spray and pray PR
n.— «The problem is the same as it has always been: spray and pray PR tactics, in which the PR person or agency floods the media with copies of their press release, hoping that someone who cares will pick it up. In the hope of increasing the odds of pick-up, cheerful-sounding PR people start smiling and dialing journalists to follow up on the release. They did this in 1981; they did it this morning, and they will do it again on Monday. It was a low road tactic then, and it’s a low road tactic now. The only reason it still exists is that it still, to some extent, works, despite the howls from journalists who get tired of the interruptions.» —“PR Pitching is Broken; Profession as a Whole is in Good Shape” by Jon Greer BNET Aug. 15, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...