EDITORIAL: Borkowski PR stunt has backfired

The perils of guerrilla marketing are there for all to see

following complaints about Borkowski PR's 'We know where you live'

campaign on behalf of Amnesty International.

The fax would have ended up in the bin in most news-rooms, but to a

freelance journalist working from home the message can seem more

sinister, particularly when the explanatory fax was not sent until ten

days later.

This is not the first stunt to have gone slightly awry. One computer

games manufacturer had to apologise for a mailout that upset many people

when it arrived in the form of hospital results.

If you are in on the joke, these type of things can show PR creativity

at its best, but bad timing or poorly thought-out stunts have a habit of

generating the wrong sort of publicity.