As publicists we are constantly plagued by the famed phrase “Please remove me from your list.” Alright, fine, no big deal, we all know that what you’re really trying to say is, “Ugh, I’m so sorry but I don’t know where my delete button is and your e-mail is going to permanently stay in my inbox.” We get it, we got it. Woo. Sometimes we are all privileged to get messages saying, “YOU MOTHER #$%^$# PIECE OF @#$% REMOVE ME FROM YOUR $%^&*% LIST” (You can tell this person is young). Or you get the “I’m telling all your clients you wrongly e-mailed me” (This person is old).
Anyway, this week I was added to a list. Not just a mass e-mail list, a list attached to an e-mail so that when you replied to it, everyone on the list got it. About 10 of my colleagues, and about 150 others I imagine were all included on this e-mail. So we all get the e-mail from a web site that was trying to pitch themselves for Mother’s Day Story. (It was bad, obviously flacks are good for something) So I was like “BAM I love that idea for me!” And just moved on. All of a sudden my inbox was being flooded with responses to the original e-mail from the “technology idiot” that obviously needs to hire a publicist.
I started laughing at the responses to this e-mail. Apparently it was mostly publicists and some magazines on the list, but everyone was freaking out about the e-mail. There was the “Remove me from this list” standard note that PR people always get, and then the responses started getting weird. PR people started freaking out acting like the crazed media people we deal with all the time. These people on the list were so dumb and kept e-mailing back to this address that we were all linked to and wondering why we were getting their mail. Well obviously I saw this as an opportunity to get my name out there.
I kindly joined in on the fun, replied to the e-mail and saying, “Yo, people. Chill out. Stop replying to the e-mail, someone obviously doesn’t know what they are doing. By the way, my name is CT and I’m kind of a big deal. Shoot me an e-mail at ctmichaels@prbreakfastclub.com if you wanna chat.” By kindly joining in on the conversation, the e-mails stopped and I started getting personal notes from people saying exactly what I was thinking. “Why are people working if they can’t figure that shit out.” “Why can’t people find the delete button?” and “Thank god someone said something! How do these people have jobs?”
It really made my day, but honestly if you’re in PR and you get notes saying “remove me from list” all the time, I honestly don’t think that you should be sending people hate mail back. Karma? No. It’s common sense, yo. Tip for all haters…Open your e-mail, locate the delete button, and BAM! Message is gone. Ta-da.
**Note to people who get PR pitches and don’t like them:
#1 Don’t be an ass, and don’t be rude
#2 We are not robots
#3 If you delete all the text, and subject line of the e-mail and write UNSUBSCRIBE, most people won’t know what list you were even on.
Be smart people, take a chill pill, and relax.
<3 CT
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