I ain’t seen Dick…

Nobody can accuse Amanda Chapel of ducking an opponent; there’s no Audley Harrison send-in-the-softies style fight-picking going on with our Strumpette. No Siree.

Fresh from her spat with Text 100 CEO Aedhmar Hynes (as reported on The World’s Leading) Amanda’s launched into a confrontation with an even bigger fish, Richard Edelman.

Following Edelman’s riposte a week or so ago to a Sir Martin Sorrel speech to UK regional newspaper execs in which the WPP boss set out how traditional media might combat the growing threat to its business from social media (as reported in the FT), Chapel put finger to keyboard with her own thoughts on Edelman’s post.

Chapel feels that Edelman is making a huge bet on where social media is taking advertising and PR and, in doing so, is taking a huge risk with his company and many people’s livelihoods. But she recognises that, in effect, Edelman is simply making a business play…he can see a massive short-term revenue opportunity for Edelman from advertisers who might fancy an experiment with social media. As Chapel points out, if just 3% of WPP’s revenue found its way into Edelman’s coffers, Edelman would double its global revenue…

Thing is, Edelman seems to be ignoring Chapel’s post (and it can’t be that he’s not aware of it…Chapel has left comments on his post and, we understand, emailed him and a number of his execs directly).

Now, we know that not everyone’s a fan, and Chapel’s post is written in typically forthright style, but when you’re throwing phrases around such as, “…in the era of personal media, you must answer back, you must be engaged” and “the two way nature of the conversation is the key” and “conversation is the new PR” and “a chaotic world of continuous discussion” (as Edelman did in his post), surely you shouldn’t be picking and choosing the conversations you have?

So where are you Richard?