothing as egregious as this. (I’ve accidentally sent emails with the wrong name on it, and totally owned it. It’s so embarrassing but nowhere near the level of this sort of BS.)
    This is what happens when colleges churn out — and agencies hire — people who do not understand media, writing, relationships, or how to use email by the 100s. It’s not all Entourage boys and girls. The good ones know their stuff, and should know that you never ever eff with the Blogess.

  724. Maybe he was merely unhappy with the job done by his staff and typo’ed when trying to write, “What a fucking Pitch.”

  726. Wow. He must fall over a lot without those legs to stand on. Well done, madam.

  732. If that’s the kind of shit you have to put up with to be “relevant,” I’ll just stick to my little corner of nothingness, thanks. Could they at least make sure the blogs are related to whatever they’re pushing?

  733. Goddammit, Jenny, you are my fucking HERO. Seems Brandlink doesn’t hire reps with good critical thinking skills OR good communication skills, both of which one would imagine are essential qualities for someone who wants to ENGAGE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS. Hopefully Jose is rethinking his career path. I’m not sure what the best job is for a grammatically challenged asshole, but I’m sure he’ll think of something.

    Thanks for giving me something to laugh about today!

  735. OH MY GOD, did he really comment that? I have half a mind to spam all the companies he is working with that I refuse to ever buy their products again while such an arrogant SOB is working for them.

    But then, I know that they won’t care because I’m just a person and not a celebrity. And that’s how those fools roll. Clearly.

    That comment has gotten me into angry villager mode in a way that I never usually get. Must. Calm. Down.

  738. Thanks to Roy (#592) I was able to send them the following:

    Name: Kami – Another Proud “Fucking Bitch”
    Email: fbitch@relevancy.com

    Comment:
    Really? You have someone as a VICE PRESIDENT of your company who:

    A) has absolutely no clue what the “reply all” button means

    B) and would have the nerve to refer to someone on INTER OFFICE COMPANY OWNED email as a “fucking bitch”. And then, when called on it, cannot find the balls or brains to apologize for it correctly.

    Sounds to me like you need to worry about YOUR BRAND more than what some crap Kardashian is wearing today.

    And thanks Jenny! This has made me feel so much better!! (I’ve had the Martian Death Flu (or something similar) all week)

  740. Jenny,
    I know you said to give them some air. I haven’t posted on their FB page, just watching and reading right now. There’s some pretty good conversations going on.
    What I still think they (well, Carol) fails to realize is that, when an employee uses your corporate logo/letterhead, using your corporate email address, and uses your corporate name in his Twitter account, he speaks FOR your corporation.
    So, when Jose called you a Fucking Bitch, BrandLinkComm called you a Fucking Bitch.
    That is the Lesson I think Carol is failing to see.

  741. I am currently feeding an infant every hour during the night; normally this makes me very tired and irritable. However, last night I thought of your kick ass self every time I woke up, and smiled. Clearly, you are doing the world a service!

  742. Wow. It must be nice to be lucky enough and relevant enough to EVEN be contacted by them! I can’t believe the prick even wrote back. What nerve.

  743. Re: 592 & 709

    Obviously, I cannot speak for Jenny, but I don’t think she would want anyone fired; no real harm done and it give her fodder for her blog. Also, Jose has learned a real-life lesson than may make him a better person, and least better PR. At least I can hope, while I laugh with theBloggess.

  746. So Jose “appologized” [sic] and MISSPELLED YOUR NAME? Passive-aggressive act to keep your followers from seeing the so-called apology, or continued incompetence? Kinda hard to say.

  752. Tell Jose that if has any problems with filling out his new unemployment forms, he should call me. Not a fucking bitch, just call me and ask for Jessica.

    Thanks

  754. Jenny, you are from the south, but Jose should know this saying as well: “Don’t get in a pissing match with a skunk.” You go girl.

  755. I know we weren’t supposed to do this but I can’t help myself, he made me do it.:
    me to Jose:
    I don’t feel sorry for you.
    Don’t fuck with the truck.

    Jose:
    don’t need anyone to feel sorry for me. I made a mistake, and I will be fine. Its unfortunate – but lesson learned. Have a great weekend, Giglia

    Jose Martinez
    BrandLink Communications
    323-302-9876 x102
    Jose@brandlinkcom.com

    Do you *think* he will be fine?

  756. They will handle it “the best they know how”. Does anyone else see that wording as odd?

    I personally will be have many, many glasses of wine for you. 🙂

  757. All I can say is, “Wow.” And also, I might feel a bit differently (I mean that Jose wasn’t a complete loser) IF, and I mean IF, the original email and his reponse to you were gramatically sound. Good lord. Learn how to effing spell and use punctuation if you’re going to berate people with words! That just pisses me off!

  758. Hopefully they really have learned their lesson. Because if anyone was a fucking bitch, it was them. In the mean time, tequila snocones all around!

  762. I read the whole story, and it’s a good one, but I’m still stuck on that line you copied from the original PR pitch. Because (1) someone needs to teach PR folks basic spelling, punctuation,and grammar (there are no fewer than THREE errors in that one brief sentence, yikes!), and (2) they ought to know by now that we are not “Mommy’s” (sic), but “muthas,” and they would be wise not to forget it.

    “…maybe you should be flattered….” I wonder if he uses that as a pick-up line in bars.

  764. Given that just two hours ago, he was tweeting about his amazing bosses, I’m skeptical about them doing anything meaningful. I suspect they are just going into hunker down and hope it blows over mode and they haven’t learned anything at all.

    Are you sure that pitchforks aren’t a good idea?

  766. I don’t even pretend to understand fashion, or pantyhose, and I think pantyhose are from Da Debbil anyway. As near as I can tell, the Kardashian claim to fame has to do w/ their daddy being on OJs “dream team” or something like that. What a bunch of self-important idiots, but I won’t blast them – yet. Make mine a double, too.

  767. This is painful. They could have stopped the conversation at any point.

    I so appreciate this line you made on the page of Wil Wheaton collating:
    “Please note that we do appreciate your hard work and we do realize that your dumb-ass boss probably made you send out that horrible pitch even though you tried to tell him that it was really awful.”

    …because at the end of the day, people make mistakes and sometimes junior PR people are forced to send stuff out that they don’t agree with, but you did give them a chance to politely excuse themselves!

  769. Jenny, all I can say is that if the entire PR world hasn’t heard of you before, I’m certain they ALL have by now. Maybe this will cut down on the celebrity holding/wearing/doing something weird and random spam from PR companies you get (not to mention completely rude and uncalled for responses from VPs of said PR companies) – I mean, who wants to fuck with an army of The Bloggess fans???

  770. Way to go Jenny!! Regardless of what number response you were PR companies NEED us… or why contact us to post for them!!! Thank you for standing up to them!! I know not all PR agents/agencies are like this and there are wonderful ones out there… maybe they should take a few classes or do some training over at BrandLInk… seriously very unprofessional!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks again Jenny for being AWESOME!!!!

  773. I am a blogger that somehow landed up in a job where I write PR pitches and I thank heavens DAILY for the time and energy and heart that you put into these posts. I also cringe every time I click submit on a pitch because I hope that it is clear that *some* of us actually care how our e-mail lands in an in-box.

  775. People still wear pantyhose? Hmm…well, you got loads of comments… I’m just typing to show solidarity.
    I never let ’em get away with sending me crap. I like my mailbox like my bedroom … free from clutter, rubbish and other peoples trash.

    Keep up the good work.

  776. LOVE.IT. Everything about it. Maybe someday I will have a PR company email me worthless news and then tell me I should feel honored. Fingers crossed!

  777. “PR firms and PR people – who are actually the livelihood of any journalists business.”

    I imagine in Jose’s world, he has a crown and sits on a throne, with us journalists groveling at his feet for our livelihoods [WTF????!!]. It must be hard to wake up each morning after that dream and find out he’s wet his bed, yet again. “MOM, can you bring me clean sheets? I pee peed my bed.”

    Dr. Jose, stories on political corruption, misuse of taxpayer dollars, where to get help after a natural disaster, health inspection reports, etc., etc., must have nothing to do with how I make my livelihood, right? Nope, I make it off celebrities wearing pantyhose.

  778. Look, I’m not trying to be a douche canoe here, but honestly, those fucking people need to learn how to spell. For real.

  779. Wow, girl. I want to live in your brain.

    Honestly, that man needs to be sacked. There are far too many competent, *respectful* publicists out there who do far more for their company’s brand for an unprofessional VP to be garnering a salary and lowering the company’s esteem. As someone who *was* a publicist (before I decided to close my company and stay at home to raise my child not to be a douchebag) I could give them about 200 referrals of agents who are aware of the power that a blogger actually has and can respect that.

    And just stupid stupid stupid. In this time when the public is rising in revolution, you *really* want to question how a voice can gather together others of like mind and make something happen? Way to make yourself irrelevent. Honeybadger don’t give a shit.

  780. Jenny…you have Perez Hilton tweeting about this. Do you have any idea what kind of uproar you have caused? This. Is. Epic.

  783. I honestly can’t believe that there are people like this who claim to be in the same profession I am. I think this must be how carpenters feel when they watch Saw.

  786. First, I love how Erica’s initial response makes it sounds as if she is jotting down a note IN YOUR PERMANENT RECORD. *GASP*

    Second: I’m thinking display of relevancy = achieved. (that should totally be a blogger award button)

  788. I love this so much it makes me want to tell everyone….

    Reply-All is the stupid person’s worst enemy…………

  789. Ya know I’d have to put this post and the related one on Wil Wheaton on the level with the post about the JCPenney Catalog blog…http://15minutelunch.blogspot.com/2007/10/strap-in-shut-up-and-hold-on-were-going.html I will never forget ieither…and will have a hard time not plagiarizing..okay I won’t but I may just link to ya…Thanks for the laugh in the middle of the day. I gotta go change my pants now…thanks for that too!

  791. I discovered TheBloggess.com through this whole ordeal and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
    People (like you, Jenny) that stand up for themselves and in such a comical way give me internet boners. Admiration all around! Thanks for this!

  792. And maybe Jose shouldn’t be using expletives in his work at all – once it’s digital, it’s out there…

  793. Oh man. I’m on my phone so I have no way to get a screeshot, but there are 777 comments here.

    I’m sure you all find that riveting.

    PS Jenny, with every blog post I love you more.

  794. If that’s how he talks to people OUTSIDE the office, that PR firm must be a terrible place to work, the daily tiny deaths of the soul kind of place.

  796. I got pitched to do a piece for an ED treatment.

    I was pissed. I told them I’d had that thing removed years ago and didn’t like being reminded of it.

  797. Thank you for sticking to your guns on that one. I hate apologies that are not apologies, and I can’t stand the “you should be grateful” schtick. Due to his gross misunderstanding of a) blogs b) the dangers of “reply all” and c) the role of advertising dollars in all this I can only conclude that not only is he a bit of an asshat, he is also old.

  799. I think I just leaked from laughing at the awesomeness of the post comments! Can you add a “high-five” button, kinda like Mark Z’s FB “like” for comments because there are some absolutely freaking fantastic folks commenting! As always my day is so much more improved since visiting your blog!

    p.s. I think its time you sent Jose a “Knock, Knock, Motherfucker” card. Seems very relevant!

  801. You could have called the PR guy showed his ignorance too; you don’t pitch at someone, you pitch “to” them. Shouldn’t people be grammatically correct when it regards their own business specialty?

  802. Holy cow- I can’t believe that dude pushed it that far. Thanks for sticking up for the bloggers with a powerful voice! 🙂

  803. Incredible! Bet that they had an emergency meeting once twitter went nuts about how to deal. LOL…to be a fly on the wall…

  804. Thanks for sharing with the newbies like me. I think there are a lot more people like that out in the world. I’ll be honest, I’m starting to feel like people are already jealous of me for having a blog and I’m not a problogger yet. I don’t really get it why people are so jealous but I think that the thing bloggers have in common regardless of their content is that they are sharing information/opinions and have the freedom to do so on their chosen platform. Every day people (including VPs of PR firms) don’t have freedoms and liberties, he had to sacrifice a lot of that to get that job and he has to wear a suit every day and follow a bunch of rules. He just wishes that he were in your position not his. He’s also extremely embarrassed that he was dumb enough to press reply-all when he should know better than that, but his pride stands in the way. He may also have some sort of psychological issues in relation to women. The other thing I think our society needs to learn is that being a bitch really isn’t a bad thing. It just means that you are a female who gets stuff done… that’s what female dogs do, they go around taking care of their pups and barking when they need something. You just needed something to change. I say we should reclaim the term bitch.

  805. I’m glad someone acknowledged that he was a problem and are taking care of it! I think you have definitely shown him how relevant you are!! 😀

  808. And to think that all that drama pulled you away from the Scandinavian horror flicks you were watching. At least you can’t say that things aren’t interesting.
    And yeah… loved the display of relevancy. That’ll learn them up something.

  809. “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.”
    That has to be the most bad ass sentence/statement ever in the history of man kind. EVER.

    You are so full of awesomeness that it makes my heart swell up (in a good way, not in a “oh shit I have an enlarged heart” kind of way).

    Carry on.

  810. Yeah, now BrandLink is saying that everyone’s bullying them. Assholes- are they really in PR? Because they aren’t competent.

    And an apology from Erica isn’t enough, the partners should be emailing you explaining that Jose has been fired and they’re sorry for this incident. Erica isn’t even listed on the website, she’s probably an intern or something. Interns are good and all, but they don’t hold company policy in their fists or anything.

  811. This is way worse, and cooler, than William Shitner. You’d think they would know what’s going to happen if they fuck with you and your followers when they include you on their lists initially. I hope Mr. PR man is standing in an unemployment line at the moment.

  812. This is a perfect situation for one of my favorite sayings – Fuck him if he can’t take a joke!

    Thanks for the laughs.

  813. Ok, so totally confused. Why do we care if a Kardashian is wearing pantyhose? Frankly I have always worn hose. Well ok, I wear “pantyhose” with very short outfits and thigh-hi’s with most skirts. This isn’t some shocking fashion trend 8eye roll*

  814. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Jose’s Twitter handle: @JoseBrandLink is deactivated. Poor baby gave up. I DID feel sorry for him a bit, but after some other comments pointed out he’s done this before, my sympathy waned severely.

  815. I can’t believe I hadn’t found your blog before John Scalzi linked to this post… oh what I owe him!
    Love the “angry-villager” imagery, it was kind of inappropriate for me to be laughing so hard at work

  817. To Andrew, post #673, NOBODY should absolutely let this go. What he said & did was uncalled for, considering his business & position. If he finds himself unemployed, that is of his own doing. As someone that is supposed to be in PR, he needs to learn how to control a situation better than this. Nothing he says or does now, can fix it. It’s time he is unemployed, and maybe redirects his attention to a different line of work. Jenny was completely within her right to call him out on it, and he replied with more snark, instead of dealing with the disaster he created.

  818. Your blog always makes me laugh. This post, and all the comments, and your twitter have turned my shitty week completely around.

  819. Honestly, I don’t think Jose the Moron or the Brandlink company have learned a thing.

    He still says he “doesn’t need anyone to feel sorry for him” (comment #752) and the company owner is going to handle this “the best way they know how”. He keeps referring to it as a “lesson learned”. Actually it’s a lesson he should have already known BEFORE becoming a VP of a PR firm.

    I worked for corporate America for many years before I ran screaming away from it and there is no excuse for this. He should be packing his shit and hanging his head in shame as he leaves the building.

    This man is a repeat offender and the entire internet cannot believe he is still employed.

    Yet he and the company he works for just seem to be brushing this off. AMAZING!

  820. Saw a link to your blog on twitter.. and all I can saw is “Wow”. You handled this very well, all things considered. Also, this is definitely a blog I’ll be checking back on regularly. 😀

  822. Someone needs to send Jose a Harbrace Handbook. Hideous grammar in written communications is my ultimate pet-peeve. What an asshat!

  823. I don’t even live in America, and yet from the other side of the pond (hello from London) I can see the trend of vacuous and pointless LA-LA-Land nobody-celebrity being forced in our faces constantly. These companies that push products and try and thrust these people into our daily lives, trying to make them famous for doing fuck-all but wearing a jacket/shoes/jewellery and now pantyhose (seriously – what are pantyhose anyway?!) and make money from spamming everyone constantly, are the lowest of the low.

    I can’t wait till the day the world realises we don’t need to know what nail varnish Kim KarCrashian is wearing, and that companies that do nothing but annoy and invade our mailboxes, and in this case be nothing but rude to people, disappear.

    One day Jose.

  824. Darn it…. I have not signed up for a twitter account yet… and now, I might just have to…. ugh

  825. Ohhh….and I definitely want a “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy” tshirt

  826. Since the Will Wheaton reply went over Jose head perhaps you need to have a second line of response….May I suggest you obtain a picture of Beatty White tying her knickers in a knot?

  827. @ qwrgrl – more like it’s about time we sent Jose a real 5ft Beyonce.

    Knock Knock Motherfucker – it’s the Internetz.

  828. Disclaimer: I read your blog for fun, not for my clients.

    With that out of the way, I am SO EMBARRASSED BY PEOPLE IN MY INDUSTRY SOMETIMES. I apologize, on behalf of all of the good-at-their-jobs, nice, decent PR people in the world. Thanks for recognizing they exist, too.

  831. Dear lord I fall in love with you just about every time i read your blog…but please I am married and it woudl never work between us. I mean, happy crazy week! I don’t get these requests…mostly beacuse I am an matuer, untalented hack that gets 6 readers on a good day, but I have worked in sales and PR…for that reason the “reply all” button should be removed…that being said your response was magical and I plan to constatly reread it because…well fuck the man!

  832. It’s very sweet that Jenny is trying to take the Occupy Jose project down a notch, but we’re a peaceful lot. We’re not being nasty and we’re not being hateful. We’re standing up for a friend who was insulted. We’re showing his company and the Twitterverse and your awesome friends and your devoted fans that we think this sort of corporate behavior is not okay. And it’s the only control we have. We can’t seem to get things moving in politics or our jobs or our families. But we can point out to the world that Nobody F*cks With The Bloggess Unless They Can Use Apostrophes Properly.

  834. I am thinking that Jose needs either an enema or to get laid. As I am not a medical professional, I cannot advise on which is most helpful. Um, I suggest both Jose, both.

    With tons of love,
    me

  835. The bloggess – you are officially my hero now after those e-mails *bows down*

    And your fans rock as well ^^

  836. Here’s to relevancy and the power of the internet! Perhaps Jose should receive a visit from Beyonce.

    Cheers!
    Brandee

  837. This has been the best entertainment while lying here recovering from an injection in my neck. Al I could think was that Jose believes you are a bigger pain located in a much lower part of his “back.” Once I realized his simply an asshat? It made sense that the only thing you *could* be was a pain in his ass.

    I see that my predictions last night were dead on though. Jose’s bosses knew exactly what they were getting in him. The Gawker/Perez Hilton thing was *5 years ago* and at another agency. BrandLink hired him knowing he can’t stay out of email hussy fits. Reading the other stuff makes it clear that the “reply to all” was no accident on his part.

    The thing the BrandLink people aren’t twigging to yet is that a lot of Jenny’s “followers” are also influential bloggers in their own right. This isn’t a one time thing. This is a ‘beginning of a large group of people who won’t just delete Brandlink’s crappy pitches, but will continue to call them out.’

  838. I simply love this post because I am in the same boat. I don’t have the number of subscribers or followers, but my blog has a fairly loyal albeit smaller following. I write primarily about social media and I get pitches about some of the most off topic stuff. You have inspired me, first with the Wil Wheaton idea, to step up my game in dealing with these off-topic pitches. But you have also inspired me by the way you view your blog and our blogs. They are relevant and worth standing for. Great piece.

  840. Jenny, you are many things but “not relevant” is hardly something that describes you and had Mr. Martinez done even a modicum of research he might have seen that you’ve gone toe-to-toe with William Shatner and (more importantly) you have legions of people who adore you.

    However, I think Kami B. is probably correct that Brandlink doesn’t really care about this whole thing and that there will be no real, long-term consequences for Mr. Martinez. He will go on being a pompous, narcissistic tyrant who believes that he can behave as he pleases because he’s an “important person” and somehow, magically, above reproach.

    Rock on, Jenny! We’ve got your back!

  841. I’m commenting only to demonstrate your relevance.

    This, recently, from whomever tweets for @BrandLinkComm: “I am sad that with all the lessons to be had this is now turning into a bullying platform, two wrongs don’t make a right.”

    Um, isn’t that was Jose should be told right before he’s shown the door?

  843. It’s unfortunate that none of Jose’s co-workers/acquaintances/friends or family didn’t have the foresight to send him one of your ‘Be Kind’ cards… Because poor ‘ol BrandLink just found how how stabby your readers get when there’s a battle to be fought!! Some nerve they have playing the victim card now! What company does that?! Oh wait, I guess it’s WAY too late to ask that question in this scenario. Jenny, awesome job handling this in a professional way, even though you had no obligation to do so; unlike a ‘business’ in the PUBLIC RELATIONS field. What a joke they are.

  844. As a PR professional myself I find this “Jose” character simply vulgar.
    His half ass attempt to make amends in his rebuttal to you was condescending to say the least.

    I have, of course, emailed the wrong blogger, the wrong pitch but I always try to understand where they are coming from if I receive an irritated email reply.
    I do my best to really put the effort into research prior to contact.

    However, mistakes do happen. Media databases (where PR people get contact information for media) are often wrong or outdated.

    if Erica and Jose would of conducted themselves with more class & decorum-perhaps, not of taken their dumb pitch so seriously, they would of been successful in making a new media contact rather than an enemy.

    A word to the wise: always be nice and humble in conducting yourself in business or personal affairs with other humans (especially if they author a blog).
    Thanks for the post.

  845. First of all, Jenny — I love you from afar, and check into your blog whenever I want to laugh helplessly in recognition.

    This PR debacle has been fascinating for me to watch, because I was THISCLOSE to a career in marketing/PR right out of college, and fled it for….art conservation. Yes, I spend my days piecing tiny shards of broken glass together, AND I LIKE IT. But Brandlink’s foul-up has pulled me in, not least because I just.don’t.understand how they were planning to make money off you in the first place. Do they represent the pantyhose company, the Kardashians, or both? Neither seems to be listed as a client on their website.

    Thank you for calling out the spammers once again. I’ve been hooked into the blogosphere since late ’04, and the devolution of the community into competitive marketing has saddened me. Keep making your points by cracking us the hell up!

  846. Someone may have already noted this, but in that ONE line you provided from the PR email, there were THREE mistakes:

    “The Kardashian’s once again show they are right on trend, and this is on (sic) Mommy’s are all going to want to follow.”
    should be:
    “The Kardashians once again show they are right on trend, and this is one Mommies are all going to want to follow.”

    And I doubt the writer has the good sense to be embarrassed about it. Very occasionally I’ll type “their” when I meant “they’re” and, I swear, I’d rather fart in public. Ha, at least you can try to blame that off on someone else.

    ~ Daughter of an English teacher.

  847. While I think the initial reaction of Brandlink might be to blow this off, they have to consider the possibility that even now PR firms who want their clients are sniffing around this incident. They COULD brush it off, but they’d be really really stupid to do so.

    BTW, I don’t want Jose to lose his job–just get some training in sensitivity and remedial grammar. (And maybe learn the role of PR compared to journalists. Seriously, this former journalism student’s hackles just went up when he made that remark.)

  848. I never understand why getting defensive is a professional response? It must be the scared little kid in Jose & unwillingness to admit he was wrong and say “I’m sorry.”

    I wish more PR companies adhered to PRSA code of ethics, between stories like this and others that not only poorly target influencers but worst of all, hurt their clients.

    I agree with you Jenny, there are some incredibly professional and creative PR co’s that *do* hold themselves to a higher standard, sounds like not enough though.

  849. “PR firms and PR people – who are actually the livelihood of any journalists business.”

    How sad … that’s what happens when someone has been in marketing too long. They start to think that people are actually there to look at the ads and not the content. A sure sign it’s time to take a break and change careers is when you start to believe your own BS. We should start a charity or something. “Help Victims of Careers in PR” or something.

  851. Wow! People like Jose are the ones who give us good PR peeps a bad name! Can we tell him that he’s a fucking asshole!?!

  852. This asshat is terrible at apologies:
    @BrandLinkJose Jose Marino Martinez
    “Or her followers. There is a little more to the story but I do regret it and am sorry. That’s all I can say or do now. Thank you”

    There is a little more to the story? What more is there other than you are an idiot?? Learn to apologize, dude. Go to the mirror and practice your pucker. Stat.

  853. “Ultimately, we work together with our clients to customize an individual strategy based on the principle of ‘return on investment’ that will build brand identity and consumer awareness.”

    Jose’s carelessness in sending his initial email and then continuing in an argumentative tone obviously goes against what this company professes to believe in (see quote above). Or, perhaps it was because there was no ‘investment’ that he felt it was okay to lash out at an unseen blogger. In any case, he’s definitely built some brand identity and consumer awareness for his company with all of your followers. I’d never heard of BrandLink Communications before, but I sure as hell will never forget that name now. tsk tsk Jose. You’re a VP? Seriously? And yes, I’m pretty sure he’s reading your blog now!

  855. Oh Thank you now I just got fired! I hope my old job at Burger King is still available!

  856. i agree with jose…sounds like you are a ‘fucking bitch’. you must have a lot of time on your hands to continue on and on about this. lets be real, everyone in PR is a bitch, get with the program and put some energy into something that matters…has anyone really ever hear of your blog?? you’re lucky he has made you known and somewhat relevant.

  857. When I was working at Starbucks I had a customer (male) call me a stubborn maniacle coldhearted bitch because I told him that VIVANNO wasn’t really Italian. I told him I was just Irish.
    All that to say people… what.douche canoes

  858. Absolutely hilarious! I saw this thanks to the amazing Jen Lancaster. So glad I found a new great blog to follow! And, should my blog ever become worthy of useless irrelevant solicitation, I will be sure to take the time to send these guys a very sweet FOAD (f*** off and die) letter.

  860. Sort of off topic….

    I take panty hose, cut off the toe, then cut up the legs in to 1-2 inch strips. The strips then roll up into themselves and I use them as hair bands when I have to put my hair up in a ponytail or bun. They don’t put your hair out and more cost effective…and that’s the ONLY way this MOMMY wears panty hose.

  862. So much brilliance here it’s difficult to know where to start but thank you for patiently blogging it, I laughed loads. Comments are wonderful too and I also love that Wil Wheaton’s weighed in again haha.

  863. This is the kind of thing that really makes it hard to sell my company’s services because of this sort of cutting-of-corners, lack of patience, lack of humor, quick panic button, lack of respect and appreciation of the blogger, the citizen journalist, and a general feeling of hostility towards “the public” — and “we” bloggers (and I am a blogger when I am not a digital PR guy) can sense a condescending eye roll through the fiber and copper. I am having my blog editor write a response to this over at my blog, Marketing Conversation, so I hope we do a good job of that. Thanks for calling them out and I am so excited for the attentions you’re getting and for the coverage. Rule number one: bloggers are able and willing to post anything and everything they get from me, no matter how intimate, back-room, or black-box — no matter what, so always assume everything you say and do via email or chat or whatnot will be blog-fodder.

    I hope you have better experiences in the future!

  864. Oh my gosh!! Your blog is always such a bright spot of hilarity in my day!! Thanks!! You really ARE the best kind of fucked up ….

  866. Wow! What an embarrassment to PR people everywhere! From the ‘reply all’ to the defending of your idiotic response. Thanks, Jose!

  867. I can’t help but point out I would’ve lost it and sent one last e-mail for Jose:

    “You want me to back down? No way, Jose.”

    or

    “(you’re a) Penis. That is all.”

  868. I don’t know who you are, and I’ve never read your blog before today … but I am now going to read your blog ALL THE TIME! (Thanks Jen Lancaster for the link) … nothing I like better than a “Snarky F-ing Bitch”!!!

  869. …And WOW! Here’s something I missed when I was studying to get my bachelors in Public Relations?! I know we’ve been tempted to call a blogger or editor a few choice words pitching our Scandle Massage Candle…but never have actually gone there! Man, talk about good PR skills?! lol This guy needs to go back to school and learn some email ettiquet and manners. And while he’s at it…take a course or two in PR Crisis Management on how to deal with bloggers that turn into “angry villagers”! 😉 Thanks for the post…fabulous!

  871. I’m a PR person and a blogger and I think what Mr. Martinez did was rude, inappropriate and unprofessional. BUT, I think we all need to step off our high horses too. As a blogger, have you never ever cracked an inappropriate comment about a PR person? I have sent and received many and I AM a PR person.

    It’s a two-way street, bloggers and PR people need to have more mutual respect for each other in general and maybe these types of things won’t happen to begin with. I also think that it’s sad that with so many talented PR pros out there, this is what gets the attention of thousands of people.

  872. Well done Jenny – it’s nice to make the point and even better to give them the chance to fix the problem!

  874. Holy shit. Someone is learning about the power of social media today. And what it means when people not only have over a million followers, but what it means when they are being FOLLOWED by folks with over a million followers.
    Screw the pitchforks and torches, lady. You have villagers with keyboards and Twitter accounts 😉

  875. Sorta makes me wish I tweeted. Its a sad commentary on our world today when the PR people have turned into complete jack asses. It used to be that if you even hinted to someone in PR or Customer Service you had to get out the hemroid cream to recover from all the noses you had stuck in your ass. Now you get ignored, called names and told to take your crap elsewhere. Unfortunately part of the problem belongs to the masses who are no longer made up predominantly of good, honest people.

    Three cheers for you! Wil Collating is wonderful!

  876. All you need now is to have Southwest Airlines kick you off a plane! *wink*

  877. Along the way, PR people have maintained an image of the “flack” – pushy, annoying and full of irrelevant information for reporters, and unfortunately this case just feeds the fire. As a PR person who tries to be the opposite – and someone who understands the other side, as I’m married to a editor at a large daily paper – I hate that. Like you have pointed out, there are many of us who work very hard to ensure the reporters/bloggers we pitch have information that’s relevant to them. But there are times that even the best PR people accidentally pitch the wrong information to the wrong person. I understand being more than snarky if someone has pitched you repeatedly with irrelevant information, but, as someone who prides herself on pitching relevant information, I am bothered by reporters who choose to go out of their way to be rude. I’d rather have a reporter/blogger ignore my post (in which case I usually just leave that person alone – I do NOT call and email over and over) than tell me off or whatever. Not saying some PR people don’t deserve it, but not all of us do. We are trying to make a living just like you are.

  879. Long time reader, first time poster. Nothing like adding a little unprofessionalism to your day. Note to Executives (and anyone else out there trying to turn a buck): The landscape of information exchange has changed. NEVER just assume the person you’re sparring with is small potatoes. Never assume that someone who is small potatoes can’t cause a LOT of trouble for you 😉

  880. Jenny – I jumped on the tweet-pile a day late but even though we do not know each other – I adore you and cannot let you be ill-dignified by such hacks.
    PS – don’t let anyone tell you different – it still feels good to kick someone when they are down when it’s so well deserved.

  883. I found Jose’s diatribe really cute, it was precious. But I was stunned at this line:
    “alienated PR firms and PR people – who are actually the livelihood of any journalists business”
    OK aside from being among the clunkiest writing I’ve ever seen it’s just plain wrong. If I understand him he’s saying that journalists depend on PR firms and PR people. Right. That’s why so many journalists listed in my Cision database include such eager phrases as, “I am a NOT PR contact. Do not phone or email, EVER!

    I’ll bet when Jose is pitching a news organization he’s one of those guys who calls incessantly, and if he does reach the reporter he asks, “Did you get a chance to read my email?”

    I know one thing for sure Jose has never in his life been an actual journalist or he would never suggest that they “depend” on folks in PR. They may need us from time to time and they may buy our pitches, but the vast majority of reporters do what they do with no regard to PR firms or their hacks.

  884. Epic FAIL but it did make me laugh, some PRs just CBA to research us bloggers properley before they pitch, 2day I got a PDF with a recipe, no intro, no text, nothing, just a PDF attachment, thinking what to write back now I have read this!

  886. Well, Jose might think you’re a fucking bitch…but he forgot one other word. You’re a BRILLIANT fucking bitch.

    Simply brilliant.

  887. Thoroughly enjoyed this! (As I do most of your adventures.)
    Also, I wouldn’t do business with a company that fails at basic proofreading, anyway.
    And I can’t believe that someone working for PR could be such an outright asshole. At least the first person was a subtle, diplomatic asshole.

  888. So sad I am looking at this so late, I only hope that after months of loving this site that I could have come up with something completely and totally worth being called a “fucking bitch.” If nothing, but to use my mother’s line…if you think that was bitchy, then we obviously haven’t been fully introduced yet. lol

  890. PR pros make mistakes. Bloggers make mistakes. But while you don’t have PR pros getting everyone riled up on the web to bring down bloggers who misspell words or accidentally reply all, the reverse is all too common. It’s easy, it’s self-validating, and it boosts readership. I’m not saying this gentleman was wise or right in the way he tried or didn’t try to diffuse this situation. But at least he had the courage to speak up honestly against what he considered a rude gesture–without the unconditional support of 140,000 followers.

  891. Am I the only one who thought people in PR knew how to spell? or use grammar?

  893. I am currently an Advertising/PR student who, no joke, just learned about how to properly pitch YESTERDAY. Coming across this today… pure gold. I’m definitely going to bring this up to my professor to have a discussion about next week. Bravo!

  895. This is great! I am saddened though by the reply-all scenario, which things like this happen too many times. I can appreciate your landing page that you sent and I like the creativity and would probably have done something snarky back if I received it from you, but not something such as name-calling.

  896. I forwarded this along to a bunch of my girlfriends who are in PR and they think this is HYSTERICAL! Keep up the great work –

  897. Sooooo no pantyhose, which I don’t wear, from some chicks that I don’t care about?

  898. Hey, I’m probably going to get shouted down for this, but I think you were a bit too harsh. Yes, he was an unprofessional dickhead, but he’ll now probably lose his job. Maybe he was having a bad day, who knows? He made a mistake, but I think his punishment is out of proportion to his crime.

  899. They CLEARLY need to hire a PR firm to handle this for them….it’s kinda like a Doctor operating on themselves…sure, it’s possible, but it’s foolhardy and bound to end poorly.

    Idiots. The lot of them. You gave them an out and a way to save face. He couldn’t let his bruised ego go. Here’s hoping he’s let go. Either way, I’d never work with them, not in this lifetime.

  900. This comment will probably get buried but I would like a tshirt that says “I am viewed as relevant enough to be spammed by rude PR companies.” Or something similar.

    A coffee mug would be good too.

    I trust your judgement in font and letter colors.

  901. And then I tweeted to @BrandlinkComm to let them know that one of their VPs just sent me an email referring to me as “a fucking bitch.” And many, many of my 164,000 followers replied and retweeted in the most clever and hysterically awesome ways imaginable.

    And it was beautiful.

    ===========

    I’m just in AWE. Go internets!

  903. Self righteous asshats annoy the hell out of ne. Which sucks because I encounter a lot of them in my job.

    And reply all is the devil.

  906. @Yikes
    Bloggers make mistakes. But not too often do they spam the inbox of a PR pro, call her a fucking bitch, and then claim they’re being bullied. And that unconditional 140,000-plus-fan base… she didn’t bully us into being here. She’s didn’t even ask for anything. We’re here, and we have her back, because Jenny speaks for us all. She says the things we wish we could say, and she stands up to the PR bullies with the courage we all wish we had. All while being fucking hilarious.

    P.S. Don’t forget. It was the PR “pro” who first threatened to throw his weight around. Don’t you love when a bully pulls his own threats down on his head?

  907. You know…other than admitting they have been demonstrated relevancy, I have seen no sign of acknowledgement of the fuckup on their twitter feed …I wonder if they posted something on their website?

  909. Totally awesome. And no sympathy for the “honest mistake” crowd who think calling a woman a “fucking bitch” just kinda happens sometimes and you shouldn’t make a fuss.

    Bullshit.

    I noticed he deleted his Twitter account after the exchange with Wil Wheaton so at least there’s a slim chance he might have learned something.

  910. Zazzle Request: 1 coffee mug with the following printed on it

    “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.”

    I’ve been laughing for hours.

  911. “PR firms and PR people – who are actually the livelihood of any journalists business”

    Wow! I must be working with PR people the wrong way. They have almost nothing to do with my livelihood as a pro blogger.

  912. To all the PR folks out there…
    Do you suppose that if it had been Wil Wheaton sending the photo Jose would have responded with “what a fucking bitch”? How about if it had been Neil Gaiman? Or John Scalzi?
    I suspect the perception that they were dealing with “just another Mommy Blogger” created the response. And I think the lesson should be nailed home with a 10lb mallet – it is not ok to dismiss female professionals as “fucking bitches” for behaviour that a male would be lauded for as “hardass”, “hard-hitting”, “no-nonsense”, etc.
    And the snippy response from PR person #1 was no more professional than the “fucking bitch” mis-send.

  913. Jose’s new favorite line from in the basement…..”Have you seen my stapler??”

  915. All this and you don’t mention the brand of pantyhose. That, and you ask us to back off. You are a class act, Jenny.

    Is it worth losing his job/livelihood? No, (but maybe rethink the VP category – not that it means much anymore). Is it worth getting called out? Sure! The lesson is to SHUT UP once in a while. Just because you can “defend” calling someone a nasty name over email or tweet with Wil Wheaton, doesn’t mean you should. Oh the itchy trigger finger of 24-hour internets.

  917. @Heather & @Yikes,

    I’d also add that the tactics that this PR firm took with Jenny have probably played out numerous other times with much smaller bloggers. If a PR firm did this to me and I blogged about it, you can bet this many people wouldn’t find out about it. I don’t think of myself as a “nobody”, but I have no delusions of grandeur that I’m anywhere close to Jenny’s league. They could try to push me around and then laugh at little old me complaining about it on them thar interwebs.

    They might have done this a few times with small-time bloggers and then did it again. Only this time, they didn’t know who this “TheBloggess” lady was. To misquote the old GI Joe cartoons, not knowing means you lose half the battle. They lost the rest of the battle when they “apologized” by doubling down on their “you count yourself lucky to get our randomly sent out pitches” claims.

    The fun comes from an idiot trying to push around someone bigger than them and failing spectacularly.

  918. I think Jose needs a hug from Copernicus. Just a suggestion. He seems like the type that really needs a hug.

  919. @Stephanie Harper,

    While gender definitely played into his wording, I think his general attitude would have been the same had I sent that photo to him. He seems to think that bloggers of any size following (be they small like me or large like Jenny), should grovel at his feet for the scraps of content they toss our way. After all, without these scraps, whatever would we blog about, right?

  920. I find it interesting how many people I come across who have deemed themselves “PR” professionals when in fact their job function is more of a Publicist. Both jobs when done well by real professionals can be invaluable. They are, however, NOT the same. I have a degree in Public Relations from one of the most difficult programs in the country. I have managed massive events and put into practice city wide campaigns, sooo, when I hear about blunders like this, I know I shouldn’t be amazed and yet I still am.
    It takes more than a laptop and the ability to hit “send” (or in this case…not) to make a Public Relations professional. The folks at this PR company might need to study up on crisis management (part of a real PR professionals job function) as I am sure the response to this “misstep” has well taught them.
    BTW, Jenny, your Will Wheaton response is hilarious. Sorry for the long rant.

  921. 1) Normally I am at work and miss all this twitter-revelry. What a good day to be off!

    2) I know the t-shirt potential here is endless, but if I could suggest:

    “I am an angry villager.”

  922. Hmmm, he called you a “fucking bitch.” I wonder whether he was trying to say that he prefers another kind! 🙂

  923. No offense to anyone at all here, but would not have simply deleting the original pitch saved everyone time and headache? Not trying to be mean here, but sending anything back on that would have been an initial waste of time and, quiet frankly, in a bizarre way validates the initial pitch.

    I am probably going to be flamed as evil for saying this, but their was a lot of overreaction on both sides here. In my opinion, silence on such pitches is the best win. Or flagging it into the spam box or deleting all their garbage. Again, sometimes, if the pitch don’t fit, just ignore it.

  924. I just shared this with a my grad school media relations class at GWU. Thank you for still taking the calls of legit PR people who know how to pitch you properly and respectfully. I apologize for my idiot colleagues. We try to breed better, but some stuff gets through.

  925. “And there are other PR companies that will try to shame you into posting their irrelevant spam and threaten you with talk of not using you in the future for when they’re doing advertising. Those PR firms are assholes and you should probably question everything they say.

    You are amazing. You are relevant. Your work is worth protecting and standing up for. And you will find wonderful PR companies to work with over time.

    Even if you are “a fucking bitch.””
    This part is really well told. I’ll start following you for this. I came here from Wil Wheaton’s blog; I like a good PR disaster, like the next person, and being in a few myself I now read about them. What you say in the qouted passages is bassically what I said about a PR person in slovenia “some people do PR every waking moment, others are just on payroll (of a PR company)”.

    I’m Jose is now (read this on 7.10.2011) in selling fries at golden arches?? Not that he’s any good at it… ;S

  927. Alex M, I dunno…. what punishment does Jose face? I haven’t heard.

    Granted, he is getting the public pillory right now. The story has even jumped from the Twitter world and gained the notice of several PR industry websites. But perhaps this is his own doing. He has shown an astonishing lack of understanding of how social media works. His initial attitude of arrogance was eventually replaced by a long string of whiny tweets, sending the message that he doesn’t want to accept responsibility.

    Honestly, I don’t think Jose has the least understanding of public relations. He probably shouldn’t even be answering the office phone, let alone serving as a VP.

  929. Sweet Jesus, NEIL GAIMAN is tweeting about you!!! I’d love that man to send out 140 characters about me.

    You’re my favorite online fucking bitch, Jenny. Beyonce lives!

  931. Might have to use this as a great example of social media in one of my communications classes in the future. Still shaking my head.

  932. You have to admit it’s pretty funny that he picked on the ONE person in the blogosphere and twitterverse who everyone loves and supports because you’re so fucking funny. You might be nice also but you refused to come to #blogheradjacent because you were not in San Diego at the time. WHATEVER, DUDE.

  933. Just saying—
    Jose is no longer listed in the company directory. His mailbox is full and unable to hold anymore messages.

  934. The twitter for @BrandLinkJose, the jackass who started all of this, and proceeded to make it worse, has vanished. Was he fired after abusing @TheBloggess or is he just laying low?

  936. I run a dumb little blog about video games, Autism, and being a dad. I just stumbled across this from a Google + feed, and I have to say that I absolutely love what you did here. I can’t really add anything that everyone else hasn’t already stated, I just wanted to say that “You flippin Rock!”
    Thanks for your time!

  937. Oooh…@BrandLinkJose has now been deleted…I wonder if he was embarassed that a PR flak only had 93 followers to an irrelevant bloggers 168K?

    Anyway, I think one of these days I’m going to make a “You make me furiously happy.” t-shirt and send one to Jenny.

  938. This has gotten amazingly crazy… and I love it! Love this blog… love you Jenny!

    Also, “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy” would make an amazing t-shirt in your store. Just saying… 😉

  939. @cc in motion and @Matthew – I would guess just laying low. I am sure he’s taken a million and a half whackings today and its about days end before a long weekend…he’s eating crow and drinking tears tonight for sure.

    Most likely the company has pushed him under the radar in hoes this will all be forgotten about or everyone will think he’s been fired, and he’s eventually come back….well unless he is an asshole then he deserves to get fired….oh wait he is an asshole….rock on.

  942. Jose is profoundly stupid. It reminds me of the time when Scope did the list of least kissable celebrities and listed Rosie O’Donnell…you know that chick who had a daily talk show and could share this with millions of her fans. On the upside Listerine’s sales shot through the roof with the offer of giving Rosie’s charities $1000.00 for every kiss she got. Sheeh…some people are special.

  943. FYI – you can email BrandLink Communications at their website: http://brandlinkcommunications.com/contact/

    I just sent them a note (asking for Jose’s professional head on a plate) and asked several friends who read the Bloggess to do so as well.

    Jenny, you are awesome! Keep doing what you do!

  946. This is a PR fail on so many levels… poor research, unprofessional behavior, bad spelling and careless grammar. Kudos to you for naming the firm – they deserved it!

  949. Props to you! There are times when you have to take the high road and then there are times when you have to stick up for yourself. You definitely made the better (and really, more entertaining) choice. I’m just glad that everyone has apologized. Enjoy your drink!

  950. Quite simply, I love you @TheBloggess! Caught wind of this while watching @HubSpotTV’s Friday 4 p.m. marketing update; Googled it and found your blog post. So you even made the social media news on this one! Their message was: “Um, remember to be polite to everyone online … email, Facebook, Twitter.” I recently heard a speaker at Social Fresh Charlotte say bloggers should be given the same respect and professional courtesies as journalists. I nominate you the leader:) (Good martini recipe on my blog if you need one!)

  951. This made me smile. however i bet in a few weeks we’ll see something like the below…

    This just in,

    Jose has been promoted to Director of Blogger Relations, Erica has been let go for leaving the blogger on the thread she sent to her boss and for not warning him of the potential risk associated with the reply all button.

  953. Wow. This is an amazing story.

    I did tweet them after seeing them whine about being bullied. Is that a PR move? Act like you’re a victim instead of a business caught with their pants down?

    I really don’t understand the condescension in the PR industry.

    M
    (The only pitch I ever got was an invite to an LA launch party for Janice Dickinson’s TV show when a)cI lived in Ohio and b) was an infertility blogger.)

  956. Okay, so I said I wasn’t going to post this because I already posted it recently on another one of your blogs but, geez, it’s just so darn RELEVANT:
    Word of the day: Blivet

    Urban Dictionary: blivet
    Definition:
    Ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag. A situation so vile no matter how well you deal with it you will still get dirty.

    I want a t-shirt that says “Jose is a blivet.”

  957. Poor, silly, stupid Jose. Does he not know that rude and snarky are so IN? Does he not know (obviously not) who he is dealing with? I think Jose will be standing at the very back of a really long unemployment line thinking about how REPLY ALL was a very bad mistake. We have your back, Jenny. Besides, this was the high point of my really horrible day. Thanks.

    ps Why is YOUR last blog (previous post:no one makes cards for this. But they should) on the new comment site. Didn’t it use to be our last post? just askin’

  958. Pingback: PR Firm Calls Blogger a “Bitch.” Don’t Mess With ‘The Bloggess’ « Ilovelovee's Blog

  960. Sound like Jose needs a kick in the Kardashian’s, a hug and a wine slushy…in that order. Also, and most importantly, most PR people should know not to put ‘fucking bitch’ in writing unless it is invisible ink. Der.

  961. are you fucking serious?!?!?!??!! you should be GRATEFUL that press even considered you for this. Who do you think you are? you’re a fucking mom blogger loser, and you’re ridiculousley stupid.

  962. I would have lost all respect for you if you had ignored it & not responded the way you did. You totally rock!

  963. Sorry I missed the opportunity to participate in the “relevancy challenge.” Miss a day of Twitter, miss a lot!

  965. Aw. I’m glad you got an apology Jenny. I always cry when people I don’t know are cruel to me. You are so not what he called you.

  966. Lovely conversations with Pretty Polly (i.e. the people making the alphabet tights being promoted in the original email). Basically, they’re watching and trying to stay clear of the fray.

    Apologies for engaging Brandlink in the first place might be appropriate, yet silent shuffling away isn’t bad either. Not that I’m a pitchfork waver or anything… Just that I think saying something positive might do something to sway the 6 million potential customers who are witnessing this festival of relevance. Or demonstrate that they’re in the same douchecanoe. Either way…

  968. today’s my birthday, and i’m still young enough to drink way to much & it not be inappropriate, so i will make mine a double as well. 🙂

    thanks for one of the best things i have seen all days. bravo.

  969. Um, Jenny….should we send Jose a thank-you card or something? He seems to be terrible at PR, but he also seemed to accidentally provide you with a lot of PR, or rather material for the PR…because I’m pretty sure this is the ONLY thing on the internet today 🙂

    Also, five minutes on your blog would tell ANY PR person that they would have much more luck with a picture of Fred Armison maybe standing by a taxidermy animal that happens to be missing an appendage.

  970. Clearly Jose (or is it Hose head) has never crossed paths with “a fucking bitch”. There is a reason we are not offended by that title. I’m sure he learned his lesson…and probably a big fat demotion for not knowing “the customer is always right”. If you work for a “large PR firm”, you must learn to eat crow. A lesson you hopefully helped Jose learn. Rock on GF! And Jose: Knock Knock Motherfucker!

  971. I got a “f***ing c**t” reply all email from a guy who was trying to sell one of my clients on an outrageously expensive click-on-this-photo-and-buy-this-product-now ad campaign. I replied saying, “thank you for validating my decision.” The president of my client company replied all and said, “don’t ever contact any of my employees or partners again.” The guy apologized, but was never to be heard from again. Welcome to the club.

  972. This whole sordid mess (more to the point – your hilarious post about it) has won you a new fan! My husband followed a link from a Wil Wheaton tweet to this post last night and read it to me out loud in the car while I was driving us home. He couldn’t stop laughing. Yay for converts!

  973. Pingback: On PR companies and pitches

  974. Here’s probably what really happened:

    Erica is a early twentysomething college intern who has the mindless job of churning out this crap. She gets a snarky response from Jenny. She immediately sees this as a way to “promote” herself in the office by sending a somewhat professional response to Jenny and copying her boss on it (Jose the Moron).

    Jose, in an attempt to validate Erica’s efforts, sends his stupid response but, as he is a total and complete moron, hits the “reply all” button.

    When he gets confronted with his fuck up, he cannot believe some mommy blogger has the nerve to reply to him (he who email battled with the likes of Perez Hilton no less). He decides to be a BULLY and put the mommy blogger in her place!

    Jenny unleashes the hounds on him.

    When Jose’s obviously clueless boss sees what hell has been delivered to their doorstep, she goes into defense mode. Dear Jose has been licking her ass for weeks/months/years and could NEVER purposely do this could he? No never (even though he has done similar things when working for other companies which a simple Google search could have turned up for her). So let’s play the pity card and hope that bullying charge will make all the bad, smart people quit picking on them!

    The thing that is still irking the shit out of me is that they (Jose and Brandlink) have yet put out an honest, sincere admission that they totally fucked up. Instead, every apology has be qualified…ie. I’m sorry I called you a fucking bitch BUT you cussed first, etc. And then they have the audacity to claim THEY are being bullied!

    That’s why I’m still carrying my pitch fork AND a torch.

  975. “To go out of your way to be snarky and rude is a little
    inappropriate. ” couldn’t be a clearer statement that even after the initial blow up, he didn’t bother to look at or read your blog at all. It’s like he’s never heard of sarcasm. And really,for that I say “poor, poor Jose”. He’s hearing Beyonce now though “knock, knock Motherfucker”. Who’s cursing now?

  976. LOL! That is some funny stuff. You handled yourself perfectly too. I wouldn’t say you are a “fucking bitch.” More on the side of… Classy bitch! lol. Kudos on handling yourself perfectly. Hopefully Jose has been grounded from using the internet and reduced to being a staple boy. New follower right here – referred by SilverFaeries & Dragonflies.

    =)

  977. First, let me say that discovering your blog is the first thing that’s proven to me there truly is merit in Google Plus. Second, Jose can’t spell or write very well, which has always been a clue for me as to a PR person’s core skill set. Third, now that we know he’s an idiot we should watch him carefully — he just might run for an elected office one day.

  981. You are wonderful and strong. Thank you for sticking up for us, the writers and artists who give PR Firms their job, no matter how ungrateful they often are for us. You are loved and admired. <3

  982. Laziness and profanity combined are not the hallmarks of a good business relationship. Does no one think of the audience anymore?

  984. The real bitch here: consequences. Jose gave such a clear picture of who he is he’ll probably have a little trouble getting hired from now on. Whoopsie…

  985. Keep up the great work! Eventually PR firms who have streamlined their services to the point of being ineffective will have to relearn and refocus on the basics. Due diligence, building relationships and sharing relevant resources need to remain a strong focus. Loved the post! It made my Friday. 🙂

  987. I rarely read blogs and I’ve never commented on one before. Ever. But this exchange, which I read about on AdWeek, moves me to leave a note here to tell you that you’ve gained a loyal reader. Rock on.

  990. I am a PR professional for a state agency. I made all my coworkers read this blog post. The fallout has been a great example of why you don’t piss off social media 🙂

  991. He’s a PR wonk: he didn’t hit reply all by accident. He absolutely without a doubt did it on purpose. If you hadn’t laid an awesome acid burn on his stupid ass he would have deployed the false saccharine apology and snickered behind his hand. I like the way it worked out much better. WTG you!

  992. Holy shitballz,
    Jose, your village just called, their idiot is missing.

    If anyone following this fuster cluck is not amazed at the power of social media, they should head back to the rock they must have crawled out from. Those who doubt the relevancy of bloggers, facebook and Twitter need only to see where this will land within the next couple of days (yes Brandlink, not all press is good press).

    To Jen, rock on, you are clearly loved by all your faithful followers. And it appears you’ve gained some more as well.

  993. I love you Jenny, but I can’t possibly read all 900+ followup comments.

    I got the same earth shattering news about pantyhose. I guess I am lucky. Would it be in poor taste to reply to it with the Wil Wheaton photo? 😉

    Have a great weekend!

  996. Geez, and I thought it was bad when a PR guy told me I was “banned” from reviewing anything from any of his clients because I wouldn’t pay out of pocket to ship back a Halloween costume that didn’t fit. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when Jose had to explain himself to his boss.

  997. I can’t read all the comments, but on the off chance you do and no one said this yet, I just wanted to say the PR company is VERY lucky you and David Thorne did not collaborate on a rebuttal, or you would have ( well, no longer single handedly … so double handedly?) been responsible for their complete and utter demise!

  999. I too, have been subjected to receiving Brandlink’s drivel for far too long. Probably doesn’t matter, since if you are irrelevant I therefore don’t even exist, but I responded to said pantyhose crap with a direct order to remove me from any and all of their mailing lists, as I make it a personal rule to not do business with douchebags.

  1000. Not to mention, if PR firms are going to bitch about “professionalism” they should probably use better grammar since “Kardashian’s” shouldn’t have an apostrophe and “Mommy’s” should have been “Mommies.” If I’m going to hire a PR firm to rep me, it wouldn’t be them. But that probably makes me a fucking bitch, too.

  1001. As a journalist, I am offended by Jose in so many ways, it’s hard to know where to start. However, you’re such an inspiration with the whole Will Wheaton photo reply that I have to give it the old college try …

    #1 – Anyone who is unprofessional enough to call you names like that (and stupid enough to include you in the email where he does it) should be fired by whichever client hired him in the first place. Talk about throwing away your money!

    #2 – If I had a nickel for every time I got an email pitch about something that has absolutely nothing to do with my area of expertise, I would have retired years ago. I’ve long wondered if spamming organizations and blogs that are totally out of the realm of what you’re pitching is a way to pad the bill to the client.
    PR Guy: “Well, Mr. Pantyhose SVP of Marketing, we sent a pitch about your product out to 7,190.000 blogs, web sites, newspapers and magazines. The bill will reflect the number of pitches we made on your behalf.”
    SVP: “7,190,000!! Wow! I didn’t realize there were that many outlets out there that covered fashion!”
    PR Guy: “Fashion? Oh – uh … yeah! Fashion! Right! Well, we went, uhm, outside of the box here. We pitched fashion mags/blogs/sites (of course) but we also pitched other industries too.”
    SVP: “Other industries? Like what?”
    PR Guy: “Well – Music sites! I mean, hey, music fans wear pantyhose. Right? And then there were the pitches to the trades that deal with pig farmers. Pig farmers have to go out to slop those hogs in all sorts of weather and if it’s cold, pantyhose could keep them toasty warm. And oh yeah! How could I forget the college admissions newsletters. If you want to get into a really good school, looking stylish is the way to do it. Trust me – your pantyhose will be all over the planet in just a matter of days at this rate!”

    #3 – in response to “PR firms and PR people – who are actually the livelihood of any journalists business” – SERIOUSLY? Yes, I have worked with some amazing PR people and firms who have made covering something easier, but to say they are my livelihood???? No you jerk — my livelihood comes from the work that I do. You know, good old fashioned blood, sweat and tears plus some imagination (none of which is required to put up a picture of someone wearing pantyhose.)

    Jenny – you rock and this one is easily a landslide win for you. LOL – too bad your whole Will Wheaton thing got you grounded from the maid though. 🙂

  1002. “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy” t-shirt?
    Yes please.
    This will be in next year’s PR textbooks. No doubt.
    L.O.V.E. this – thanks for being f-ing fantastic!
    Cate

  1004. I think that pitchforks are warranted in this case. I have several and am willing to use them. Go Jenny! 🙂

  1006. I do always find it amusing when people who are rude as a default get offended when they’re treated rudely as a direct response to their initial rudeness, but I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be rooting for anybody, here.

  1008. We fondly refer to our PR firm as “those cocksuckers”. PR is for jock-sniffing wanna be’s with no talent of their own. Jose is a bitter little man.

  1009. Kande – you know I thought this was whole thing was very David Thorne-esque and while I loved Jenny’s regal “behold my relevance” handling, I can just imagine how delighted David Thorne would have been to go a rougnd or two with Jose.

  1010. At least, something good has come out of this PR assholery…I FOUND THIS BLOG! And I love it. I’ve been reading back posts and laughing all day.

    And yes, I’ve been hiding under an internet rock all this time.

  1012. From the standpoint of someone who does PR (in-house, not agency) in a field very far removed from celebrity party trivia and product endorsements, this is hilarious on multiple levels.

    1. Go read the guy’s bio — he has only worked in LA, he thinks LA and perhaps NYC are the center of the universe. That’s a legitimate niche, but these people need to remember that the buying power of most of the United States lives in flyover country. There’s an assumption of privilege driving his attitude and actions.

    2. He has a history of this kind of behavior, documented on the Internet for the world to see. Do you want someone managing your reputation who can’t manage his own? How on earth did he get hired?

    3. I know that standards for the language are slipping across the board, but I have seen better style and grammar from undergraduate journalism students.

  1013. I’m imagining this is how the whole “Jose apology” went down:
    BLC: Jose, tell Jenny you’re sorry
    Jose: Don’t wanna
    BLC: Jose, you promised!
    Jose: Ok. I’m sorry Jenny (looking not sorry in the least)
    Jenny: Uh, okay. (Because she’s so done with this and ready to move on)

    Is that about right?

  1015. I don’t feel bad for the CEO. She referred to #PantyJose as Jose “a very well respected publicist and beloved by so many in the media.”

    Carol also says: “This was an isolated incident and not representative of who we are.”

    Wrong on both counts, Carol. #PantyJose is a joke, and this incident has defined your company.

  1020. Amazing, amazing piece. Not just because you stood up for your work, but for the integrity of what blogging is about too. Not everybody is doing it for money or hits. I shared this on FB. Thanks. Xoxo

  1021. Knock Knock Motherfucker! This is The Bloggess Army at your door! We go by the name Beyonce but we aren’t your typical scared chickens! You don’t know what any of this means because you cant be bothered to research who you are pitching – Oh but you will know what it means before this is done! Muahahaha

  1022. “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.”

    Best line in the whole thing! You go, girl!!!

  1023. As a journalist working at newspapers for the last six years, the idea that PR people think they keep journalism going is hilarious. I suppose if they mean that deleting their stupid pointless emails a hundred times a day and then telling them when they call to follow up that unless they actually know the zipcode of the city I work in, I don’t care is keeping things going, then by all means. The PR people are single-handedly keeping journalism in live in this country.
    But I’m forwarding to them every single TEA partier who calls to tell me that Fox is the only REAL journalism in the country.

  1024. Hope Jose at brandwhatever is paying attention because this is what a successful PR campaign looks like.

  1025. Jose is like that asshole in traffic that cuts you off and when you honk he flips you the bird.

  1027. My wife is a dedicated follower of your blog and often reads the relevant posts to me! I applaud your response to this fool!
    A new follower, Chris.

  1029. I will buy a Relevancy tshirt RIGHT NOW. I will buy one for every member of my family. Including, and perhaps especially, my small but opinionated sons.

    Please, oh please? I never thought you’d top Beyonce. I should have had faith in you. HUGS!

  1031. Jenny, if you ever actually get the chance to read all of these comments, I have to ask you—did we break a record? Is this the most comments you’ve gotten on one blog? If not, then which blog got more? Enquiring minds want to know….

    (Nope, but close. I think there were 1,200 when my readers were working to make sure kids had Christmas. And the Beyonce-The-Big-Metal-Chicken post has over 3,000. ~ Jenny)

  1033. Ooops Susan, I somehow missed your bolded text. I should do my research more, like Jose.

  1035. When will PR agencies realize that bloggers are media and have loyal audiences????? Wrong a blogger and they blog about it. Seriously, do PR folks need a class to teach them this?

    And how am I NOT surprised that this lapse in judgement came from a VP and not some lowly PR coordinator? Sheesh.

  1036. It appears his firm is taking on the mantle of “victim of Internet-bullying”. To be followed soon after by “Out of Business”, I am thinking.

    ~EdT.

  1037. The Bloggess–you always make me smile and laugh. This post is another classic and the first time I’ve felt compelled to comment. Behold the power of the Internet. So… when can we buy “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy” shirts/cards on Zazzle?

  1039. So I saw this on Twitter today and so I had to click… and then had to RT… and then had to read your blog… and just HAD TO FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU. In a non-stalking way, promise. Well, other than my RSS feed and probably your Twitter when I get back on TweetDeck since I really hate that Echofon messed up their Firefox feed… and on that note GOOD NIGHT!

  1040. Love comment #35 “no way Jose!!!’ I am peeing myself in laughter! You crack me up!

  1041. Wow—been a while since I checked back in on ol’ Beyonce. Cool! Over 3400 comments now actually. But I did check back just now and saw that we still must have at least broken a “first 24 hours” record, since Beyonce’s original post had the first comment at 12:37am on 6-21-2011 and at 12:37 am on 6-22-2011 it logged comment #585. This one had its first comment at 6:10 pm yesterday and logged comment number 1010 at 6:11 pm today, so——-Yay interwebs! I is so proud of us-selves!
    Love ya!

  1047. Oh wow, I would almost feel bad for Jose and the little predicament he has put himself in but once he said we were all irrelevant I lost my sympathy. Love your message in this post because we all do deserve more.

  1049. HAHAHAHA! Poor Jose! They really didn’t do their research. He did NOT know he was f*cking with, did he?

    I recommend a Beyoncé on is doorstep.

  1051. I read your stuff all the goddam time, because you write just like my internal monologue sounds (and not like in a crazy way, just like when you start watching a British film and your internal dialogue goes all ‘I reckon I would fancy a pint’, and I’ve never HAD to write until now; I had to. You’re incredible. THANK YOU.

  1052. Oh, Jenny, There you go causing trouble again. And I am still confused about something–how is sending a photo of Wil Wheaton rude? Weird, I hope, but rude? This guy is really from another planet…

  1053. OMGLMAO Spit Bud Lite All Over My iMac!!!! Today on FB the K girls shoe company Shoe Dazzle asked us all to post childhood pictures of ourselves. WTF? I was after cheap shoes, not a chummy relationship with tv’s most irrelevant family. Ok I am so posting this on their site and expecting to be defriended immediately. MUAHAHAHAHHAHA!

  1054. I think the village got a little angry.

    Great job knocking that asshat down a peg..or two..or two million!

  1056. What has been great about this PR-fiasco played out here? I’m checking out so many new bloggers based on their incisive and/or funny comments. I’m witnessing a bully being schooled. Punctuation and its importance has been given a well deserved high profile. The Bloggess has been found by more people; I simply don’t understand why she doesn’t have a million followers. Wil Wheaton now has a poster-child for the phrase “Don’t be a dick” to go with his cool cape. And maybe a couple of people are getting a lesson in humility and humanity. Our world is really very small. It’s important to be nice in cramped spaces.

  1058. I just came across your blog randomly and i have to say im hooked!!! This “jose” guy is clearly not as smart as he thinks he is

  1059. The most amusing part of all this, for me, is that if you look at the Twitter feed for @BrandLinkComm? All the Twitter folk sticking up for Jenny can spell and put together a grammatically correct sentence for a TWEET.

    BrandLink is apparently unable to do so for their website, their emails, or their Fan page.

    Or, presumably, to save themselves. Not that they seem all that interested in doing that . . .

  1060. A one of Jenny’s long time devoted (but curiously silent) readers, I just want to note the obvious… Jose (and amazingly his company) acted like a jerk but I also notice that Jenny has been quiet since her original post other than to note the failed apologies…Its like the Dalai Lama said..”.If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” Thanks Jenny for reaffirming my belief in how cool you, Victor and Hailey actually are…My guess is Jose didn’t wake up and say “Let’s see how stupid I could be today in front of an infinite universe”….Sadly, he chose a poor course yesterday and he has to live with that for the rest of his life and is probably (hopefully?!?) wishing he had chosen more wisely. What he said was stupid, inexcusable and nasty…That being said, my guess is we’ve all done something as idiotic at some point in our lives…some just chose a less public (and completely less charming!) target than Jenny. I’m absolutely not trying to apologize for Jose…bad form and bad manners….Just think life is too precious to waste on someone who messed up pitching pantyhose…not worth the negative karma….oh, and lest anyone think I’m like this all the time….I’m actually an attorney from Boston who swears like a mo’fo…

  1061. I’m still flummoxed by the proofreading and punctuation errors in the original email FROM A PR COMPANY. Maybe I should get a job there. This sucked for you, but it made me giggle, so thanks for sharing–I had a similar incident recently when dealing with a company that did something stupid.

  1062. My first response was, WTF. I can’t believe that guy. He is going to lose his job…. THen I laughed hysterically and attempted to explain to mu husband why this was so funny, and such an epic fail for this man. He listened politely as I read the whole thing to him, and said ok. The went back to the tv.

    Anyway, long story short, you rocked!

  1064. I wasn’t going to leave a comment when I read this yesterday but dang it… this is what makes blogging cool. Not the wayward PR peeps screwing up but the witty, clever, supportive community. And so I figured if I wanna be a part of that I had better leave a comment… sadly mine is not witty or clever but it is supportive!

  1066. After surfing around on Google I came across this old article from 2010 when BrandLink was just beginning…
    http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/exclusive-fingerprints-link-seeks-dissolution-updated-16142?page=0,0

    After reading this I had to make sure it wasn’t a recap of One Life to Live or General Hospital. These people are crazy drama…and I mean C.R.A.Z.Y. drama.

    but my favorite was this article showing the who’s who of the new company …
    http://www.fashionweekdaily.com/the-fix/article/the-daily-media–16

    Jose Martinez, formerly vice president at Fingerprint Communications, has been named vice president overseeing the hospitality, consumer goods and events divisions at BrandLink Communications West Coast.

    hos·pi·tal·i·ty? ?[hos-pi-tal-i-tee]
    noun, plural -ties.
    1. the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers.
    2. the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way.

    I guess Jose didn’t read all of his new job description.

  1067. Stand by for a demonstration of relevancy and I missed it!!! ::sigh::

    Relevancy check .. check 1, 2. This thing was on!

  1068. Forget the pitchforks! I just want to pop Jose’s little head right off his body. Jose wanted you to know he is the victim here, you old meany!
    Blog-blog-blog-Bloggess I’m lovin’it!

  1069. Having watched this all unfold, I’m in awe. There’s a reason you have an army behind you, Jenny. It’s because you’re funny, you’re a great writer, and you have a knack for attacting the criminally insane who are ready act on your every word. I can only hope you never abuse your power. I can also only hope that you never decide to sober up.

  1071. All I can say is … wow.

    I loved every bit of (your part) in this exchange. Justice is served.

    And I thought you did take the high road.

  1072. I can’t tell you how livid I am that I have to work for a living in a job where I am, under no circumstances allowed to call someone a ‘fucking bitch’ and missed out on all this fun.

    I’m also pretty pissed that I looked for a job for half a year while this douche has a VP title.

  1073. Also, I understand your opposition to pitch forks but are you ok with flaming torches? Because that is always my favorite part!

  1074. I agree, we need pitch forks and flaming torches. I hope this man dosn’t have a job after this. Mistake or not don’t toss those words around. As a great man says all the time “Don’t be a dick”. You are a awesome and hes just a dick.

  1077. Reasons why self absorbed doofuses (doofi?) should actually not believe their own hype and remember, for the first time in history – the world is actually watching.

    Oh… and said doofus clan should consider finding out what all those shiny email reply choices actually do, and back off on the soy half decaf cara-camel-ccinos – they might be a little less hasty. (though not less doofuss-y)

    Rock on m/

  1078. Jose’s twitter account has been removed. All hail The Bloggess and Neilhimself!

  1079. What if someone pooped on the one they call “jose”‘s doorstep? I know just the drunk girl to do it.

  1081. I’m a fucking bitch, too. I’ll have that drink, but PLEEEEZE let me go and kick Jose’s ass first. It’s just something I have to do.

  1082. Those folks who are saying we should cut Jose a break, he probably had a bad day or made a mistake and undoubtedly is regretting it all are missing a couple of things.

    1) He has a history of this. At LEAST dating back to 2005. REF: The Perez Hilton battle, linked elsewhere in these comments. And who knows how many more times he’s done this and *didn’t* get it splashed all over the interwebs?

    B) We have yet to see Jose (OR BrandLinkComm for that matter) post a real apology. Not “But everyone loves him”, not “We’re the victims here!”, not “You’re bullying us!”. A simple ‘We are so, so sorry.’ And even if they have said that to Jenny privately, that’s really not good enough. As badly as they screwed up, it needs to be front and center on their website, their FB, their Twitter, and probably stapled to Jose’s forehead.

  1083. I think the T-Shirt should have “Stand by for a demonstration of relevancy” as the title, followed by a picture of Beyonce at the front door (along with the caption) underneath.

    Also: I am now proposing The Bloggess’ Theory of Relevancy:

    “The degree to which a blogger is relevant is directly proportional to the level of couchecanoe-ry displayed in your ‘REPLY TO ALL’ calling her a ‘f***ing bitch’, times the number of Twitter followers she has.”

    along with the First Corollary:
    “Don’t be a PR-ick.”

    ~EdT.

  1084. >>Truth October 7, 2011 at 3:54 pm
    >> I’ve never heard of you before, but from this exchange, it sounds like Jose was right about you.
    >> Truth recently posted..Truth Wins Crystal Achievement AwardsMy Profile

    Seriously “Truth”? You comment on Jenny’s blog that you agree she’s a “fucking bitch”… with your business website linked to the comment???

    Gratz on the Crystal (meth?) achievement award! Guess I know where Jose should submit his resume!

  1087. Fuck me sideways!!!! How do people that stupid even manage to dress themselves in the morning? I mean really, dude, grow the fuck up and join the rest of us adults with a sense of humour.
    I think that we should all start filling up Jose thedouchecanoe’s inbox with fictional adds for things like ice cream sundaes made with breast milk and how to create a safe and happy home for your wallaby.
    From one “Fucking Bitch” to another, keep up the good work. Love ya

  1088. So because of this whole thing, I have finally signed up for Twitter.

    I have no clue what I am doing on there. So far I am following Jenny and Wil Wheaton. I think. I’m not sure I clicked the right thing.

    God only knows what shit I am going to start on this thing!

  1089. I still can’t believe that @brandlinkcomm actually believes they’re being bullied.

    Because calling someone a fucking bitch isn’t the actions of a bully. Noooooo………

  1091. EdT. at #1081 – that is a BRILLIANT idea! I’d like to order one asap.

    Kami at 1086 – I did the same thing

    Jenny, thank you for being a role model of strength and class.

  1093. Mr. Reply-to-All is as red as a beet for his royal fuck up and is doing everything he can to save face and, likely, his job. I once sent a text which I THOUGHT was to my husband. I completely ripped a woman apart (who totally deserved it as she had just done the same to my face) only to learn that she too received the text. With bile rising up from my stomach, I remember sending a backpedaling second text (the fastest I ever typed in my life) saying “And that’s what I WOULD have said if I had told my husband about all of this shit!” Here’s hoping she was dumb enough to have bought it.

    Public Relations indeed. More like Public Recrimination. And, unless he offers a sincere Public Retraction or some other form of Public Restitution, you should heighten your Public Retaliation. (Honestly, my political correctness is preventing me from typing my favorite interpretation of PR here. Public R********** …. well, think Forrest Gump.)

  1094. Copy of message just posted to Brandlink (http://brandlinkcommunications.com/contact/),
    Subject: I think you already guessed.

    “I’m just another blogger who is disgusted by your company’s behaviour, regarding The Bloggess.
    The ripples are spreading.
    It seems to me that Jose Martinez’ arrogant, offensive, and functionally illiterate comments are exactly the opposite of the image a P.R. company might wish to foster.

    But never mind. At least Jose now has a nice pic of Wil Wheaton, collating.”

  1096. I’m a PR professional myself and am absolutely appalled by this professional’s behavior. (I use the term ‘professional’ loosely!) Good PR professionals do their homework and have a much better understanding of the media landscape. He’s giving PR a bad rep! I’m totally on your side – and even posted about it myself. 🙂 http://www.aspiringintherealworld.com/2011/10/crossing-line.html

    Thanks for sharing this! It’s a great learning experience for everyone.

  1097. Glad he sort of came round. Hope it was a real apology this time. It’s amazing what the pressure of hundreds of angry bloggers can do to convince a PR guy he may have screwed up. What’s he got against Wil Wheaton in the first place?
    I think you handled it perfectly. Well done.

  1098. Entitled PR people who can’t work a homepage of most people’s blogs well enough to glean what their site’s about, sending spam emails and getting horrible results… egads, ick, this is every day ending in ‘y’, right? Jose should just be happy his (still) horrible-sounding firm’s making enough off this spam for him to stay underemployed email-blasting inaccurate listicles of unrelated blogs.

  1099. Hi Jenny,
    You remind me of the Bad Blogger. You’re both funny, awesome, unique, and amazing. I think you’re his female counterpart.
    I wouldn’t mind including you in my morning ritual along with my cup of coffee to perk me up.
    And I think you’re Wil Wheaton composition is just brilliant.
    There’s one lesson I can take away from this. I think I wouldn’t ever want to use the reply to all option.
    Keep on blogging, Bloggess. Have a nice day!

  1100. Jose is simply in the wrong business. He should be a blogger where it’s okay to say whatever you want. I’m sorry but Jenny’s Wil Wheaton response is rude, too. PR firms need to do their homework, but they’re also getting dumped on every day by bloggers so appalled when they receive a pitch they don’t care about. Yes, PR peeps need to take their licks and be professional. Anything less than that and you’re doing your firm, your clients, and the PR industry at large a major disservice. Joe is clearly a meathead, and this “I Am Blogger, Hear Me Roar” stuff is great for smaller bloggers who are inspired by Jenny’s influence. But while BrandLink definitely needed to be called out here, as a social media powerhouse, Jenny holds all the power and could stand to use it a little more responsibly. Another blogger wrote a great (albeit long) piece about @dooce going off on Maytag. I thought it might be fitting: http://www.abdpbt.com/personalfinance/2009/08/28/do-not-buy-maytag/

  1101. Pingback: CASE STUDY: A Disastrous PR Mistake With a Mommy Blogger « Digital PR & Communications

  1102. @Danielb 1082 – Truth is obviously of the Jose ilk – judge what you don’t know and call them a FB (even if it is by proxy). Messaging my peeps in MN.

    @Chris 1090 – such the perfect t-shirt! Hope The Bloggess sees it and Zazzles it!

  1104. I got the fabulous Writer Unboxed to put comment #755 into their url for me today. I’m so happy! Thank you, Girlgigi—you’re hilarious.

    And thank you, Jenny, of course, for this whole wonderful, bizarre fracas. You’re our whirling dervish guardian angel.

    I so heart all three of you.

  1105. Pingback: Brandlink Communications, The Bloggess, PR Fails, and Fallout | Smackdown!
  1106. Pingback: About those Kardashian pantyhose... | The Maven of Social Media™

  1107. Great story. You actually couldn’t have planned a better story if you tried in terms of making your point. Sorry you had to deal with it, but it made for a great read.

  1108. YOU ARE FEATURED on perezitos.com WITH THIS! It brought me great joy to see your picture as I was reading my trashy celebrity gossips. I’m pretty sure that’s how you know you’ve “made it.”

  1109. A response to “Another Viewpoint”, comment 1097,.
    No no no. Jenny’s response was not ‘rude’, it was an absolutely appropriate response to unwanted spam. In fact, she points out that she gets a lot of this crap, usually ignores it, but this was just the one that pushed her response over the edge.
    If PR firms want to waste people’s time by sending them unsolicited and irrelevant crap, then they should be prepared for a negative response. They got it, in a form that caused them no harm. All they needed to do was shrug, and take her off their mailing list. Instead, they threw shit in the fan, and stood downwind.

  1110. @Dawn (comment 1099), that’s a great one! And it’s made even better by the pun suggested by your name. You could have called your blog something like “Dawn’s early light.” (In which case, your last post could be titled “Dawn’s Rainbow Bright.” Because rhyming makes everything better.)

  1111. OMFG! I love you! My friend introduced me to your blog today.. and I am loving your posts! there needs to be more people in the world with dedication to their own thoughts and beliefs… rather than just being simple sheep..

  1112. Personally, I think the people at brandlink should just be happy we see them as relevant enough to discuss.
    Kidding, kidding.

    In all sincerity, Jose was rude and condescending, and Jenny stood up for herself appropriately. She wins. It’s time to move on. I don’t really care if Jose is good at his job. I am not interested in boycotting anyone because they have a douchebag on staff. I am pretty sure I would have to boycott everywhere if that were the case.

    But I do love the Bloggess.

  1113. I’ve spent the past 30 hours rubber-necking this train wreck and laughing myself silly. Thank you, Jenny, for being hysterical, refreshing, and authentic. Oh yes, and RELEVANT!

  1114. ha! I got that same pitch, those nylons were ridoinkulously ugly! lol glad to hear he did say sorry, too bad it was probably because he was forced too

  1115. I’m wondering why you didn’t refuse solely on the grounds of bad grammar and misspellings?
    People who put apostrophes in plural words shouldn’t be allowed to write pitches. Or write at all….

  1116. I keep waiting for someone to start a PantyJose Facebook page a la Copernicus. It has to be someone snarkier / stabbier than me to be funny. Takers? Anyone?

  1118. omg they really need someone to proofread that shit before they send it out. How embarrassing. They are obviously all drinking on the job.

  1119. I think the real lesson here is some people need constant practice in how to apologize. Luckily, Jose will have plenty of practice in the near future as he learns to work the cash register at his new job.

  1120. It’s posts like this that make me want to be you. “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.” It really doesn’t get better than that! haha!

  1121. You’ve given me some encouragement to stand up to vanity publishers who pitch me often. I fought back on one last year asking them for clarifications, only to get weirder and weirder answers, only to finally have them threaten on three occasions to sue me for putting the text of their *unsolicited* email on my blog. The post still gets hits almost everyday for people who get spammed by the same company looking for information. I backed down and took the name of the sender off the email because i decided that maybe it was courteous to do so and that that individual may not have been responsible for writing the pitch, although i doubted if it was the name of an actual person….but i’d had the post checked before I posted it (by a defamation lawyer) so there was no backing down on the rest of it (they sent me a number of emails claiming i was giving them bad publicity – umm….yes, and being very heavy handed in their demands I remove the post). I delete a dozen pitches a week (and i’m a niche scholar blogger….so the PR market’s not so interested in me) and it never ceases to amaze me how 1)badly written they are and 2) how clear it is that they haven’t read my blog. I get another 3 or 4 that are well written and show an awareness of my writing and my niche. Those people are a pleasure to work with!

    Your final encouragement, that it’s okay to stand up for yourself, that you are relevant and that there are good PR companies out there. Thankyou. We are need a little bit of being told we’re amazing.

    ps: I *really* want to wear a “stand by for a demonstration of relevance” tshirt and maybe a postcard/tshirt with “it isn’t the 18th century and i’ve never taken the high road in my life.”

  1122. Pingback: The Bloggess vs. Brand Link Communications: The Real Problem with the Email (Amy Lupold Blair) « Kathleen's Blog Spot

  1123. I just got out the hospital and saw this posted almost everywhere, I had to come find out what’s going on! I’ve come across my fair share of ‘Jose’s’ and have heard that comment about ‘relevancy’ and how I should be ‘flattered’ before too, and then of course the threat of being ‘black-balled’, while I handled those situations a bit differently, I’m thinking perhaps the next time I come across a ‘Jose’ I do the same thing, let the adoring public they are being paid to reach decide what they think!

    Although in all fairness, he is good at garnering traffic, look how many comments his actions have garnered! Kudos to Jose! 😉

  1124. Kudos Tracy? Really? Seriously? If you were standing next to me right now I would be very tempted to stab you….

    Dear Jen~
    I found you via Will’s site, and I am soooooooo happy that I did!

    I laughed so hard yesterday I cried and stomped my feet- which sent my cat running for the sofa. Wait, she wasn’t really running. She was sauntering. Hmm. =^..^=

    Thank You! Thank You!! Thank You!!!

    PB in Vegas.

  1125. The best thing about this for me is finding the Bloggess. I didn’t know she existed until now. So win!!

    The second thing is I work with a man who runs a convention in Nashville, Tn who’s attitude mirrors Jose’s. Nearly every person on our volunteer staff is nearly ready to walk out the door because of this one moron who is in charge, and remains in charge “because we don’t have anyone else.” I’m remaining on staff as Public Relations Director this year for “personal growth” reasons. After our upcoming convention in a few weeks, we will see.

    Thank you, Bloggess, for inspiring me. I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to leave this convention that I have loved so much over the years. Because of this post, when I get ready to leave, it wont be quietly. I am going to list every reason he is a douche bag and every reason why I am leaving and read it aloud in one of our staff meetings so others who have been holding back their frustrations will hopefully be inspired to speak up. Now…if I could only get Wil Wheaton to send me a photo with him wearing his “Don’t Be A Dick” shirt giving the bird that would be icing on my going away cake!!!

  1126. Jenny I think I love you(is my wife reading this?)

    Seriously you have to be fun and I think I may need to follow you(I found you from a post from a Facebook group, “The Domino Project”, Seth Godin and others)

    In another lifetime I was accused of stealing a whole load of rock(I had my own gravel truck); I told them point blank: “When you find out you are wrong I expect a full apology.” Next day I am in their office, “We’re sorry we didn’t know you had a flat but… blah, blah, blah” (I didn’t wait for the end of it, either it’s an apology or an excuse, this was their excuse.)

    Bravo for you,

    AZMike

  1127. P.S. Jose and all the other Hoe-zays out there need to pick up the audio version of Guy Vaynerchuk’s “The Thank You Economy” listen, and listen and listen some more. We are in our grandparents neighborhood thanks to social media and when you are Butcher Bob and you sell bad beef you need to redeem yourself because “word of mouth” can really escalate.

  1128. Most “Reply All” fails are great, but this was epic. Jose was completely unprofessional and out of line, no matter what your email contained — he was in the wrong. Thank you so much for sharing — I caught on once I saw Wil Wheaton tweeting about it and I was shocked to see what had happened..and that it had happened to YOU! I’ve been reading your blog for quite a long time, and while I hated to see anyone say such a thing about you — I thought it was a beautiful opportunity and you (and Wil) definitely made the best of it. Kudos to you, dear lady! And cheers to one of the most incredible PR Fail ever!!

  1129. Lorelai Perrin—I clicked on the link and checked out your blog—beautiful, but I went there to leave you a comment about your comment here, but your blog doesn’t have a place for me to comment. Or I couldn’t find it. ANYWAY, I am NOT one to discourage people from burning bridges, as some might. Some bridges deserve to be torched with dynamite and fireworks attached. So I just wanted to offer a suggestion for your “leaving” speech, which sounds like it might be “relevant.”
    “A hard on does not qualify as personal growth.”
    Use it with my blessings if you find there is an appropriate place for it. It is one of my favorites.
    (Apologies for hijacking this thread to say that, Jenny!)

  1130. Wow… wow… 1800 comments and counting. I’m stunned that anyone at all would side with the PR firm. It was such a clear FAIL on all counts, and you are clearly so much more than a “mommy blogger” – you have a unique talent as a humorist, and you are so relatable. This is rare! Yeah, no wonder you have a bazillion followers. I long for the day… but my niche is so narrow that it doesn’t have the same mass appeal yours does, nor is it infused with your particular brand of wacky dark humor. I love reading your stuff, and the way you deal with weirdness is wonderful!

  1131. This was the first post I read on your blog and it is CLASSIC! I love your honesty and wit. Keep up the great work!

  1132. If he was paying the slightest amount of attention, he would know that snarky, rude and harsh is pretty much your mission statement.

  1135. I have been getting a lot of these types of posts in the past year. Thankfuly most of the PR agencies have been really great to work with, however more and more I am getting junk messages, that as you say are not relevant to my content. It’s got to make sense to post on my blog or you don’t get to be there – That goes for comments too. Thankfully when I have sent a “Thank you but your product/service doesn’t fit nicely into my blog” I haven’t gotten a reply, but I often wonder what someone is thinking. It makes me feel better as a blogger to know that I CAN and SHOULD be able to say that about my own content. After all it IS my blog!

  1136. OK, I’ve worked in PR and I’m currently a journalist. PR is the livelihood of journalism is like saying that murder is the livelihood of zombiekillers. By that I mean they’re leaving out the brains.

    That made more sense in my head. Also, don’t let them fool you. At this point they need you FAR more than you need them. You are The Bloggess. You have giant metal chickens and Copernicus, Ferris Mewler and Victor. Fuck them.

  1137. i just “discovered” your blog via the Daily What yesterday. I stayed up reading old posts till 4 in the morning. You are awesome. Where have you been all my life? 🙂

  1138. Thank you, Susan D! I think I might just use your “A hard on does not qualify as personal growth” line in my opening statements. This would fit him so well. He’s the kind of guy that stops mid conversation every time a pretty girl walks by. Then he uses “I’m the Chairman of a Geek convention” as a “here’s a reason you should sleep with me” line. Have you heard that song “Dinosaur” by Ke$ha? I swear the song was made for him. That is just the tip of his douchbaggery ice burg. http://www.myfreakside.com/ was started by my daughter and me so we can put on our own events. We are just beginning on our journey. So wish us luck!

    It just makes me smile how we get inspired by the simplest things…like reading an amazing blog.

  1139. This is been on my mind for a couple of days; frankly, the way this guy responds to your email (the second time, and the preceding incident with Perez Hilton) says a lot about his personality, the kind of personality that would come across in his daily life. An off-the-cuff “what a fucking bitch” is one thing, but when confronted by an individual about his faux pas (or in the case of Perez Hilton, a direct put-down sent unsolicited on the basis of a comment of his), clearly demonstrates his entire attitude, and his complete lack of understanding of the word “relations” in his job title. Or even “public” for that matter. And I’ve wondered, who in the world would meet a man so aggressive, such an obvious asshole and hire him?

    And finally, the answer came to me: assholes. Assholes would meet this guy and be impressed by him and say to themselves, “By Jove, THIS is the man I want to represent me and my company.” So, assholes around the world, do YOU favor an aggressive, go-get-’em attitude in you PR guy? The kind of guy who will put down with misspelled, arrogant fury anybody who dares insult your company? If so, then Jose Martinez is your man. If not… chances are you’re not an asshole and should look elsewhere.

  1140. My God, I love you people.

    So, as far as I’m concerned, the main issue is over. Jose’s boss said she agreed with the email I sent her, which said that all people – regardless of their platform – should be treated as valid and relevant, and I have to trust that she’ll make certain that the people at her company will follow that. Hell, it’s a lesson I even have to remind myself of occasionally. I appreciate all you’ve done, but I assure you that I’m fine. Sleepy and in need of xanax, but fine.

  1141. The only thing that is sad is that none of you people seem to have a life? I doubt jose cares an ounce of what any of you have to say. The violence and obsesion is very pathetic and I only hope the parents out there don’t teach this kind of barbaric behaviour to your children. You are what’s wrong with our young people. Get over and tend to your lives- if you have any!

  1142. Dear Jenny, F.B. (like Ph.D. but better),

    I am not upset AT ALL that I previously had the 1,000 comment and WON the internet, but now, doubtless due to Jose’s Douchcanoe P.R. treachery, I don’t. Still, it’s awesome that the new-and-improved 1000th comment is strumpeting “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy” Beyonce brand t-shirts. Woo-hoo!

  1143. A good response would have been…”I’m not A bitch, I’m THE bitch, and it’s Ms. Bitch to you!”
    Oh, and scott, you responded, too – are you tending to your life?

  1144. What are they living under an over-sized metal chicken? They wouldn’t know it if they were but to not know who you are?!, I’ve only been blogging since Feb and I live on the other side of the planet and I found you in seconds – and they’re in PR – hello? Even without the “fucking bitch” they may as well quit while they’re ahead, to wish you “best of luck” – little late for that – laughable.
    Love you as always – you and King Midas have so much in common – keep turning the shit into solid gold!
    Nicole xx

  1147. Wow, I’m still blown away that someone who WRITES FOR A LIVING (jose) hasn’t mastered the apostrophe. Pathetic!

  1148. I am a fucking bitch and I try very hard to be completely irrelevant. I sincerely hope that any PR company that contacted me would try to emphasize both of these points.

  1149. OMG When I read the description of the shirt, I read 1/2 of the proceeds got to chicken advocates, an organization to help abused and forgotten chickens. That should teach me not to read without my glasses.

  1150. @scott #1135
    scott should have a capital, as should jose; proper nouns (naming words) begin capital letters. Your first statement is not a question so shouldn’t end with a question mark, it should be a full stop (period, if you are American) or, if you wish to add emphasis, an exclamation mark (I think Americans call it an exclamation point). You might consider rephrasing “cares an ounce of” to “cares an ounce about”. Using the modifier ‘very’ in the following sentence is also awkward; might I suggest ‘quite’ or, if you wished to add emphasis, ‘extremely’. Personally I feel that in this instance omitting the modifier is more elegant. You mix pronouns in the rest of that sentence and this confuses your point unless you are concerned that some parents will teach other people’s children barbaric behaviour. If this was the intent of this sentence please ignore my last suggestion. I think you missed the word ‘it’ in your last sentence although I am not sure if “Get over…” is idiomatic to your area. If so, sorry, I withdraw my advice. The last error is probably just a typo, however there should be a space between lives and the subsequent dash.
    I hope I have been of some help to you as I’m sure you’ll agree that proper and careful use of language is essential if we wish to be taken seriously when communicating with others, especially with strangers.
    Regards,
    Susan

  1152. @Susan… Awesome. Simply [pauses for effect (not affect)], awesome. …and Jenny, you ARE the best. Love it. Go Wil Wheaton!

  1154. I think it must be the name (Erica). Sorry to all you (nice) Erica’s out there, but everyone I’ve ever dealt with named Erica has been the f’n b!tch. As for Jose, somebody should wish HIM the best of luck–he’s going to need it!

  1155. Ironically enough, I just got my first pr pitch from someone on Saturday. They didn’t do any research into who I was, but at least the pitch had something to do with my blog topic. Unfortunately, my reply to said pitch was not near as entertaining nor as witty as yours was. Fortunately, I did not receive a reply all email in response to my reply to their email. Darn.

  1156. Pingback: PR Exec Curses Out Mom Blogger, Gets Annihilated On Twitter And The Blogosphere | Business Articles Base

  1157. First: YAY! Our t-shirt wish came true!

    Second: It occurred to me yesterday that part of this situation (the ‘please don’t go angry villager’ part) reminds me of a scene from the movie The Labyrinth where Sarah is off to fight Jareth. Sarah about to head off stops everyone from coming with her and says she has to face Jareth alone.
    “But why?”
    “Because that’s how it’s done.”
    “If that is the way it is done then that is the way you must do it, but should you need us…”

    Sarah, as we know, was fully capable of defeating Jareth on her own. 😉

    Anyway, had to share that. Now to buy a t-shirt. 🙂

  1159. I’ll have to start watching the executive job postings at BrandLink. Sounds like they may need a couple of people. A new VP, and possibly a medical janitor to scrub out Jose’s mouth.

    Also, I can’t believe what I’ve been missing. I discovered this from John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, and I’ll be coming back.

  1160. Since when is it okay to use “fucking” or “bitch” in a business email, regardless of whether he hit “reply all” or not? So unprofessional.

  1161. Pingback: One bad apple

  1162. I go on a business trip for THREE DAYS and I miss the angry villager party? And now I’m in the street with my flaming pitchfork all by myself and feel a little stupid. I miss ALL the fun stuff.

    And fuck you, Jose.

  1163. “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.”

    Oh, that is simply a beautiful reply. heh-heh.

  1164. what! Kim kardashian is wearing pantyhose!!! that’s my thing! the next thing she is going to be wearing granny panties and bullet bras. eff her!! 🙂

  1165. Wow, so I guess I am lucky that so far I’ve only had the lovely, call you by your first name and chat about our favourite cupcakes kind of PR companies.
    I love that you gave as good as you got with Jose. I know you are not asking us to burn down villages but I still hope that’s the kind of response he gets. If someone in the public domain was to make such a huge cock up the press would be on them until they resigned . . . . .

  1166. Awesome.
    I am new to the world of public blogging and I have been perplexed by the advertising pitches I’ve gotten. I understand that I’m new and won’t attract the best fitting, highest paying advertisers but these people expect that I will slap anything on my blog for a quick twenty bucks.
    I’m a writer. I’m not homeless. Yet.

  1167. Don’t know Jose, but once upon a time, I, too used to work in NYC. My old office building is a couple of doors down from BrandLink’s offices. There were numerous small marketing/market research/PR/advertising/etc. firms based in that neighborhood when I was there, I presume because rent is less outrageous than mid-town but the location is still convenient. Anyhow, though it was a respectable neighborhood, it was hardly a tony address.

    My firm was small (20 people, most of whom were recent college grads), but sounded big, first because our client list was impressive, and second, because we were very professional in what we did. I’d have been history if I’d ever used profanity in company e-mail, regardless of whether it was internal or not. It’s a pity I’ve been out of the business for a while, because I’m sure my old contacts at Chase (a client BrandLink and my old firm have in common) would be VERY interested in the actions of one of their small, dime-a-dozen PR firms.

    Oh, yeah, more fun quotes from Jose, this from Time magazine. I’m sure celebrities who walk the red carpet enjoy being called “desperate”. Hey, Jose, maybe some celebrities who do the walk for their fans are just… nice? What a concept:
    http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1970271,00.html

  1169. It never ceases to amaze me that people’s reaction when they get caught and called on their bad behavior, is to lash out, make threats and/or insults and just generally exacerbate the situation by being an even bigger douche.

    The only way accountability exists at all these days, is when people are justifiably chastised for behaving poorly. So good for you, for refusing to just let this one lie and instead, handling it with humor and intelligence!

  1170. I used to own a retail store which had a “no soliciting” sign on the front door. Of course, cocky jerks would still come in and try to sell me their irrelevant products. I would politely refer to the sign; most would leave no problem. Occasionally I’d get one with attitude. To which my response was “You’re going to give me attitude in my store, which I pay the rent, utilities, etc. for, just so my customers can have a CHOICE in getting a sales pitch yet you’re not willing to give me the same courtesy? Get the hell out!” But I always wished I had a clever, funnier way of responding …

    And that is why you are my hero, Jenny, forever and always! Thanks for making the t-shirt!

    PS – Tom Cruise totally used you as a model for Top Gun. 🙂

  1171. Who’s the bitch now, Jose!!! You dirty little guttersnipe!! Rock on, Jen!

  1172. i can’t even begin to exclaim of how much i appreciated reading this! in the last week, as a result of my blog, i’ve been called “a skinny yoga bitch,” i’ve been kicked out of yoga teacher school, and i’ve been thrashed from head-to-toe on my blog itself by self identified “fat girls.” it’s nice to know that i’m not the only smart girl sticking to her guns! jose needs to bury his narcissism in a sombrero. http://www.nicoleandgwendolyn.com

  1175. So this has nothing to do with the greatness that is this post.
    I just thought you might like to know I saw a GIANT Beyonce on the trip between Austin and Galveston this weekend. It was freaking huge. I’m gonna say 10 feet. At the smallest. And my husband wouldn’t even slow down the momvan so’s I could take a picture. Jerk.

  1176. Pingback: My Public Service Post For The Month: How To Properly Apologize. « Living Apple-y Ever After……..

  1177. Wow, Jose’ seems a lot like one of those “I’m sorry I hit you honey, but you know you deserved it” kinda guys. He’s special in an asshole sorta way….

  1180. aaaand Jose was pretty reasonable with his response to you. people (including PR companies) don’t always get things right straight away, but often are willing to learn from their mistakes, as this guy seemed to be.

    maybe you could chill out and actually be decent about it. i understand you’re hurt by the original comment, but grow a thick skin, you’ll need it in “journalism”

  1182. Pingback: Society of Socialpreneurs

  1183. Rock on my dear Bloggess – against those who are so blind they do not see…F*ck ’em and the horse they road in on…and for the record – I am so over the Kardashians I want to puke everytime I hear their name – I will go out of my way to NOT buy any endorsed product – EVEN IF IT’S AT SEARS! They don’t give a crap about making affordable clothing for wannabes – they are all about the $$$.

    Love you madly ….in support, always!

  1186. It occurs to me, that if they are a good PR firm in the first place, they would have researched your blog and known that the Wil Wheaton Collating email was coming.

    They also need to fire their research department. Which is also probably named Jose.

  1187. I was so mad the other day I considered making a Twitter account, then realized I don’t know how to use Twitter and would probably end up sending a twit to someone I didn’t mean to and thus would cause a war over in SE Asia from my inadvertent twit to the wrong person. So I did what you told me to and took a night off – but now I read the comments and am mad all over again. I don’t understand how someone could read your blog and possibley think you are anything other than wonderful, beautiful, hysterical, and amazing. So no matter what fucking bobby above says, or Chris who makes crystal meht says, or stupid Jose says or writes, you never forget that you are loved by all of us. As much as one can love someone electronically through the tubes of the internet. I hope my ethernet reaches out and touches you. in the meantime, I haven’t joined twitter, and won’t, until someone releases a simplistic manual on why one is limited to 140 characters. And als explains why it’s not called twitting. All the best – I love you – and I do hope Jose is fired.

  1189. Hi, Jenny. I love your blog and while I almost always lurk, this was just too good not to comment. For a PR firm, they sure have a command of the English language, or maybe they’re trying the new approach of ‘sell shit that’s shit”.

    The guy is the village idiot. You can’t be mad at genetically stupid. You can, however, be grateful that the only job he’s qualified to do is work on a farm. Goodbye six-figure salary, hello disgrace!

  1190. re bobby (sic) # 1169
    *Facepalm
    Although, if you ignore the lack of capitals (which may be due to early exposure to e e cummings) bobby has managed to punctuate and spell two sentences correctly. He/she also shows a rudimentary understanding of the background of this issue. Kudos, bobby; have you considered a career in PR?

  1191. I’ve been delighted with this post from almost the very first moment it was posted. I think there was something like 34 comments when I first saw it. Its been quite amazing to read everyone’s comments and see the amount of comments increase exponentially over the last several days. And try as I might I tried to keep up in reading them all but I think I only was able to read into the 300s :(. I’m so glad so many new people have found their way to this blog due to this incident. And was even more excited to see the comment number increase past 1,000 even though I don’t think I’ll read them all. Way to go Bloggess! On a personal note: Oh, how you inspire me to stand up for myself.

  1192. Pingback: Social PR2.0: Call The Blogger A Fucking Bitch?! -

  1193. You realize, of course, that Jose read this portion of your “Wil Wheaton collating” message:

    “…we do realize that your dumb-ass boss probably made you send out that horrible pitch even though you tried to tell him that it was really awful…”

    and he had one of those out-of-body moments, realizing this person is talking about ME… I am the “dumb-ass” boss in this scenario and she totally just shamed me in front of my team, but momentarily forgetting that PERHAPS you were referring to dumb-asses in general, not that you’d had a camera recording his actual staff meeting.

    Hence why he (apparently) took it so personally. And irrationally. Resulting in hilarity on our side and a little bit of education on his.

  1194. He was right – for once someone told loud the truth. The bloggers are not the holy cows – you are just tools which think that they are somehow important and “independent”. Wake up – the companies doesn’t love you (which mean – try to reach you) for free. It’s all about money – you don’t want to cooperate, you became worthless and not even all bitching & whining on the Internet will destroy “that evil company who threated and called you bitch”. Look at BP – they are fine after Gulf of Mexico – if some company can get away with THAT, any company can get away with calling blogger “a bitch”.

  1195. So seriously, After reading the other stupid things Jose has done and said… He’s just an Ass. And one day that ass will be butt raped. Think we’ll be able to watch?

  1196. Pingback: Taking Risks on Your Blog « Blogging 101

  1197. I think you should just sic copernicus on him. It would be a monkey smackdown of epic proportions. Throw that sh#t up on youtube and commence world domination. Just a thought! muwahahahahahaha

  1198. Jose was no doubt hired because 1. he’s pretty (take a look – everyone at BrandLink is, as Garrison Keillor likes to say, “above average”), and 2. for his “gilded rolodex” (see: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2008/01/ever-share-a-pi.html) If being rude passes for quick wit, I’m very happy I don’t work in his world.

    As many have already commented, true PR professionals have actual skills, credentials, and manners.

  1199. This was fantastic! Im glad that you responded back to the PR company. They needed a good smack in the face.
    hahah Also, the way you set up your post was really nice. I could follow along with the story and I was never confused as to when who was saying what.

  1200. I just read about this story on PR Daily (which was totally on your side, as they should be), followed their link to your blog and am now 100% in straight girl love with you! You’re responses to every one of their jabs was completely on-point – funny, cutting, and most importantly, RIGHT! P.S. I’m in PR and I also have a crush on Wil Wheaton 🙂

  1205. Pingback: Yom Kippur and PR Apologies | TechyDad

  1206. I know I am totally late to the party, but i came back from the Smoky Mountains to find this story as AdWeek’s “PR Fail of the Week.” After seeing how everything transpired, I would like to assure all bloggers that this is not “real” PR. First of all, Jose & friends can’t spell, and real PR people learn that on the first day of journalism school (because that’s where real PR people go to school). Second, we do our homework and if we inadverdantly pitch someone who doesn’t care, we don’t take it personally or suggest that they NEED us to do their jobs. I love social media and this digital information age, but as someone who takes pride in her work in the public relations craft, stories like this make me want to vomit.

  1207. You are amazing the way you handled that. I was just getting ready to dump my imaginary girlfriend but after reading your post you definitely seem better suited to the task than I. If you could and actually would take take of this I will be forever grateful. One last thing, as I will shortly be single and desperate again in the very near future, please feel free to send any and all retarded form letters to me as I will have nothing better to do with my time. Thanks in advance. Ali 🙂

  1208. Well, Jose, the weekend is over (#755) and I DID NOT have a nice weekend, thanks to your sorry ass. I was still mad.

    NOW you don’t even email me back—does this mean you are REALLY sorry?

    You are still a pendejo, mofo.

  1209. Oh lady! I heart you. I mostly use my blog as a braindump and calling card for my freelance and comedy career, but once (in a disgustingly long freelance career) I was subjected to a fool who thought I should be honored to just hand over my intellectual property (unasked) because of the free publicity. This line made me want to leap for joy: “You are amazing. You are relevant. Your work is worth protecting and standing up for. ” I’ll be thinking of it the next time some jerk acts like I was put on this earth to take their crap. Thank you.

  1210. Yeesh! I’d use “salty” language and call you all kinds of nasty names if it got me a bazillion comments, tweets, ….and Wilw’s attention ;p I do kinda feel sorry for the bugger though, and hope he’s mentally stable enough to crawl out of the hole he dug for himself.

  1211. As a current PR student, this made me laugh my ass off. I want you as a professor. I’m ditching all my future classes and relying on your encounters to teach me the way a PR professional should NOT behave.

    Bravo, bravo.

    P.S. – I nominate myself for V.P. of this company when Jose gets canned.

  1212. I just came across this via AdFreak. This is really funny and I can’t believe a VP at a PR agency would do something like that.

    I work in PR and your post really illustrates the fact that a lot of the people working in my field just aren’t very savvy about social media. I worked at a major agency before and I know what it’s like to have pressure from clients to get coverage. It sucks and sometimes you’re forced to send stupid fucking pitches to people you know aren’t relevant because they want to get in front of certain bloggers. But you don’t get the coverage you need by being a douche, and being rude to a blogger will hurt your chances tremendously when you’re pitching the next thing. If they might’ve potentially written about your client before, they definitely won’t now.

    Personally, i think if i ever pitched you and got back a picture of Wil Wheaton I’d think that was awesome. It would definitely be a welcome change from the routine responses.

  1213. You had me at “Plus, you’ve sent me this form letter TWICE today.”
    Getting two pitches in a day, heck two irrelevant pitches in a day, is enough to raise my ire. I’m not sure what I would have done had someone cursed at me like that.
    That said, MOST PR people know what they’re doing and make my life as a blogger much easier. But it is unfortunate when the bad ones do something REALLY bad.
    By the way, this whole scenario reminded me of the American Apparel plus-size model contest brouhaha that blew up in American Apparel’s face! Hope you keep on keeping on!
    Leah
    @suddenlyfrugal

  1214. Everyone makes mistakes – clearly – the day they hired Jose, the Human Resource department was having a very off day.

  1215. You see? This is why I come here. Even if I have to scroll down for ten minutes just to make a comment. Way to not take the high road and stick to your guns.

  1217. Wow… what a moron. Anybody should be happy to get a picture of Wil Wheaton collating. But honestly, I totally get it. I write sometimes for a Portland indie music blog, and I get a ton of poorly written, ridiculous pitches. Usually I’m not even nice enough to reply to stuff like that.

  1218. Wow, and I thought my boss was unprofessional. I hope for his sake he never needs another PR job, because if he does, my guess is he’ll be hard pressed to find one what with this going viral.

  1219. I love the amount of people pouting about this. He said something nasty, got called on it, and responded with ruffled feathers instead of “that was wrong of me to write, I’m sorry.” If he’d said that she probably would have laughed about it and we all would have chuckled along with her, no harm no foul.

    Unless a blogger makes their living off of advertising for companies on their blog, claiming she should be “flattered” that her time was wasted is completely out of line.

    Jenny I’m STILL laughing over this. Hardcore awesome. I’m keeping you.

  1221. The timing of this brouhaha is really a shame. I just finished my new book “How Not To Be An E-Hole on Twitter.” Had I known that Jose would provide me with enough fodder for several pithy and educational chapters, I would have stopped the (e) presses on the spot. How lovely to have a PR firm creating content for me! More time for naps.

  1225. This is awesome, and also makes me a little sad. I feel that way when people lack a sense of humor. I work in customer service and I’m constantly surprised by the owners of shops, sellers of goods, publishers of books, etc. who don’t understand the simplest, most basic concepts of politeness. Getting defensive? Mocking the customer? Backhanded apologies? I’ve seen them all. A simple apology, a “whoops” and a chuckle will save you your job and your career. Maybe it’s just natural selection in the workplace. I’ll never know.

  1226. This whole event is fantastic. An unbelievable PR gaffe compounded by arrogance and ignorance.
    The real importance of how The Bloggess handled these PR idiots will be written in future text-books for students of Public Relations and Social Media. October 2011 will be recorded as the turning point when the new and old worlds of communication clashed head on and the old world model of spam-pitching and corporate bullying was utterly and decisively trounced. The power has shifted forever. Long live the new world of networks and followers… and long live the the new Queen of the digital information age. All hail The Bloggess!

  1227. I’m amused by the number of people who really think that the business of PR has ‘professionals’. Did the blogger expect anything else, other than a distasteful reply and lackadaisical attitude from Jose? Why not just shrug-off his response with “what a tosser” and move along?

    This is what’s wrong with bloggers; a slight – of any kind – is enough to muster this kind of action and response, which is totally disproportionate to Jose’s ‘crime’. Time for you all to get off your moral high-ground and get a life. There is something wrong with this “OH NO HE DIDN’T – BITCH PLEASE” attitude that perpetuates on the internet.

    Don’t expect Jose to be fired or the firm to collapse after this witch-hunt; companies like to protect their own. Jose’s behaviour was wrong and he sounds like trash. Bloggeress, you want Jose to be professional in his responses, you want Jose to treat you with a little respect? You won’t get it with the response email you send. Gee, it’s funny n’all (I had many chuckles), but it’s not professional or helpful. You choose to be a blogger, so be prepared to be contacted by various companies, whether you’re interested or not – suck it up.

    But really? What’s wrong with a politely worded email to the director of the company, rather than ousting his behaviour to the entire internet? You do know that the politely worded email to the director of the company would probably have been more fruitful.

    Bloggeress – did you just want the thousands of people to reply, massaging your ego further with a “you’re right, what a bastard” set of responses?

    Bloggeress, you may have just cut your nose off to spite your face.

  1228. Oh dear! Unfortunately Jose sounds like most of the PR companies i’ve had the misfortune of working with, there are a few good ones out there but they are certainly few and far between!

    Some of your replies did amuse me though 😉

  1229. You’re attitude deserved that! Being a public figure with 164,000 or so followers, acting a little mature wont make you pregnant

  1230. I always miss out on the good posts. Busy with Canadian Thanksgiving weekend stuff. Anyway, if you do get a chance to read this, Jenny, you are my shelter from the storm, the post I cling to during a hurricane, the buoy that keeps me from drowning, the dull razor so that I can’t slit my wrists. In other words, thanks for the laughs. I appreciate the efforts you go to, to make us laugh until we pee. Love you a ton.

  1231. Ouch. Jose. What you’re experiencing here is death by Internet. Hard to make good PR out of that one, especially since it’s on the verge of suicide by Internet… Bad. PR. Move 😉

  1232. this is my new favorite site! so funny, despite thinking you and the two PR people had too much time on your hands to write such detailed emails about a glaring mistake by a supposed professional. you seriously rock!

  1233. @LOLWHUT – Just to clarify: It is The Bloggess. Not Bloggeress. Points well made, but since we are being serious and all, ya’ might want to get the blog title right.

  1234. @Kate – Thanks for the correction. Also thanks for making my spelling error the highlight of your comment.

    You’ve just further clarified yet another problem – people who make inane comments on blogs.

  1236. Oh my god, I am just dying reading all of these comments! I have been a journliast and a PR person and all I can say is that Jose is no PR person. No professional in their right minds would ever speak to a journalist like that. FYI, Jose, I teach Principles of PR every spring. Please be sure to enroll in the class early to ensure you get a spot.

  1237. I read this shortly after it was posted and I DIE everytime I read it, still!! In the age of technology, you would think people such as Jose would think twice before ruining his company’s reputation in the PR world since its only a matter of time before everyone finds out that you are a complete dill hole, thanks to simple advances in modern technology and social networking. Bloggess, I heart you.

  1240. I have a fantasy of Jose’s boss calling him on to the carpet and saying “Okay, you’re a clever PR guy. You have 6o seconds to persuade me not to fire you. Your time starts now. *ding*”

  1242. That was as classy as the dickwad my sister was dating, who basically verbally spat on her and then said, “Sorry, I guess I had to say something mean to get your attention.” (!!!) They are out there, and they should ALL be fired. Jose can go fuck himself.

  1245. Wow, this is incredible. How do you get to be VP of a PR firm without learning how to use e-mail? And the bigger question: why do so many people think they can behave badly and not have it come back and bite them in the butt?

  1246. O…M…G that is all I can say. How rude and disrespectful…. a company like that should be flattered that you even considered them!!! pffffft idiots.

  1247. You are the reason I don’t have a blog. If I had to write down things about what I was doing, food I was eating or little adventures I was having I would not have enough time to keep up with you and Momastery. Half the time after reading your blog I spend a good two hours trying to figure out how I might be able to do something equally awesome. Then I give up and think…”self, maybe you should just copy her ideas and twist them a tiny bit”. Of course, I can not do that because you are too real to try and do that to lest someone think they were my own ideas. Just on the off chance that I do accomplish something that I think you would enjoy, rest assured there will be pictures. Thanks for being awesome.

  1249. All of this frothing at the mouth shows how angry people are today. Jose has been put in his place and then some. At some point you’re supposed to stop kicking a man when he’s down. It’s called decency. Instead, everybody wants to get their turn to take a swing. The guy needed a reality check, but I’ve read many of your blogs, and few of you seem to have a problem with calling people bitches… and assholes, fuckers, and all the rest. Very few of us would last if we found ourselves caught in the crosshairs of a blogger. This power frightens me. One person loses his job, another sells more t-shirts. Seems all Jose really did was question a blogger’s relevance. And then 140,000 indignant people stood up to demand, “Don’t you know who I am?!” In the grand scheme of things, there are 6 billion people on this planet where real crimes against humanity are being committed. Anger is a good thing. I’m sure you can put it to better use.

  1250. AND I just have to say that one of the MANY things I admire about Jenny is that she doesn’t remove the ill-mannered, nasty, and/or disagreeable comments here. She lets everyone have their say even when *thare rong*

    But I have to say, I still really want to know if a house has fallen on Jose yet….

    I doubt it. I think my faith in Karma is growing smaller and smaller lately.

  1251. Shut the front door! This made me roar with laughter.
    It reminded me of an incident in my city last year. Female jogger was attacked on her morning run – 2 moms in minivans stopped and kicked the attacker’s ass. That’s right- do not f with moms in minivans. We haven’t slept since 1987, we are hopped up on our lattes and we will not put up with that shit!
    Thank you, thank you for kicking some ass.
    Kerry at housetalkn.blogspot.com

  1252. Pingback: Oops, Did He Really Just Say That! Another Social Media Disaster

  1254. To all the comments saying Jenny was rude, or she should just be expected to be approached this way, or in any way saying she handled this badly and abused her power, I beg to differ. What Jose did was analagous to a man approaching every woman in a bar, drunkedly stumbling through a cheesy pick-up line, and finally approaching the one woman savvy enough to rebuff him in a manner that made plain he was being a jerk and that he should really stop. A smarter man would have snapped to the realization that this woman was correct, apologized, and walked away, ne’er to commit that mistake again. Jose wasn’t smart enough to do that, and persisted in his jerkiness by doing the equivalent of that drunken bar guy standing straight up, looking the savvy woman in the face and telling her loudly that she should be lucky that he even bothered to hit on her because she’s not that pretty and she’s fat. In this forum, Jenny was able to do what any woman in the bar scenario would LOVE to do: call him out on his nastiness publicly, and make it clear on a broader spectrum that THIS IS NOT HOW YOU DO IT. Should women in bars be subjected to this behavior and be expected to ‘take it’, or ‘expect it’? I think not. Just because a situation happens via email doesn’t mean it doesn’t correlate to a seedier situation. The previous poster who said Jose seems like the kind of guy who hits a woman and then says she made him do it was right on the nose. It was never Jenny’s responsibility to sit quietly in her house, minding her own business, and allow someone to rudely intrude upon her (even if in an email) without telling then they were being rude. Humorously telling someone off for being rude when they approached you should be lauded, not derided. Nor was it her responsibility to sit back and take it while these same rude people then insulted her. It’s still bullying and attempting to victimize her and so many other people Jenny thinks of as friends, whether it happened in person or online. I’m grateful Jenny stood up the way she did. So many other, smaller bloggers have certainly felt impotent in the face of such derision and abuse. SHE has the voice that others don’t, and I, for one, think she used her power for good. BYW, you’ll notice that all Jenny did was share what happened. After that, she encouraged people to ease up and let it rest, trusting that the people in charge at this firm would do the right thing. How is that using her power in a dangerous way? Anyway, Jenny, you are smart, brave, and awesome. You’re snarky and biting, but your kindness still comes across. That, dear, is what makes you relevant. Rock on, and never, ever quit! FB’s unite!

  1255. Pingback: Creative Concepts - Creative Concepts Notes What to Do and What Not to Do When Pitching To Bloggers and the Media

  1256. I am impressed at the restraint and professionalism that YOU showed… I would have told him to
    eat a bag of shit.
    Tactfully of course.
    Keep rockin’ it biotch!

  1257. Pingback: Nine Communication Lessons from Hitting Reply All | Spin Sucks

  1258. Wow Good for you for standing up to them, I am one that would have cowered away from it because I don’t have snarky replies right away. I tend to think of whitty things way to late. I realize that they are just people but I really hope they aren’t sitting back making fun of people that’s just rude.

  1259. I second (or hundred, in this case) – good for you for standing up. PR SPAM is one of the many reasons why PR firms have such a bad rep amongst influencers. It’s outliers like this incident that color the good work being done by those PR folks who take the time to understand and communicate with their audience the right way.

  1260. Angry-villager is the path to epic returns!

    It’s so awesome, there should be an epic button. Like the easy button. Hit it and the world becomes a better place. Instantly! [grin]

  1261. No people skills and no grammar skills? Well, no WONDER he’s pimping Kardashian pantyhose!
    Wait, does this mean I won’t be seeing any more pictures of talentless hacks with a great agent posing in public while doing nothing? I mean, I haven’t see pantyhose in years! And it’s been all of five minutes since I’ve seen a picture-gone-supposedly-viral of a Kardashian sneezing.
    Jose’s an idiot. The Kardashians wouldn’t understand that, but the sentient writing world certainly does. Jeepers, I hope I spelled Kardashian right. Then again, who would care?

  1262. Pingback: Perception, reaction, and the wisdom of Caddyshack | The Turbid Spume with Doug French
  1263. Pingback: Words are Yummy | Suess's Pieces

  1266. I don’t know who you are. Never heard of you. but you are my fucking hero- you fucking bitch! 🙂

  1267. This made me laugh so hard. I thought your response with the Wil Wheaton page was brilliant (and surely a refreshing change from the standard ‘no thanks’ or ignores that they get). When I saw Jose’s comment, however, I nearly got a hernia. He couldn’t have picked a worse field to go into!

    And you’re right: you couldn’t make it up!

  1268. Hello Jenny,
    I saw this on my FB Indie Authors page. Thanks for good laugh.

    Note: If I ever show the remotest interest in anything a Kardashian does, please shoot me.

    Cheers,
    Pete

  1269. Pingback: » If …
  1271. Pingback: 3 underutilized social media marketing tools: Vancouver marketing blog kcclaveria.com

  1272. I know this is already old hat (holy shit. 1250 comments?) but I am feeling bad for Jose right about now. He had NO IDEA who he was dealing with, did he?

    I don’t believe you’ve ever presented yourself as a journalist, have you? You are a blogger and, as such, go by different guidelines than journalists. PR companies are slow to figure this difference out.

  1274. Totally late to the fabulous party that was this post, but how proud I am. Makes my run-in with Maria, Vice President Branch Relationship Manager, seem quite minor, but I can inform you that we got a fruit basket out of it.

  1276. Thank you, thank you, thank you for making my day! Such a great example of what the CORE of PR should actually BE – relationship building. PR person, blogger, journalist, whatever! Who cares! We all just want to share good ideas and great products. Somehow this has been lost in translation for so many people. Nice example for the young and impressionable up-and-comers, Jose. Go back to PR 101 and learn a thing or two.

  1279. Pingback: » Please Stand by For a Demonstration of Relevancy The Blue Candle Society

  1281. “To go out of your way to be snarky and rude is a little inappropriate.”

    I think he might have had a point if you’d created the Wil Wheaton posts specifically in response to his company’s email.

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  1284. I wonder if Daniel Tosh reads this blog? My husband was watching his show this week and I was in the next room so I had to listen. Tosh insulted Seth Rogan and then said that he shouldn’t be upset, but instead should be happy that he was relevant enough to be mentioned on the show at all. I wondered if he got the idea from Jose or if telling people they should appreciate being relevant is just the latest technique in LA in excuse bad behavior!

  1286. And poor Jose and his sad little agency continue to get spanked by snarky media. Happy Friday, Jose. Hope you’ve learned that people do not mess with The Bloggess.

  1288. Hey Jenny,
    I was recently fired for not being “good enough” for my company then moved on to a new company and managed to take every client with me. Thus leaving my old company without one referral from my clients. I think a T-shirth with the phrase “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.” would have been more than appropriate attire for picking up my final paycheck. Any plans to create such a shirt? I’ll take 10!
    Please and Thank you, The other Jennie

  1290. Pingback: Oops. PR Exec Calls Blogger a ‘F*cking Bitch’ in an Email
  1291. Pingback: Gynomite’s Reading Room! « Gynomite!

  1293. Wow, that was poetic justice. Who, after ‘replying to all’ and including abuse about you, wouldn’t be mortified and unabashedly apologetic for being so childish? I can’t believe Jose’s response!!!

    Anyway, I LOVE the Will Wheaton pic and the fact that you were all class in your response.

  1294. This was interesting, really interesting. There needs to be some kind of 101 for bloggers and PR interaction because it seems we are all trying to find our way in the dark and the iPhone light on stays on for so long!
    I am glad the PR agency has gotten in touch with you and things are being amended too, I am sure they can only learn from this experience as can you and all of us reading too. Enjoy that drink!

  1295. I’m way too lazy to read all the comments to see if someone else has pointed this out, but their spelling and grammar is deplorable. Your excerpt should actually read:
    “The Kardashian’s once again show they are right on trend, and this is on (sic) Mommy’s (sic) are all going to want to follow.”
    Apostrophe s does not a plural make.

    And then there’s Jose’s reply email to you. Riddled with errors. How are you supposed to be impressed that a company without a grasp of language contacted you? How good can they be?

  1296. “To go out of your way to be snarky and rude is a little inappropriate.”

    It’s not out of the way, it’s a part of my day-to-day life, and as such, I’m always in the neighborhood.

  1297. I try to follow the comments, but after 1000 it just gets obnoxious.

    However, I was lucky enough to catch Mister “I like to write critical and dramatic sentences then reread them over and over because I love the way I write” who repeatedly called you The Bloggeress to emphasize his overly critical and dramatic sentences.

    It was embarrassing and really resonated with me.

  1298. So I totally came across your site today and I have to say Kudos to you and then some. And this post, well, it’s just awesome and then some. I’m busting up laughing over here. LOVE IT!

  1299. Who the hell wears pantyhose? Jose has obviously never been to Houston where pantyhose melt onto your flesh.

  1300. The initial thought I had was that Jose is a schizophrenic cross dresser in the throes of experiencing Munchausen’s PMS upset while typing responses to non-clients and while staring ruefully at himself in the mirror . . . .

    I’m sticking with it.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  1301. Pingback: How to pitch to bloggers – best practice, tips and case studies : Behind the Spin

  1302. After just returning from a PRSSA conference, I am baffled by this mans rudeness! As an up-coming PR professional, I have been taught to research, research, research before I send out anything to anyone. A) It was unbecoming of this firm to even target you when you had nothing to do with their pitch at all and B) They should’ve realized what an influencial blogger you are before they made the stupid mistakes they did. Thanks for making the assholes of the PR world realize that they aren’t the ones calling the shots. It’s all of you bloggers out their who are doing us a favor, and not the other way around! Way to stick it to the man :]

  1303. Hysterical. I laughed so hard over your “demonstration of relevancy” I cried. I just found a new blog to follow!

  1304. The entire exchange seems ridiculously childish to me (though Jenny gets points for being the cleverer child), but maybe I’m just an out of date Luddite.

  1305. I’m surprised that Jose assumed that you were going out of your way to be snarky and rude. I thought you just had a natural gift for it.

  1306. Whoa, this guy shouldn’t be working in PR at all, he certainly doesn’t have the talent for it. Any PR companies out there should take care not to hire this Josh, its bad for the company.

  1308. Pingback: Do Bloggers Need to Grow Up | Advice from Marta
  1309. Pingback: Avoiding the Tragic PR Fail: Top Five Tips for Pitching Bloggers « The Full Spectrum Blog
  1310. Pingback: I’ll See Your Wil Wheaton Collating Paper. And I’ll Raise You … « Movie City News
  1311. Pingback: A great example of why to only send targeted pitches to bloggers « JDG pr | Public Relations | Social Media | Digital Marketing
  1312. Pingback: License to reply « What Not to Tweet

  1314. Miss Jenny,
    I find you extemely relavent. You brighten my bleakest of days. I know we share some issues like depression and panic disorders. I understand how the stress of this event was very difficult for your recovery. Know you inspired so many to stand up for themselves and not accept the status quo.

    I happen to follow this because it is an excellent demonstration of power, family, and loyalty! Don’t let the bastards get you down.

    And I know I manage d to get the t-shirt through good timing and xanax filled haze. It is my favorite thing.

    Thank you for your brilliance!

    God bless you ande keep being you!

  1315. As I was reading I was smiling in a very big way! Poor Jose and his Napolean complex will have a fun few months me thinks, probably writing policies on “Reply All” and contacting bloggers. That combined with the public Twitter humiliation should begin to bring him down to the level of filth his nasty attitude belongs.

    Well played!

  1316. Hi,
    I just followed a link from Wil Wheaton’s blog to yours and am glad I did. This story alone was worth the effort of the click.

    I applaud your responses to the PR flacks and I admire your restraint in not mentioning the misused apostrophes in the original message. PR folks really should get things like that right.

  1317. Absolutely incredible what they would do, then get ugly and then still try and stand behind it. You amaze me once again. Keep up the incredible work.

  1319. This is good stuff! Never read you before; I don’t even know how I got here…

    Lotsa fun. And I’ve been dealing with the same self-important attitudes for two weeks. Yes, yes, I know, everyone is waaay more critically important to the existence of the universe than me. Got it. [eyes rolling]. And if I want your opinion, I’ll give it to ya.

    You rock. I’ll check in again.

  1321. Pingback: Blogging will affect your career… – MYRMECOS - Insect Photography - Insect Pictures
  1322. Pingback: Pitch Perfect | by the skin of your teeth

  1323. Andy Rooney died yesterday and I thought of you…. because of these two paragraphs:

    “The Associated Press learned the danger of getting on Rooney’s cranky side. In 1996, AP television writer Frazier Moore wrote a column suggesting it was time for Rooney to leave the broadcast. On Rooney’s next “60 Minutes” appearance, he invited those who disagreed to make their opinions known. The AP switchboard was flooded by some 7,000 phone calls.

    “Your piece made me mad,” Rooney told Moore two years later. “One of my major shortcomings — I’m vindictive. I don’t know why that is. Even in petty things in my life I tend to strike back. It’s a lot more pleasurable a sensation than feeling threatened.”

    Fantastic!!

  1324. for the record: jose is a huge d-bag. also, if you want me to punch him in the neck for you, i totes will.

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  1328. Hi! I don’t really know anything about this, but I got linked here from Brazeen careerist and I just wanted to say that this is awesome. Love it when girls kick the gusto out of pompous, high-positioned men! Attaway for sticking to your guns!

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  1330. I just found this post in a search I was doing and I would just like to say, Great Job. We need to remember that PR companies need us bloggers to promote their stuff, but we also need them to get us the stuff to promote. A mutual respect is necessary. I don’t think you did anything wrong and I just love they way you handled this situation. Way to stick up for yourself!

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  1336. This is the most hilarious thing I have read. As a PR person, I know what this means and how important media are. You rock “fucking bitch”!

  1337. This post keeps attracting comments forever. What is the bet that soon it will be the page with the largest number of “f**king” comments ever 🙂

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  1339. I would have lost all respect for you if you had ignored it & not responded the way you did. You totally rock!

  1340. I just came across this today after searching for something else! Thanks for the entertainment!

    It makes you wonder why someone would hire a person like Jose Martinez. He appears classless and childish. I wonder how much professional experience he actually has? He needs to develop a thicker skin, find his sense of humor and possibly take a vacation.

    And who doesn’t find the picture of the awesome Wil Wheaton funny? What’s wrong with that guy?!

    You’re going in my Google Reader :)!

  1343. Priceless. Disappointing to see that members of my industry still think they’re “the livelihood of any journalists business”, but its encouraging to hear that you encounter good examples too. Thanks for your well-balanced approach Jenny.

  1344. I recently started reading you and wish to thank you so much for all I’ve learned as a growing blogger. I often get confused, since our blog jumped the first year but we do not have the followers we’d like. I keep getting pitches all the all for coupons, this and that which I turn down, though not as eloquently as you did LMFAO (thanks for that btw). You stated that your advertising and partnerships come from other bloggers? So you don’t work with PR firms or just the good ones? Sometimes all this stuff gives me such a headache I want to climb inside my computer and just drop kick someone in the ass, especially the ones who claim I’m a nobody, with shitty numbers and how dare I turn them down.

    Thank you! Now I know I’m on the right track and worth a whole more than just pizza for kids on weekends, and 40 bucks to post a link on a site. 🙂

  1346. Dear Bloggess:
    I HEART your work so much! Your writing is hilarious and profound. My girlfirend adores your book and reads entire chapters to me aloud. Keep fighting the good fight with PR hacks who will remain nameless [JOSE]. I love it!

  1347. Dear Bloggess….OMG, you are hilarious. I accidentally found your site & I am NOW going to check in regularly! I am spreading the word too! 🙂 Thanks for the laughs. Glad to read from the post above that you also write books. I can’t wait to read more from you! Bloody genius!

  1349. I am a very small blog, not even on the internet radar but I love how you stood up to him. I will keep checking this blog daily for the laughs and most of all for the advice. I hope one day to work with PR people and I will definitely be remembering this stuff! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!

    Bobbie aka Rebelle

  1352. I’ve read this before and every time it makes me laugh. Some pr people can be awful to do with but luckily most have been good for me so far. I think some are just not experienced enough or something. Anyways, great post!

  1353. This is really interesting, You are an excessively skilled blogger.
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  1354. Great post. As a newer blogger, 7 mnths, this scares me! I am glad you stood up for yourself anyways and didn’t let it get you down. I thought your reply was really funny!

  1355. Just a quick note to say that my wife and I were SO inspired by this demonstration of the power of the interwebs that when we ran into situation requiring a solid shout out from mass quantities of people, we resorted to your tactics…Tostito recent took their “Hint of Jalapeno” tortilla chips off the market to make room for some other, lesser, product line. Unacceptable doesn’t even BEGIN to describe this situation for us. We had the local grocery store manager up against the wall, demanding an explanation for the cessation of our favorite snack, but when he explained that the manufacturer had discontinued them, we decided to drop the gloves and get serious. A Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/BringBackTostitosHintOfJalapenoChips, is only the beginning. My wife is one of THOSE people…yes, a “Public Relations Practitioner”, and with this heady title comes access to some pretty virulent tweeters. I can only hope that we’ll be able to send Tostitos a “Stand by for a demonstration of relevance” email ourselves, some day. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  1359. I am extremely inspired together with your writing skills as neatly as with the layout to your weblog. Is this a paid topic or did you customize it your self? Either way stay up the nice quality writing, it’s uncommon to look a great weblog like this one today..

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  1362. I commented on this post in 2011, and have read it again a couple of times since then. It does not cease to be funny. Don’t tell me no PR exec has called you the B-word since this incident (ducking 😉

  1365. Your style is so unique compared to other people I have read stuff from.
    Many thanks for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I will just book mark this
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  1367. I am so glad that I found your blog and read this. My blog is only in its infancy and is very small, and I did worry about turning down PR opportunity’s and giving ‘not so great’ reviews… now I’m actually glad I stuck to my guns!

  1368. I just found out about the bloggess/finished your book. Best ever!! I want to sleep with it! My dad was a PR guy in the auto ind in Detroit, long ago, his swearing made the exorcist seem tame. Previously he was a reporter w/AP & witnessed & execution. Thought everyone shld. Maybe it’s a PR thing. So I had an awesome vocabulary at 5! Swearing like a sailor in an Easter dress. Maybe I’m related to Jose , but I wld never be rude. I like people (if they’re cooked right!! -lol) just recd the feeling stabby shirt, plp took my pic (in case there were stabbings I’m sure) but I’ve been doing my part to promote! Not that u need it

  1370. I think I like both you and Jose. I had my first really horrible gaffe of that nature last night when I pulled what may be worse than a “Jose”. I was emailed the final in a string of funding rejections (I am a scientist, and a well-established one). I had recently decided I would shut down my lab as times have changed and my work seems to be reviewed by people who wouldn’t be able to pass my biochemistry class. This last set of reviews was the worst, most uninformed set of criticisms I have gotten demonstrating a blatant lack of interest in even reading the proposal. Had they been answers on my final exam, they both would have failed. I forwarded the comments to a friend with a comment who wrote back a sympathetic “I’m so sorry” to which I responded with a discussion of how these morons didn’t know what they were talking about and demonstrated an egregious lack of understanding of basic science. After hitting send, I realized to my embarrassment, that I had replied to the original forwarded message and not to my friend, i.e. sent my irate comments back to the funding agency. Good thing I’m shutting down my lab.

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