Us journos at the Medical Republic and our sister publication B&T love to hate PR companies who send us lots of superfluous rubbish tarted in a vain attempt to sneak it past us. The enterprising journalist in this story decided to test what would happen when he replied to all of his PR emails with the sign off […]
Us journos at the Medical Republic and our sister publication B&T love to hate PR companies who send us lots of superfluous rubbish tarted in a vain attempt to sneak it past us. The enterprising journalist in this story decided to test what would happen when he replied to all of his PR emails with the sign off ” I love you”.Here’s how it went down.
Some PRs immediately terminated all communication with me This was my first email. It didn’t go all that well. 
Rob didn’t even reply – Michelle just jumped in and took care of things: 
If Michelle reacts like that to everyone who says they love her, she will end up missing out on a lot of fun. Here’s another one, from Anita this time: 
ANITA, ANITA, I WANTED TO MEET YA. Most PRs didn’t even acknowledge it. 
That could very easily be an email to someone who has not just randomly said “I love you” to a total stranger for no reason whatsoever. “Yeah it would be great if you do come along!” he writes. What a total nutter, he’s thinking inside. Here’s Sophie, again refusing to acknowledge the astonishing awkwardness of the situation: This was overwhelmingly the most common response: simply to ignore the fact that I had declared my undying love. Just don’t mention it, they thought, and this weird man will stop saying he loves you.
They were wrong, but I admire their professionalism. Even when I made it more obvious – nothing 
Nothing after that. No “Sorry, what was that last email all about?” Nothing. Not even a “Did you mean to send that email to me?” I had said “I love you” in the body of the email. Maybe this kind of thing happens to them on a fairly regular basis. Some, mind you, were bloody shocked 
But some were brilliant – they played along 
Look at that; “I love you too”, casually tossed in at the end of the email. Classic. Playing me at my own game. Daring me to say it again. (I did of course. She didn’t.) Here’s the best conversation by a country mile: 
Look at that. Straight in there, deadpan; he knew what was going on. “I love you too,” he said. Classic Michael. Things were hotting up. I ramped it up to “I love you very much.” 
F%#k me, Michael’s good at this. “I love you more.” Phwoaarr 
How’s he gonna take that?
BAM. Michael smashes it out the park. This guy’s probably done this before. Unshockable Michael, they call him. No word from him since then. I even got some free sex toys out of it… Well, that was fun. 
The experiment taught me a lot about email etiquette and about the nature of PRs. In most cases the exchange was simply exactly the same as usual, as though I hadn’t professed my love for the PR. They just flat-out ignored what I’d said and carried on trying to sell their product. This could mean one of a number of things: 1. They assumed I was someone who ended all emails with “I love you”; 2. They thought I had genuinely fallen in love with them and were deciding to ignore the incredibly weird situation; 3. They hadn’t actually read those three little words; 4. They knew they were involved in some kind of prank and didn’t want to rise to the bait. It amuses me most to imagine #1 or #2 being the main explanation. Reproduced from Hexjam.com For original story click here
