Split personality

I am writing to you as I am very concerned about the mental health of a senior, veteran technology hack. I am witnessing signs of multiple personalities and wonder if he might need to seek help?

This seasoned IT freelance hack has a well known reputation amongst the PR fraternity as being ‘Mr Nasty’ - unnecessarily miserable and incredibly rude. For years, he has hung up on and shouted at both experienced and junior PRs alike. We’ve all become used to Mr Nasty, his bad manners and un-professionalism, however recently he’s started to show signs of instability. First of all, I just thought it was a change for the better. This hack developed a second personality – Mr Nice.

He started sending PR’s polite emails and even an invite to a party – where he was paying for the food and drink. What a nice chap, I thought. Perhaps he’s feeling repentant? Or perhaps he is so happy that he’s launched a training company for PR people that he just can’t keep his happiness to himself? Either way, who am I to be cynical about it? I embraced this new found loving.

But, just as there was me getting used to Mr Nice, up pops Mr Nasty again yesterday (30 March) on UK Press, ranting about some poor PR agency (no I don’t work for them) and calling it ‘rubbish’ and questioning its professionalism. It’s not nice to be named and shamed amongst a community is it? Could this split personality syndrome be caused by the pressure of having to be Mr Nice in the run up to tonight’s launch party?

Such a shame when you base your business model on a community of professionals that you just can’t stand. My advice to him would be to keep taking the pills!

At the moviezzzzz

Thought that you'd be interested on hearing about a leading Canadian film critic who is a notoriously loud snorer. Suffice to say, the sight of Scarlet Johnasson wasn't enough to keep his attention for too long and 30 minutes into the Canadian premiere of 'Lost in Translation' said film critic was snoring away in the back row. No one was surprised, but all those present were shocked to read the review of the film which raved about the subtlety and texture in the film and then proclaimed it a shoe-in for film of the year.

The story is all that matters

Doing an interview a couple of months back for a internet roaming client. Conference call went really well - journo was interested and asked all the right questions. V. happy client. Called back to check with journo that he had got all he needed and if there was anything else I could do. Journo replies, "No, I have all the responses I need. Sorry if I drifted off in the middle of the conversation..." Intrigued depsite mayself, I ask why. "Well, I had my children's guinea pigs in my lap during the call, and halfway through they wee'd all over me."

Don't know whether I should be envious of the home-working or be astonished at the fact that he spent a further 10 minutes sitting in rapidly cooling guinea pig urine just to get the story...

Extras

A colleague tells me that after a lunch meeting at which this cheeky tech hack had ordered "ver lott" with extra trimmings and guzzled an extraordinary volume of German wine, his straight-laced Amercian client was given a bit of a shock. The hack produced a selection of soft-porn which he claimed were shots of his girlfriend. Cackling with glee the hack showed the client the entire tastefully shot album, and then burbled off to the loo.

The PR returned to the office ashen-faced to recount the sorry tale only to learn from a colleague that he'd got off lightly - last time he'd been similarly entertained the hack made a case to a client that he should furnish him with the funds for a call girl... hopefully one that provided receipts. What a bad hack!

Holy Moly!

Got my excellent weekly mailout today from the brilliant chaps at Holy Moly and it contained a lovely BadHack story about a trip to Dubai by a GMTV crew. Worth a read...and if you're not already subscribed to the mailout, I urge you to get it sorted.

Word spreads, but...

More people have been writing about BadHack...Charles Arthur's kind words are welcome, and PR Week has listed BadHack in this week's issue as a 'notable PR blog'! Remarkable stuff.

However, our whirlwind experiment will likely come to a grinding stop very soon as we have no content! I'm not about to start making things up, so if you think this is in any way a good or entertaining idea, send a story or two to mrbadhack@googlemail.com.

Don't be afraid! Don't be a stranger!