I’m going to the Lake District in the morning for a long weekend with the family. I’ll take my camera with me in case I spot any rotten old timber windows.
In the meantime I thought I’d share with you part of an email conversation I had with Paul Godwin of VAST PR, one of the UK’s leading double glazing industry PR guys.
Background: You may have noticed an increase in press releases in trade magazines about Conservatory Outlet and this is due to the hard work of Paul and me pushing him hard with continuous stories. Yesterday two press releases were being finished off – one about how happy Conservatory Outlet dealers are, and the other about the new deal I’ve sorted with Ripple Africa where we’re funding the planting of 72,000 trees in Malawi. The initial confusion relates to a last minute change in the emphasis of the tree planting release – whether we emphasise 50 trees to be planted for every conservatory installed, or one tree planted for every frame we make.
Paul: So why not say:
‘We plant a tree for every frame we make’
Stylise it on the page for effect, but keep it readable.
Non?
Paul ‘Woody’ Godwin
Me: I agree – let’s go with ‘We plant a tree for every frame we make’.
Did you send the wrong press release to me as it still states 50 trees per conservatory??
Paul: Hi Matthew
Sorry, I didn’t realise that the sentence was for the release. It had already been sent.
PG
Me: Oh, OK.
Paul: Oh f*ck this is confusing!
Understood now I think…..doh
Me: That’s good, because I’m totally confused. So, the last press release you sent me is the one that went to the press? Yeah?
Paul: Yeah!
Me: Cool. Groovy. Peace man…
PS. Is it too late to ask the editors to send it back to us so we can send them the right one?
Paul: I did send them the right one. The one you’d agreed at the time! Yes, it is too late. The quote that went out is INCREDIBLY, no really, SUPERBLY IMPRESSIVE. Frankly it left me breathless. Honest.
Leave it.
Please.
Sob.
Me: OK slight confusion as I think you may have taken my signing off the ‘Conservatory Outlet extends…‘ press release as the tree planting press release. But you’re right we should leave it. In fact, forget it. Let’s not dwell on this. There’s no point going on about it anymore. There’s more important things to worry about. Let’s look to the future and not discuss this any further. Are you OK with that? Please let me know if you’re not and we could discuss it further. I mean you could be right about all this and I could be totally wrong. If that is the case then definitely best if we draw a line under this. Might be best if you don’t reply to this.
PS. unless you want to of course.
Paul: I am delighted that you have taken the attitude of pragmatism and magnanimity towards this issue as well as brevity of course which is always (I believe) to be regarded as a very real quality and one that is completely underrated by almost everyone I know except of course the poor person that is on the end of a tirade from someone that has no concept of the term but nonetheless I will be very happy to discuss this issue (obviously one that you feel very strongly about) to the point where you are either satisfied that your wishes have been carried out satisfactorily or perhaps actually not at all in which case I guess we will be no further on than we are now.
Do you agree?
Me: Yes, I do feel we are bringing this episode to a close and there’s really no need for us to discuss this any further, although I must stress that this is not something I feel strongly about. Indeed, if I did feel strongly about it, I would probably wish to continue the conversation further. The truth is that I have far more important things I need to be getting on with, such as looking up the meaning of the word ‘magnanimity’, which I had thought was a large mammal residing in Africa (mostly seen in wallowing in mud), although it can’t be that as what you have said would be slightly insulting. So, best we just accept that the press release you have sent out is mostly right, although not entirely (and I must stress that I’m not having a further dig here) and the likelihood is that no one will notice, in the unlikely event that they read it.
Is that OK?
Paul: No.
Too much punctuation.
