MomCrunch
PR FAIL Day Two: The Bloggess vs. Brandlink Communications
So, as you can imagine, the kerfuffle between Jenny The Bloggess and Jose Martinez at Brandlink Communications has blown up into quite a show, although Jenny is asking everyone to back off now. She just posted this on her blog today:
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 breathe*
Now let’s all go have a drink. Make mine a double.
But before we all do this, let’s look at how it all went down, shall we?
First, Jose appealed to Wil Wheaton himself.
Yeah. Wil Wheaton clearly agreed with Jenny’s assessment of the day’s events. Later he retweeted this.
And said this.
Meanwhile, Jose dropped in at Jenny’s blog and left the following comment.
And guess what? Turns out Jose has a history of duking it out with bloggers. You MUST read this hilarious exchange he had with Perez Hilton in 2006 when he worked for a different agency.
Eventually, though, Jose apologized on Twitter. Sort of. By implying that there was “more to the story” and spelling her name wrong.
Brandlink Communications also responded on their main Twitter account.
I’m not sure how great the apology was, however, given Jenny’s reaction.
Well, there you go. Do you think it’s a lesson learned, or not? It seems to me that perhaps someone so incredibly contemptuous of bloggers should move out of the social side of marketing (I’m completely willing to grant he might be awesome as a marketer in other ways).
We can hope that this nickname sticks with him…
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10 Comments
Gypsie commented on Oct 07 11 at 12:42 pmright on!!! Poor Jenny.. and i’ve gotta say, i LOVE the nickname .. *PantyJose*
*snicker*
Katrina commented on Oct 07 11 at 12:49 pmDoes not sound like the lesson was learned, though Jenny (despite her earlier protestations) is now making an effort at taking the high road. Lesson learned would be indicated by a simple, humble, clear apology — no mitigation or implication of “untold story” action. I have to ask her question again: “Are you even _in_ public relations?”
Sad. But most entertaining!
Emily - @ColoradoMom commented on Oct 07 11 at 12:56 pmLove this. Cecily knocks it out of the park again!
Lori Lavender Luz commented on Oct 07 11 at 2:13 pmI know this is beside the point, but shouldn’t people who get paid to communicate on behalf of others be able to put together at least one sentence that is free of spelling and grammar errors?
I wouldn’t hire Jose to be my voice for that reason alone, not to mention all the other reasons that come up every time he tries to redeem himself.
Amber commented on Oct 07 11 at 2:43 pmThis is so confusing. The blogger needs to include the back-story?!
thenotoriousmlp commented on Oct 07 11 at 3:25 pmThanks for the Perez Hilton backstory. Boy, howdy.
Pity that they claim they are being bullied now.
rajean commented on Oct 07 11 at 4:35 pmAnother great review of this situation (without the perfect abs & slicked back hair). My primary takeaway is that if charged with managing the public relations of a brand or individual, if you find yourself needing crisis communications strategy because of your own words or actions, you might strongly consider a different profession. There have been plenty of opportunities to right a wrong and we all make mistakes. This VP seems to be stuck on ‘repeat.’
Liza commented on Oct 07 11 at 9:46 pmBwahahah @MochaMama! Kelly, you are a genius.
Justice Fergie commented on Oct 08 11 at 7:48 amReading the exchange between PantyJose and Perez is so unnerving – I wish there were some sort of PR ethics board (WOMMA maybe?) that could revoke Jose’s “PR license.” The sad thing? Even after that debacle, he STILL didn’t get it.
The good news is that people like that always end up undermining themselves…
Carrie commented on Oct 08 11 at 12:52 pmI bet when we find out more of the story Jose is going to turn out to be The Bloggess’ dad.
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