A vicious PR circle…

Here’s something you don’t see every day…one company issuing a press release about another company’s press release. Talk about PRs making work for themselves! I mean this could go on forever…a discussion between two companies carried out through their PR reps via a series of press releases…for crying out loud.

This is how it happened. Scanning (as regular readers will know I often do) through the press release index over at Sourcewire – home to great examples of the worst type of PR bullshit – my eye was caught by this rather odd headline:

“One in ten employees needn't be injured at work”

Brilliant! What about the other nine? Do they definitely need to be injured at work? You’d better hope you’re the lucky one in ten that manages to escape the workplace unscathed.

I dug deeper, and found that the headline (and, indeed, the rest of the announcement) was created yesterday by the “country’s largest specialist personal injury practice” Thompsons Solicitors (not quite the world’s leading, but getting there). It was penned in reaction to a press release also created yesterday by AXA Insurance (“worldwide leader”) which carried the headline “One in ten employees injured at work”.

Now I’m really confused! Do I want to be one of the nine out of ten employees that AXA tells me don’t get injured at work, or the one in ten employees that Thompsons says needn’t be injured at work? Or should I stay at home?

Maybe one of these companies could explain…or perhaps a press officer? I notice on the Thompsons announcement that one of the press contacts is listed as a certain Mr Glen Goldsmith. The only one of those I’ve ever heard of is the Charlton-loving, ex-Text 100 managing director…