Journalists and editors have long bemoaned the public relations shotgun scatter approach to issuing press releases. It’s insulting when a PR hasn’t bothered to check what kind of content a newspaper, magazine or website publishes and simply uses some mega media list to spray and pray that something sticks somewhere. The Media Online gets press releases from trucking companies to window installation experts. We bin them without opening.
In this case, something did stick… but not in the way the PR might have expected.
Journalist, author and scriptwriter, Marianne Thamm, had her Facebook friends in stitches when she posted an email from a PR inviting her to interview Mrs South Africa for The Daily Maverick. Read on…
“One of my jobs is with The Daily Maverick... you know, the current affairs website that punches above its weight… So of course if you were a publicist you would think this fits right in there… Just in my inbox.”
In her inbox
“Hi Marianne,
“Mirell Ventura has been selected as one of the top 24 finalists for this year’s Mrs South Africa Competition and is also married to 2008’s Mr South Africa, Zino Ventura.
“We would like to discuss the possibility of covering her story in your section.
“Zino encouraged Mirell to chase her dreams and enter this year’s Mrs South Africa Competition which has been something Mirell has wanted to do for a long time as she believes the competition offers married women a phenomenal platform for self-growth and purposeful direction.
“Mirell is also on a mission to raise as much funds as possible for CANSA, the Mrs South Africa Competition official charity, in the lead up to the Grand Finale of the Competition on the 8 August 2014.
“Looking forward to your thoughts.
“Regards”
And Thamm’s response:
“Dear Janine,
“We would love to feature Mrs Ventura in a four page, full colour swimsuit/evening gown spread that we will shoot on location at Nkandla. We were thinking one shoot at the firepool. Maybe an edgy one of her herding cattle into the kraal in traditional Zulu wear and then perhaps doing a mock performance, in an evening gown of course, in the amphitheatre….
“Looking forward to your thoughts,
“Marianne.”
