Kevin Dugan and Richard Laermer have begun the Bad Pitch Blog. As fans of exposing the stupidity in others and mocking them for being so inferior to ourselves, we look forward to reading this blog as it goes on. Perhaps there is a fear (though I haven’t seen it expressed yet) that being a little cruel to others in our industry is bad sport, but I think it is instructive. We can learn what makes a bad pitch, live in constant fear of being posted ourselves (this is a good thing), and just have fun reading about other people’s train wrecks.

The idea of exposing bad pitches isn’t a new idea. Some major publications have occasionally called out an especially bad pitch, and an old favorite site, Buzzkiller.net, is run by journalists dedicated to stamping out PR jargon, and comes with lots of examples (though I wish it had more frequent posts– perhaps their blogging solution is not robust and scalable enough, or simply isn’t from the leading provider). My current fave is probably B.L. Ochman’s What’s Next Blog, which occasionally highlights “Press Releases (and pitches) from Hell.”

Sam Whitmore has taken up the torch as well: he analyzed more than 400 CES email pitches that he received as a registered journalist. His results have been shared in a series of PDFs online: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

I should add that the Bad Pitch Blog is accepting examples of good pitches as well, so I will grudgingly take some positive knowledge from there as well. I hope that doesn’t ruin the fun for anybody.

Share on Facebook

Share/Save