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PR Firm Unwisely Tangles With Penny Arcade

Posted by Soulskill on from the internet-lynch-mob-engaged dept.

New submitter FSWKU writes "Courtesy of Penny-Arcade, Paul Christoforo of Ocean Marketing provides a perfect example of what not to do when interacting with customers, especially if you are doing so on behalf of another company. There's name dropping, an ego trip worthy of Charlie Sheen, and even what appears to be a promise to commit libel. Other outlets are already picking up the story and running with it, and an examination of Ocean Marketing's website has generated accusations of plagiarism."

11 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. A classic example... by Torinir · · Score: 4, Interesting

    of how not to do your job. I have been laughing all day at this debacle, and will continue to do so. This is a comedy goldmine.

    1. Re:A classic example... by lightknight · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, lots of (bad) PR, and is probably going to bankrupt his clients. This particular interaction, combined with name dropping and poor spelling / grammar, ranks up there with a PR nightmare. He might as well have said that his much-awaited product was made with using parts left over from Chernobyl and orphan child labor, at a UNICEF convention. Ocean's various semi-hidden threats of violence really adds a certain flair to the discussion.

      And I have an undying urge to short the stock of Ocean's clients; were I one of Ocean's clients, I would be taking the steel wool and matches approach to my relationship with Ocean.

      But seriously, I think everyone on /. needs to chip in, and buy this guy some spelling lessons:

      "OK Mike whatever you say lol , are you sure hour not in Boston I spoke to the person who ran the show in Boston last year. If you let some little kid influence you over a pre order then we don’t want to be a your show ,Ill be on the floor anyway so come find me , I’m born and raised in Boston I know the people who run the city inside and out watch the way you talk to people you never know who they know it’s a small industry and everyone knows everyone. Your acting like a douchbag not that it matters pax east pax west , e3 , CES , Gamer Con , SSXW ,Comic Con, Germany I’m all over the place. If we want to be there we will be there with industry badges or with a booth you think I can’t team up with turtle beach , Callibur or Koy Christmas , I can’t get Kevin Kelly to pull some strings or G4 , Paul Eibler Ex CEO of take 2 , Rich Larocco Konami , Cliff Blizinski Epic who were working with on a gears version , Activision who were working with on a MW3 and Spider man Bundle , The Convention Center Owners themselves , Mayor of Boston come on Bud you run a show that’s all you do and lease a center in Cities you have no pull in its all about who you know not what you do. I’ll see space where ever I want , with who I want when I want and where I want so many ways around you and so many connections in this industry its silly. Anyway , I have no issue with you Sean Buckley Engadget, Scott Lowe IGN and the list goes on and on. Little kids unhappy with a PRE ORDER starting trouble and you email that to us , he’s a customer unless you’re his boyfriend then you should side with the company not the customer. Be Careful"

      --
      I am John Hurt.
    2. Re:A classic example... by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yep. The only time "bad" PR is good PR is when it is outrage by a small segment or manufactured entirely. So like when some people got up in arms about the nuke scene in Call of Duty 4, it wasn't actually bad PR. While those people were complaining and the media was reporting on it, the controversy made gamers say "I need to see that!" The actual customers were interested and thus it was good PR in reality.

      When you get PR for something like this, or for criminal activity or whatever it is just flat out bad PR. It scares customers away and you never want that.

    3. Re:A classic example... by Deorus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's not just the drugs, he really does have psychological issues. Notice how in both his apologies he mentioned making the mistake of underestimating the people he was replying to, demonstrating a total lack of remorse. He's not sorry for what happened, his only concerns are the career-ending consequences. Bullshit apologies are expected as standard procedure for damage control in situations like these, but normal people tend to adopt a stance that the public can empathize with.

  2. Don't pick a fight by newsman220 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    with people who buy ink by the barrel. That's an old saying about fighting newspapers. What's the best way to update that for the internet? "Don't pick a fight with people who have huge daily unique views." "Don't pick a fight with people whose backlinks beat 5 digits." Help me out here.

    1. Re:Don't pick a fight by Ogi_UnixNut · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Don't pick a fight with people who buy bandwidth by the terabit? It's the closest analogy I can think of... (as in both cases, people who have a lot of influence will need lots of ink, or lots of bandwidth, to reach their audience).

  3. Sounds like a Sociopath by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously. Re-read the e-mails and ask yourself, "Does this sound like something a sociopath would say?"

    If you don't know what a sociopath is, then read Snakes in Suits.

  4. Go PA! by mustPushCart · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Go Penny Arcade! Not only do they run one of the oldest and kickass web comics for games, they run their own gaming convention, their own charity called child's play (its mentioned in the email thread) and they've featured jack thompson on the comic a bunch of times along with the modest video game proposal thing:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Video_Game_Proposal

  5. Re:How to live in denial. by SteeldrivingJon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Christoforo had an Avenger for sale on his ebay site, which made me wonder if he was diverting (i.e., stealing) them and selling them himself, while the rightful purchasers get stiffed.

    --
    September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
  6. Re:Paul Christoforo's LinkedIn Page by Bucky24 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Interesting portfolio... So he went to college for 2 years, leaving in 1992, then vanished for 18 years. Now suddenly he works for this other company. It's almost like he doesn't want people to know what he did during that time...

    --
    All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
  7. It's bad...but there is far worse by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If this is "not all that bad", I really need to see an example that fits your definition of "that bad".

    Clearly it is bad...but there is worse: Gerald Ratner's after dinner speech. Ratner's used to be a high street jewelry store in the UK. This one speech wiped ~500 million pounds (possibly over $1 billion dollars with the 1991 exchange rate - even more in today's money allowing for inflation) off the value of the company, almost causing it to collapse.

    ...so even when it comes to disasters this guy is still not all that great!