Guinness: World’s worst PR department
Guinness — the beer/ale/whatever company — has the single worst public relations department I’ve ever come across. It’s so bad it’s funny. It’s so funny it comes out the other side.
Here’s the story. I called Guinness to ask a media-relations person some questions for a story I’m doing. But the receptionist refused to put me through to anyone unless I had a name.
“I’m a reporter from a daily newspaper,” I said. “Are you telling me you don’t have anyone who will speak with me?”
Nope, she said. Not without a name. (Huh?)
So, following her suggestion, I contacted Guinness through its Web site, asking someone to get in touch with me.
I received the following reply:
Dear Andrew Kantor,
Thank you for taking time to contact Guinness. We appreciate hearing from our consumers, whether comments are complimentary or critical, because your feedback is important.
Please note that as a company policy we do not provide the name or the contact information to our Media Relations Department. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Once again, thank you for contacting Guinness.
Sincerely,
Emilio Vivanco
Guinness Consumer RepresentativeCheers!
Drinking Responsibly is Brilliant!!
Check out www.thebar.com for fabulous drink recipes, party ideas and more
I responded with this:
Um, doesn’t this strike you as a rather odd (if not downright foolish) policy?
How is a member of the media supposed to get the name of someone in the media relations department in the first place? Most companies don’t treat the names of their PR people as corporate secrets!
Honestly, you need to consider the “relations” part of “media relations.”
AG says:
So much for BRILLIANT! as their new slogan, sounds like. What a group of jackasses — maybe they’ve been sampling the product too heavily?
(So what’d you do? I’m assuming you tried Diageo North America, 203-229-2100. Gads, that’s probably what’s wrong with them; they in Connecticut. Nothing good ever came out of Connecticut and that’s a fact.