My skin crawls every time I see somebody “announcing” something in a press release or a news story.
They act as though the announcement is the news when, in fact, it isn’t. The content of the announcement is all anybody cares about. That’s why I’d love to ban the words “announce, announced, announcing” and “announcement” from publicity campaigns and news stories.
Then along comes former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, a Republican who has been acting for months like he’s running for president. Late last week, his office “announced” that on Thursday of this week, he’ll make his official “announcement” that he’s running on the Jay Leno show.
Thompson and other big-name politicians might be able to get away with this kind of silly PR, but don’t you ever try it.
How many times do you use the A-words when you write press releases?
Guilty? That’s what I thought.
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Bloggers and ezine editors, do your readers a favor and tell them about this. If you really want to get their attention, challenge them to take this press release quiz.