The PR Wall of Shame

Every so often, we get a press release that is so incredibly bad that we post it on the wall for everybody to laugh at. The laughter is rueful at best, though, because we know that somebody paid money to have this schlock sent out in their name. Yesterday, I received one from a company making RFID hardware. I will forebear to mention any names. You know who you are, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Here are some quotes (sometimes sanitized) that illustrate the shame of it. "name withheld leads the pack in RFID solutions for industrial control. With over 20 years of innovation in design and over fifty thousand installations worldwide, name withheld is the company that understands RFID from the inside out." Whoa. Waitaminnit! What about Rockwell?? What about Intermec? What about Symbol Technologies? What about Alien and all the other RFID equipment makers? This is the sort of PR speak that devalues the information in the release about to zero. If the people at name withheld believe that this is appropriate marcomm for a technical release, you have to wonder about their expertise in other areas, too. "Make no mistake; these products change the playing field for industrial RFID." Huh? But nowhere in the release does it say how the playing field is changing. Are we changing from soccer to 43-man squamish? "The compact size of the model number deleted, versatile design and high speed TCP/IP connectivity reduces installation time, labor costs, and hardware installation accessory costs (mounting brackets, power cables, and antenna cables)." What? reduces time over what??? Over pigeons? Over hot and cold running messengers? No referent so that anybody with brains can calculate the value for themselves. Here's the actual information contained in the release, as edited by CONTROL: name withheld announced the availability of new RFID hardware, including a combination antenna/controller and passive tag. The company claims that the antenna/controller is ethernet enabled, and uses Power over Ethernet. The company does not say which flavor of ethernet it employs, or what the compatibility issues with Industrial Ethernet of various flavors are. The company claims the combination antenna/controller reduces the need for a separate antenna and cable connecting to the controller, but does not discuss reception issues that may make a remotely located antenna necessary. The company claims its passive sensor tag is uniquely able to operate in temperatures up to 400 deg. F (204 deg C). For more information, contact name withheld See the difference? Let me know what YOU think! Walt