How to write good Media Releases
by Andrew Smith on 19/04/07 at 12:07 pm
1 comment
I can’t really tell you how to write a good press release for your business (we pay people to help us with that), but here’s an example of how not to do it:
SPORTS MINISTER STOFILE CONGRATULATES PROTEAS
The Proteas today (Thursday) received a message of congratulations from the Minister of Sport and Recreation, Rev. Dr. Makhenkesi Stofile, for reaching the semi-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007.
In expressing his congratulations, the Minister said: “Just when South Africa’s further participation in the 2007 Cricket World Cup was written off, the whole Team rose up and demanded to be counted.
“Unlike those who fill newspaper pages with talk about winning the game even before the first ball is bowled, you made this demand in the way you know best – playing cricket better than your opponents. Congratulations.
“Following allegations of ill-discipline made against the Team and the Team’s recent overall poor performance, we as South Africans could not have asked for a better performance. Thank you for restoring our hope of lifting the World Cup trophy.
“I believe you will agree with me that if there is any cricket team that needs advice on how to play Australia, that team is definitely not the Proteas. We therefore expect you to do more than your best against the Australian team that have come to believe that it is unbeatable.
“Go out there and represent South Africa with dignity.
“We believe in you and we will be behind you as you stand toe-to-toe with Australia next week.
“I wish the Team good health and the best of luck for the remainder of the tournament”.
The Proteas gained entry into the semi-finals by emphatically beating England by nine wickets in their crucial Super Eight match at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados on Tuesday.
Their next match takes place on Tuesday in St Lucia.
Nice work Minister Stofile. Congratulate the team, and then remind them of how badly they’ve been playing, how their supporters thought they had nearly fluffed it up, how they have (allegedly) been mis-behaving, and how invicible their next opposition is.
Andrew Smith is the pedantic systems guy behind Live Alchemy, a SA e-commerce company. Andrew writes for Ideate in an attempt to make the world a more efficient place. View more articles by Andrew Smith.
Dave
Apr 19th, 2007
Hahaha, superb!
What a farking eejit!