advertising and other stuff. no, really.



Thursday, June 5, 2008

Why you should watch this pasta sauce commercial—aka, how to send out a PR release.



Not because it’s better but less funky than the Mama Lucia meatballs spot an agency asked me to post last year, but because the PR release brought tears to my eyes. Why? Because it’s the first one in a long time that didn’t insult my intelligence and does what all of them should do:

1) Use my name, not FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 2) Keep it simple, 3) Don’t make me work, and 4) Tell me how much you love me or the blog. So not only am I going to post the video and say how much I like it, (although it could even work for a detergent brand—small nit though), I’m going to also post the email I got for it as an example of how to make nice-nice with ad bloggers:
1. Name: Hi Bill,

2. The keep it simple part: I’m contacting you on behalf of Olivieri Fresh Pasta and Sauces – I work for their public relations agency. I thought you might be interested in blogging about the new and provocative Olivieri commercial that features a young, sexy couple who “accidentally” spill wine and Olivieri sauce on each other’s clothes and strip down to their underwear over a romantic dinner of tortellini. The commercial has been posted on You Tube and I really think you will enjoy it!

3. The don’t make me work part—url to existing clip on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdO3Qlosvtw

This commercial is part of Olivieri’s campaign, “Share Your Passion.” The commercial is really quite amusing and the accompanying song is incredibly catchy. 4. The love part:The editorial on your site is smart and interesting and we are very curious to read what you think about this ad!

If you should have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Thanks,
[ Name edited out for privacy ]

P.S. If you’d prefer not to receive news from our agency or Olivieri, just let me know, and we won’t contact you again.
So hurray PR! Hurray sauce! Hurray exclamation points!*

*Yes, this is me being a wiseass, but I’m actually serious about the releases. Anything other than this format gets deleted.


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2 comments:

Ben Kunz said...

Very nicely done, Bill. I'm gonna go home and throw sauce on my wife and see what happens.

Åsk Dabitch said...

Very nicely done - targeted. That release would drive me nuts though as it lack

a) THE AD (we don't do youtube)
b) credits!

But we're different. :)