Too Strumpette?

“Give me a break! There are plenty of fun ways to poke fun at the profession and overall seriousness without publishing drivel that I wouldn't want my son, or husband for that matter, to see. This degrades the profession.”

 

Those are the comments of Kami Huyse over at John Wagner’s blog, likely in response to a comment I posted.  Well on reflection, Kami is right.  Strumpette’s personal attacks are entirely unprofessional; while the bio perpetuates an unhelpful stereotype of women in the profession (the profiles of Lizzy Grubman and the fictional Samantha from Sex in the City don’t help either.) 

 

I admit to enjoying the post, particularly the comments (and yes the bio too), call it Schadenfreude and morbid curiosity I suppose.  The personal attacks were unnecessary though to the context and substance of the post which was to speculate on how long one very prominent PR blogger could stay in the employ of another. In the navel gazing solar system we PR bloggers orbit, that kind of dialogue has gravity on its own, even if it is idle, catty-gossipy, time sucking fun.  

 

That said, I also think Strumpette (inadvertently or not) added luster to Edelman’s blogging team, particularly Rick Murray, by showing they have thick skin and can appropriately play along with what amounts to a (very) public joke at their expense.  A microcosm – if you will – on the entire good news, bad news proposition about the blogosphere and its impact corporate images, and perhaps a case study for Edelman on how to dissipate a potential blog-borne viral threat to your brand’s integrity. 

 

To wit, Krempasky (also of Edelman fame) is working along with other bloggers to “out” Strumpette.  Seems one guy I’m not going to name at a firm I’m not going to name has some odd connections embedded in IP addresses and RSS feeds.  A Coincidence? A setup? A stunt?  I don’t know.  If the code was just sloppy, the person or persons behind Strumpette had better get prepared for act 2 because they’re either about to get fired or be exposed as a new media shop with bad mechanics and poor ethics.  If the trail of RSS crumbs is a setup, that’s just dirty pool.

 

Comments

[Sam Smith]

'Navel gazing solar system' - I like that.

I think you're right about the fact that the comments in the bio perpetuate an unhelpful stereotype of women in the profession but I also think you could be right about the whole thing being a set-up. It's generating quite a bit of hype and the Edelman response seems to be well orchestrated - could it be that it's been an elaborate attempt by Edelman to generate publicity to which they can respond? No news is bad news as they used to say in 'old media'

[John Wagner]

Interesting, too, that Edelman is quick to respond here but was generally silent about the Wal-Mart blogger issue.

I'm jus' sayin' ... that's all.

[Usher Lieberman]

Way too much of a risk to Edelman's brand to scheme something like this (IMHO.) If there's a setup, someone has it in for the guy now in Krempasky's sights.