How Not to Send Things to Gawker Stalker
We've said this before, but the proliferation of painfully obvious PR plants, poorly disguised as Gawker Stalker sightings, continues to make our mailbox cry. So maybe it's time for a refresher on how these things work. This morning, we received the following sighting, boldface and all:
On Friday, September 29th, Kate Bosworth and her very attractive model friend bonded over dinner at [redacted], the Brazilian Churrascaria located in the Flatiron District.
Let me know if you have any questions!
[xxx]
Benvenuti Public Relations
Oh, for fuck's sake. So much wrong here:
1. If you are a publicist sending in a sighting, don't make it obvious that you are a publicist. We don't like publicists, and we don't like helping you promote your client. Try not to let us know that you're the enemy. Suggested tactics include not using your company email, not naming your flack firm in the signature, and not asking us to contact you if we have any questions.
2. When you insert boldface in your email, we know what you're plugging. That means we're going to remove the name of whatever it may be, just like we did above.* Especially if we've already read elsewhere that your venue has resorted to desperate PR work.
3. While we're sure Kate Bosworth was seen at the venue, you cannot possibly expect anyone to believe that she was having dinner. At a place that serves endless, giant platters of meat, no less. If you said Kate Bosworth was sitting there and watching "her very attractive model friend" eat dinner, maybe we'd buy that.
*Yes, we know the Eater link is a giveaway. We're just not publishing restaurant's name on principle. Yep, we got ourselves a principle! Fancy that!