Todd Wasserman, crack reporter at Brandweek has made a discovery: press releases are boring. Mr. Wasserman has written what's probably an amusing analysis of the contemporary press release and I wish I had the distance from the subject to laugh out loud but I have way too much invested in the subject. Perhaps you can find at chuckle in the following excerpt:
Imagine, if you will, that a friend of yours has come over for supper. Stepping through your front door, he tells you, “I’m very excited by this opportunity to attend dinner. Dinner is a wonderful tradition that is enjoyed by citizens of every nationality throughout the world. I expect this meal to fulfill my goal of nourishing myself between the hours of 5 and midnight.” Then, after you sit down and offer him a chicken leg, he announces, “Chicken brings a unique combination of taste and nutrition to the equation. I’m confident that its proteins and fats will stimulate my digestive system.”
By this point, you’d hopefully boot this weirdo out of the house. After all, what kind of person talks like that? Well, no one—nobody in real life, at least. But this is exactly the kind of language you’ll find in most any quote within a press release. [more]
What Mr. Wasserman describes has been a business opportunity for me for the past twenty years. I never could understand why press releases had to be boring other than a lack of imagination on the part of the public relations guy. Sometimes, my clients initially resisted the idea of a press release that was so different than what they were used to, but, after the sales staff checked in with their enthusiasm for the new voice, debate ceased. So, I feel good about boring press release. They make my work look great.
