Among all the many PR companies that contact me, some are very good, some very bad, and most are average — in fact, just like every industry out there, a mix of good, bad and average.

However, there is one thing that annoys most people, and that is when you ask a sender to stop contacting you, and they ignore your request.

More emails about banal trivia arrive — more requests to stop sending the banal trivia, and a few weeks later, another email arrives from someone else at the same company.

Even worse, this particular PR agency has not only taken to sending useless unwanted junk to my email box, they also now add events to my events guide — even after I have asked them repeatedly to GO AWAY.

So I shall do something that I don’t actually like doing — and that is naming and shaming. I don’t like writing bad things. Frankly, it gives me an upset stomach. I like to write nice things. Things that I enjoy.

But…

In February, Nikki told me about a dating for single people event on the London Eye. I expressed a lack of interest.

In March, Jude told me about a “calorie neutral pop-up restaurant”. I replied explaining that such things were of no relevance to this blog.

In June, Millie and I had a conversation about some new fashionable fitness routine at a gym. She assumed that an event listing about historic statues of athletes meant I write about fitness. She is so wrong.

Later in June, Chloe wrote to tell me about a fitness class for lunchtime workouts. It was the same thing I had already told Millie I wasn’t going to write about.

In August, Alexandra wrote to tell me about the UK’s naughtiest dog.

Later in August, Aine wanted to tell me about a Ski show in London. She also uploaded the details to my events guide, as did Sophie a few days later.

In September, Francesca wanted to me to look at some kitchen equipment, and a fortnight later, Greg contacted me about the same thing.

And this morning, Nikki is back in contact to tell me about Taxi hire apps.

Update 12th Nov: Sadie wrote to tell me some important news about teddy bears based on One Direction and Gary Barlow. Yes, really.

Update 16th Dec: Gabriella wanted to tell me about some Santa’s grottos in shopping centres.

Each and every time I have told these people that I am not interested in their press releases. Anyone reading my blog would see that I am not an ideal target for the sort of emails they are sending out.

So many replies to them asking them to stop being ignored is not just one person having an off day, it’s a systemic failure across an entire company that evidently treats bloggers as some sort of cheap outlet for trashy crap simply so they can tick a box on a client form saying “yes, they reached out to X number of websites”.

The government once said that people with a drug problem should talk to Frank. I would now add that clients wanting decent PR should avoid talking to FrankPR.

Avoid them at all costs. There are plenty of much better PR agencies who know how to do a decent job for you to choose from.

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8 comments
  1. Andrew says:

    I am surprised you take that much notice of them. I treat them as spam. Usually the subject line is enough of an indication.

  2. Jonathan says:

    Haha… Britain’s naughtiest dog. How naughty? Love the post, and have been to some of your events over the last year. Definitely have helped me out of a rut a few times. Keep it up Ian.

  3. Ian Wright says:

    Ian, I’m surprised you’re giving FrankPR a followed link as this will only help their Search engine rankings.

    • IanVisits says:

      It will only boost search engine rankings for phrases they are unlikely to want to rank highly for.

  4. Carol Naylor says:

    Definitely sharing this with my colleagues. We’ve been doing some very cautious blogger outreach this year and it’ll help reinforce the warnings I’ve been giving them!

    • IanVisits says:

      Actually, I would say that all the things in your post (and your comment here about “cautious blogger outreach”) should be reclassified as “how to talk to the media”.

      I find it very odd when a blogger is treated differently from any other writer/journalist/content person.

  5. Sophie Marette says:

    I’ve had a similar issue with a magazine called French Entree who keeps emailing me despite me asking them several times to stop contacting me buy phone and stop the emails too.

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