Female Role Models V

send in the college girls!

Sometimes I get emails:

Hi, I thought you might appreciate this befitting Wódka Vodka ad campaign: "escort quality, hooker pricing". In short, it's high quality like an escort, low cost like a prostitute... but drunk college girls are free!

Yep, this is from the nice people at Stuntman PR, who obviously bought one of those "blogger lists" that has me down as a marketing/PR/advertising blogger, and they just sent this out. Who has time to read blogs to check for relevance? Who even has time to insert names into emails?   THERE'S FREE PUBLICITY TO BE HAD! (OK, not exactly free - they offered to send me some of their cheap vodka.)  This is my third form-letter email from them  - one was about some random b-list celebrity endorsement, another had a new slogan or something.  I ignored them like I do most of the irrelevant pitches I get.  But hey, third time's the charm.

I'm no prude.  I'm in the PR game too, and I understand the need to be funny and edgy, especially in social media.  But this isn't edgy, it's just gross. And they should have looked at the blogs they wanted to pitch ahead of time.

Do me a favor - go to Google.com and type in "female role models."  You should find my blog, currently number 3 in the search results, just ahead of Huffington Post. That's because whenever I see something that demeans women, I try to share positive examples and perspectives of women that we can celebrate.  Here are installments one, two, three, and four. My criteria, once again:

Someone an online mom can show her daughter [or son, a great point my wife made] and say, "See her? See what she's doing? See how she's living in the same world you are, with the same challenges you have, and see how she succeeds? THAT is how you do this. THAT is what I stand for. I want you to be like HER."

So here's the latest list:

Jenny Lawson.  You know it was just a matter of time before The Bloggess showed up on this list.  She's developed a huge following through her sheer wit and emotional writing, and she's embraced a cause that seems relevant - ridiculing PR flacks who send stupid pitches.  For those of us who reach out to bloggers for a living, and try to do it the right way, she's actually doing us a favor.

Kristen Chase. Kristen is proof that you can be edgy and sexy without crossing that line into gross and sexist.  She's as hard-working an entrepreneur as you'll find - Cool Mom Picks may be her signature venture, but she works on homeschooling stuff and her new "4 kids or more" site as well.

Krystal D'Costa. Krystal is an anthropologist who works in digital media in NYC and writes a blog for Scientific American.  She has a panel coming up at ScienceOnline in January that focuses on "Broadening the Participation of Underrepresented Populations in Online Science Communication and Communities." How cool is that?

Rachael Herrscher. "Robo-entrepreneur."  That's how I describe Rachel, founder of Today's Mama.  Years ago she built a business that put coupon inserts into newspapers, and when newspapers went online, so did she.  She's also the creative force behind the Evolution of Women in Social Media conference.  (maybe Stuntman should think about going next year.)

So thanks Stuntman.  Keep the vodka, or better yet send it to Jenny.  Maybe I took the bait and gave you the free PR you wanted.  But your ad campaign still sucks.