Samuel Ina sent me this photo-
In the subject line of the email-
“Acrylic painting”
I replied-
sam is there something you wanted to say about this particular painting?
To which Sam sent this incredibly informative press release-
Yes Giclees available for sale from June thru Oct. Thank You Sam
Alrighty then.
So click on the title of this post and under the post you will see the rating star system. Vote one star for the worst press release you’ve ever seen and vote 5 stars for the most brilliant descriptive effective press release you’ve ever seen.
Good Morning Gloucester 
No bio. Do description of the work. One sample. No contact info and no call to action. I don’t event know if the submitting author is the artist. A press release should make it easy-peezy for the paper, blog, whatever to copy/paste/tweak and release.
And it should at least tell you what you’re supposed to do with the info.
PR Fail.
Sorry, Sam.
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Have to agree with Jennifer. In this world of overworked, short-staffed media outlets this would like be round-filed immediately. The receiving party has to do all the work: Where are giclees for sale, who is artist, what are hours, is only this artist’s work available, etc???? and no contact info.
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I’m sure Sam is a super nice guy. Wittingly or unwittingly maybe this post will help others understand what makes a good press release.
Sam is helping the entire community by providing this example and I think should be commended!
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I’m sure Sam is super nice too! And you’re right. I don’t know how many times I hear reporters say when speaking to someone on the phone, ‘Could you send me that info in an email or press release that I can cut and paste from?’
Thanks Joey and Sam for inadvertently offering up this lesson in Writing Press Releases 101.
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who, what, when, where and why…remembered from grade school. sort of like writing a party invitation.
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It’s all about knowing your audience. For a press release, the audience is NOT the public; rather it’s an editor (Joey for GMG). The first thing you’ve got to do is convince the Editor that the info you’re sending is newsworthy. But even if it is, as Andrea rightly points out, media outlets are terribly short-staffed and just don’t have time to chase down all the info. (Joey, with his huge staff, including Snoop Maddie Mad & the Bean, of course, is the notable exception.)
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Aside from more info, a better photo of the painting would go a long way too. Nothing can kill the chance of selling a piece of artwork than a poorly photographed image of it. You have to wonder how decent could the giclee reproduction possibly be with that photo. It looks like a lovely painting, but a good photo of it would represent it in a much better light.
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It couldn’t be any clearer…
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I suspect this may be the son of the late Manchester dentist, Sameul Ina, amateur artist, whose waiting room aquarium was the inspiration for Finding Nemo. (A. Stanton was a patient there as a child) Check it out. Just saying. And Samuel Ina, if you are the same, this would, indeed, be good info to include in your press release. And in general, friends, don’t judge; let’s be kind.
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Dr Sam Ina is alive and well and enjoying retirement!
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