For 24 hours I have been endeavouring to get hold of a broker note on a stock I first tipped at 14p and which is almost a quid now and which I have written about for four years. I wanted to post an update. I shall do so later today. The PR bird who looks after this account is a Ms. Kay Larsen at College Group PR. I have just had the most bizarre conversation with Kay who I tried to contact earlier but she was at lunch. Now it is 3.30 and she is back at her desk and this is bizarre. Evil thinks that Kay must be thick. I reckon that she is just on another planet. Anyhow…
Who will you be writing this for I was asked? Dunno. Probably ADVFN. Ok. I thought that was easy. But Kay drawled…
I have just done a Google search on you. Ok.
It seems that you wrote an article on my client on February 18th with a pornographic picture attached. Er… what…I checked it out and it was a picture of Ms Cheryl Cole (see above) revealing far less than is revealed on page 3 of the Sun every day. Does College Group boycott the Sun too I wonder? Er that is not pornography I stammered, it is Cheryl Cole, Britain’s most talented chanteuse. Kay disagrees. It is pornography she insisted.
Kay was not deterred. Her Google search led her to assert “And I see that you described a Welsh company as sheep shaggers.” Er not exactly, I tried to explain that IQE is based in a land where folks make jokes about sheep molestation but that I had written a full apology to the entire Welsh nation for making that link and I accept now that no-one in Wales has ever got familiar with a sheep.
Kay was not impressed. “It is not where we want to position our client” she insisted. The client, BTW, is Advanced Computer Software (ASW). Kay wants to position her client so that it is commented on by “serious financial journals” and regards my blog differently. Her “perception is otherwise”. It is all to do with the “way you position your blog.”
Okay so let’s get this straight: Kay will not co-operate with me unless I “reposition my blog” so that it follows her vision of what is “serious” with regard to the images I use and the language I use. Hmmmmm
- Kay. You are a prude – screw you
- I shall make a point of writing about ALL your clients anyway and including images of truly scantily clad women on a regular basis as of now so that your next Google search shows the real benefit of “positioning your client”
- Note the keywords & tags on the story as it will all show up on Google. I hope that your clients and you enjoy coming up in Google searches with the words pornography and sheep shagging in the title. Get used to it.
- I can obtain the information requested by bypassing you. But generally you are paid a good whack by PLCs to make the process easier not to block it simply because you choose to have an after lunch rant and impose your prudish values on the process of information dissemination.
- The arrogance of a PR bird who thinks that she can determine where coverage of her clients appears or does not appear is beyond a joke. Wake up darling, have you heard of the internet? Myself and thousands of other folks can write what they want and attach whatever images they want about you or your clients. And since there is a clear reader demand for this sort of material (incidentally for many pieces far greater than in the “serious journals”) those articles will appear and will get Google traction and there is Sweet FA you can do about it.
- It does not matter whether you perceive my website as serious. Thousands of investors do. They read it. Perhaps in part that is because unlike your friends the “serious financial journalists” I do not kiss PR arse.
Best wishes
Tom Winnifrith
PS Enjoy googling yourself and seeing this headline crop up – it will be there forever.