please empty your brain below

I can't wait for the property development finance posts.
"If I had published your sponsored infographic, I would also have ridiculed it."

You did actually, in your post on 10th January, at No. 39.
To save anyone having to look this up it is here.
Would love them all to write back with the shameful reactions!
Would love them all to write back with the shameful reactions!
It's like I used to return advertising tat sent out to me in the post in their pre-paid envelopes. Or better, in someone else's prepaid envelope.

Similarly IF I ever did come into money and chose to give some to charity, you can be sure begging letters, however worthy the cause, would be ignored and money given to those who didn't pester me.
And I thought my inbox was bad!!
In fairness, you could accept some of the free stuff and hand it on to those less well-off than you, who might appreciate it. You wouldn't even have to blog about what a nice guy you would be.
That second to last one is especially bad. "We would give you one of the cars and the challenge would be to see how far you can get over a two day period". Doesn't that just boil down to "how far can you drive in two days" which sounds very dull. Not to mention it probably encourages speeding.
The PR emails are genius! I love them, and your responses, thanks.

However, it was rather presumptious of you to assume that your readers would not be amused by a video of people dressed as mice running round in a wheel. Some of us have VERY dreary lives . . .
Given that didn't email you, wouldn't it be fair to name them? After all, who could it possibly be?
Given that very tall spiky building didn't email you, wouldn't it be fair to name them? After all, who could it possibly be?

PS - turns out that typing angle brackets into this comments field deletes the content of them... Hence the omission of a very tall spiky building in the previous comment.
If you want a < type &lt;
If you want a > type &gt;
"I hope you're well" - that opening gambit makes me shudder every time...
Some real doozies there!
One gets your name wrong, another offers you a car (how long ago was it you last drove??). Someone takes a random post from several years ago and complains that the link is broken, and another offers us the not-to-be-missed opportunity of watching people dressed as mice running in a wheel on your sidebar!
And they actually get paid for doing this?!
If I was James I would send random offers by email if I got paid.
I reckon the car one was somebody trying to prove how efficient or economic their shiny new model was. The most logical reposte to this would be to take up the 'challenge' by proceeding to crawl round and round in London traffic, stopping to post on FB and Twitter about how public transport would be much quicker, and thus demonstrate how astonishingly ill-targeted the spam was.
Dear DG,

I have an exciting opportunity for a blogger much as yourself. My bathroom is filthy, and really needs a clean. If you come over and clean it, you can blog about how filthy bathrooms in London are! We, of course, would pay for cleaning supplies. I assume you have a zone 1-2 oyster card, so transport wouldn't be a problem?

Get in touch...
Have you actually passed your driving test?

dg says: Yup.
I know this is one of the themes of the DG blog, but it always makes me feel a bit sad. I don't hold any brief for people who write crap marketing emails - but this comes across to me as rather unpleasant ("fail", "ridicule", "opportunist", "shallow"), it's not going to change anyone's behaviour, and it's not DG at his finest, especially as we've seen it all before.

Someone spent 10 seconds addressing a chain email to someone else. It's not a big deal. We all get them. It's like my 80 year old mother complaining that she gets Viagra spam!

(And I realise that I've also just wasted 5 minutes writing something that won't change the writer's mind when I could have pressed the delete button - but maybe DG likes to get things off his chest!)
Those are quite ridiculous. I agree that we ought to pity James... starting with "to whom it may concern" is particularly bad. I just hope that there wasn't a list of all the recipients stuffed in the "to" line!

But I still find it hard to understand not accepting if someone were to offer you a genuinely interesting freeby, like a trip up the pointy building. What about something you couldn't pay for yourself e.g. hypothetically if you were offered a Crossrail site visit or something, assuming that there weren't also public tickets? (Before you get annoyed, I do not work for Crossrail! :-) )

Lucky I'm not one of those stupid marketers, I would probably fall straight into the same trap! All the more kudos to marketers of the pointy building.
AQ - ah, that post and its comments remind me of the good old days of blogging a decade ago. I'm fairly sure there are other posts about DG and his driving exploits...
RT: I'm aking a huge risk that DG will not object to a bit of a shock PR expose...

I wrote him an email a while back in connection with a charity for whom I then did upaid PR. I made a rather dim-wittedly-phrased request re updating the charity's name which could have been read as though I wanted a 1984 job done on writing the old name out of existence.

Sat back and awaited to appear on the Wall of Shame, prepared to have ancient news editor friends disown me etc.

DG wrote me back a pleasant, friendly - nay, charming - message detailing his (perfectly correct) view re why such a name change would be inappropriate with lots of nice comments and good wishes for the charity.

*adopts the voice of Cabin Pressure's Arthur* Brilliant.
So if I, as a browsing reader, spot a dead link, do you want to know or not? Cos I like to know, so I can fix them, so I would have told you. Now I am worried - I don't want to piss you off...
I have ten years of archives, now packed with broken links. So my policy is not to update any of them, it'd be a never-ending task.
There's another London blogger (who'd best remain nameless) who also rails against the PR nonsense they receive from time to time.
Only trouble is, that person makes quite a lot of posts that are only possible because they were the guest of big corporates.
You deserve credit for being scrupulously honest. And the general degree of idiocy displayed by some PRs always makes me smile.
I do admire your integrity DG. But have you ever been offered Merseyrail flip flops?
Didn't need flip-flops. My dad used to come home with Merseyrail branded carrier bags in the late 70s.. or was it the early 80s. Either way -neat.
Steve - I suspect I am your target.

As I have said in my fisking rants, the rules are very clear - yes to relevant events and no to stupid fluff.

(Which is the same rule that quality PR firms follow as well.)

Yes to tours of building sites, tunnels, or museum events - no to chocolate freebies, car launches, or the other day... a holiday in Malaysia.

Yes to opportunities likely to lead to blog posts that I believe my readers would be interested in reading - and NO to everything else.










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