Six worst PR client moments

 16th September 2015    PR Guru 

Our last post ranted about the stress in getting clients to pay up for PR – we rambled on about the cause and came, albeit bloody quickly, to the conclusion that clients make us want to die. It's THAT bad. We don't want them to die.

We want to die.

It got us thinking about some of the moments where a client has screwed up so dramatically, we've spent thousands of rupees in retail therapy trying to "block out and move on" from the stress of it all. So, we thought we'd list our favourites. Happy client managing!

1. HR client tells the editor of a leading business website (over lunch) that he “tends to hire men because they're less likely to go and get pregnant.” Plus, he has to spend more time “explaining things to women for obvious reasons” (the editor almost fell off HER chair).
2. Media client stops lunch with a national reporter to take a call from his wife in the next room then proceeds to scream at her.
3. Client launching a new piece of software – walking on stage before admitting he hasn't really had a “proper go” yet... NOT a good launch strategy for a product manager.
4. Client not reading briefing note at all – called journalist up and had a moan about journalists ... thinking he was talking to the PRO.
5. Client telling environment editor at two nationals that “green is out” and “the lefties whine too much about the environment!'“ – we didn't believe this really happened ... then we read the post-briefing notes and start to cry.
6. Client telling reporter that he shot a man once ... he later added that he was in the army ... not that this fact put his random boast in any context or in any better light.