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Slow Moving PR Department Could Cause Whole Foods More Harm

So this is what MSM means when they say "the company was not available for comment at press time." Pretty reckless of Whole Foods PR department if you ask me.

The video below, about shopping at Whole Foods, is part of a what appears to be a meme called The WTF!!? Network that is almost as strange as John Mackey's sock puppeting.

I could just as easily have had a stock-damaging scoop as a silly video site when I called Whole Foods unresponsive PR department.

The videos on the WTF!!? Network site are way too lame to be part of a company-sanctioned "viral", but I thought I'd ask them what they thought about the site. After all, we bloggers are often accused of not doing our own reporting. :>)The most sophisticated (and I use that term very loosely) video on WTF!!? is Jeff & Jake Go To Whole Foods. The rest are just downright strange.

Videos: Amusing. Press Contacts, Not So Much
What's Next Blog reader Bill Stiller said in email, "maybe they're trying to reach a younger demographic." And this would just be a silly little post except that I tried to contact Whole Foods PR people through the press room on their website, and the result was not funny.

One of the listed contacts is on maternity leave til October, so the contact list is out of date even though Whole Foods is very much in the eye of a media storm. While I did identify myself as a member of the media, I did not say why I was calling when I left a total of five messages for Whole Foods PR people, none of whom were at their desks. I called the regional contact person at the number on the site and was on hold, and passed to four different people before I was given another number to call where I got an answering machine. Etc, etc.

Dear Whole Foods: your PR has to move at the speed of the Internet!

Of course Whole Foods they're getting a lot of press calls with their $565 million planned purchase of rival Wild Oats on court-ordered hold, but that would seem all the more reason to have someone in PR get back to someone who identifies herself as a blogger.

Anyhow, if you've ever filmed yourself shopping at Whole Foods in your underwear, here's the place to post your video.

UPDATE: As I was editing this, I did get a call back from Fred Shank, Whole Foods PR Manager. Well over an hour after the first of the five messages I left.

Categories: Fun, Marketing Strategy, Nonsense and Parodies, Peer to peer, Peer-to-peer, Public Relations, Social Media

Tags: Whole Foods clueless PR public relations WTF Network Whole Foods video PR mistakes

BL Ochman | Aug 21 07 1:30 | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Count me as someone with a serious case of bicycling rabies. That being said, I wouldn't dream of bringing my bike into a grocery store and riding it up and down the aisles.

To see this sort of thing on the Internet makes me think, "Now there's a store where I wouldn't want to shop."

Come on, kids. Grow up and park your bikes outside.

Posted by: Martha Retallick at August 22, 2007 11:11 AM

Really!?! You called their PR department 5 times in the course of an hour and they didn't respond immediately.

I greatly admire your attention to wanting to employ journalistic standards to your blogging. However, having a degree in journalism I feel confident in telling you that waiting for a source to respond will generally take longer than an hour.

I generally am on the side of bloggers when it comes to the journalism establishment trying to discredit bloggers, but I must say that this approach to blogging definitely gives them some ammunition.

Posted by: Amerio at August 22, 2007 1:33 PM

I also have a degree in journalism.

I was directed, by their website, to contacts in different parts of the country, none of whom were available.

And each answering machine directed me to call another person, five in all.

Posted by: B.L Ochman at August 22, 2007 2:29 PM

So what did their PR guy say?

Posted by: MJ at August 22, 2007 7:41 PM

I think you're being a little harsh on them in this case. You identified yourself as a blogger, but that in of itself doesn't really mean anything. And, at a time when they're having some real serious media issues, you were calling simply to ask them about some lame videos on youtube. And I would have to say that getting a returned call within an hour is pretty good, especially when you simply identified yourself as a blogger. Just my two cents.

Posted by: David Polinchock at August 27, 2007 8:12 PM

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Contact: BL (at) whatsnextonline (dot) com
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About BL Ochman

Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations

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