Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan received an email from Fleishman Hillard chief marketing officer Rich Jernstedt, essentially apologizing to Fox News Channel for their March news release which took a shot at FNC’s bed bug woes.
The letter explains FH’s perspective:
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Sometimes the commitment to generate publicity can get an agency in trouble. As you noted in your post, one of our more aggressive marcom specialists at Fleishman-Hillard developed a news release for a client that made light of the FOX News green room. Understandably, the folks at FOX didn’t appreciate it. One of our strengths is maintaining good relationships with major media like FOX. We talked with our friends at FOX, and also made a note to our file on how to avoid these situations in the future.
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This comes on the heels of Fox & Friends co-anchor Steve Doocy poking fun at the agency and their CEO last week.
Will the back-pedaling cause FNC to change course? At the time of the March release, an FNC insider predicted, “Good luck with Fleishman Hillard getting clients on the air.”