Press release for “loony bin rally” gets PR Newswire employee fired

Posted on January 18, 2008, 8:00 am, by Craig Silverman, under Press Releases.

The Philadelphia Daily News’ Dan Gross has the story of a PR Newswire employee who was fired after “she used the title ‘loony bin rally’ for a regional press release about a mental illness march…” Gawker graciously grabbed a shot of the corrected release, which is below. From Gross:

The release touted a rally at noon at Broad and Snyder where demonstrators will ask the state to invest political and financial capital to fund permanent supportive housing, which promotes recovery from mental illnesses.
Susan Rogers, director of special projects for the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, was furious and offended by the “loony bin” title and was also devastated to learn that the “ignorant” employee responsible was fired.
“This was an error in the very poor judgment of one employee and she has been terminated,” PRNewswire spokeswoman Rachel Meranus told us yesterday. A PRNewswire official later told Rogers that the company would re-issue the release this morning with an apology for the insensitive remark.

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  • http://baylink.pitas.com Baylink

    So, the mental health official was offended, but she did *not* want the employee fired?

  • Charlene

    Maybe she felt empathy for someone whose error was from ignorance and not malice?

    After all, the story was about a rally for the homeless. Should she be rooting for someone to become homeless because of one act of simple ignorance?

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