Stupid $#!% Executives Do (PR Edition)
Some light-hearted Friday fun for my hard working PR peeps,
I’m guessing you’ve got some real gems of examples of the stupid $#!% we deal with as PR folks. Sometimes it’s crazy situations with journalists — usually it’s executives.
PR takes the heat for a lot that has nothing to do with us and is often out of our control — especially bad executive behavior. We’ve all been embarrassed at one point with stupid $#!% executives have said or done.
When do we get to share tales of the bullshit we witness and endure?
I asked some fellow PR peeps to anonymously submit examples. Below are the top 10 for this round. Have one? Submit here.
No names. No telling details. One sentence that starts with: “That one time my executive…”
Note: Before you @ me — yes, there are plenty of executives who are role models for other execs and not everyone behaves this way, blah blah blah. This is just for fun, relax.
That one time my executive….
…asked the executive director of the conference if she wanted to run away with him to Tijuana.
…ordered his very long and specific latte request at Starbucks, without muting his phone, right as the reporter started asking him an important question.
…Told me my outfit was “too San Francisco” (but dressed himself in an ill fitting suit and tennis shoes) and then proceeded to tell the female journalist he wanted to be interviewed by her male colleague instead.
…Asked me to get him on Oprah — less than six months before her last show.
…told the journalist that they were unsure what to say because they were really hungry and it was lunch time and their brain was off.
…told a reporter “you can’t put lipstick on a pig” when talking about a big client — and it became the headline — a week before I started with the company so I had a lot of fun cleaning up that mess.
…said the equivalent of a 14 year-old boy sex joke in the middle of a media interview with a female journalist.
…screamed like Bob Goldthwait before giving his company pitch in front of 800 investors — way to look stable.
…told a journalist all the details we shared in the briefing sheet.
and my personal favorite…
That one time my executive announced a new product line (which no one internally had ever heard of before) during a briefing with Good Housekeeping.
Got one you want to share? Submit here.
