infOpinions?

T he worst aspects of PR and Word-of-mouth (WOM) were laid bare in one pitiful post this weekend. Filled with stereotypes and void of character (while masquerading as one), Strumpette busts on the scene and is quickly exposed by – a student.

A blogger, calling itself Strumpette attempted to be cute with a post about Steve Rubel.

The funniest part of the whole post, to me, is that a UK student PR blogger – Stephen Davies – was the first to point out that this is a lame copy of Spin Bunny, the first PR gossip blog – and from the UK. (That link/site is dead, by the way.) Who knows, it may be Spin Bunny coming out of the rabbit hole. I doubt it, though. That blog was creative.

Think of a character blog without character and you have Strumpette. A cowardly anonymous one-hit wonder (and a minor hit, at that) drops into PR blog world with an attempt at starting a viral meme. Viruses are not something Strumpette is likely lacking. Strumpet is a prostitute. How cute! We’ve never heard that before in reference to PR, now have we. Oh, the imagination and the literary skills on display – it just takes your lunch away. And, of course, going for further cuteness the author (a kind term) has to make it different by using Strumpette. Creativity defined by domain availability, I imagine. Is this the New PR?

Now come on people. We all know that Strumpette is more likely to be a fat, fifty-ish, fool of a guy with a gut the size of his ego than some cute PR bunny.

It gets worse.

I said to someone, before the first comment had been posted, that Strumpette’s blog smelled like fishing bait. Well, it had quite a lure.

If you were slammed by a caricature, would you respond? Steve Rubel and Rick Murray both responded – more than once. Ah, the power of word-of-mouth. It draws people into the conversation.

Now, if you have read this blog, you know that I’ve been critical of Rubel on more than one occasion. My posts, and those of several others, contain one aspect that Strumpette cannot seem to match. We signed our names. We posted openly and freely accepted criticism without moderating comments. Petty and tired attempts at humor in anonymous blogs are not good for anyone.

The talk of Rubel and his tenure at Edelman Worldwide is not new. The reason the discussion has any validity is only partly about Rubel, too. Yes, his writings and utterances about PR are sometimes circumspect. That is part of the story. The bigger implication, for PR and blogging, is about how a popular blogger has now been hired by a major PR firm. Will it work? Will clients buy in? Will they be well served?

The ultimate question is really – will new media tactics, not Rubel, make PR better – more effective?

The jury is out on that one. It will take a good six months to a year to see if it works in the Edelman Worldwide/Rubel example.

What should surprise everyone (and likely doesn’t) is that a fake prostitute blog was able to draw the subjects of the post into the conversation.