Annals of PR: The Glass Menagerie
By Alan Goldfarb
June 17, 2022
For the life of me, I’ve long tried to find out the derivation of the word “flack” as it pertains to PR – as a pejorative to denigrate or malign publicists. According to some dictionaries the word could mean, "a crass ambulance-chaser who flacks himself in TV ads" or as one TV network called Trump mouthpiece Sean Spicer, “The playfully pugilistic flack”. I wanted to begin this post as taking a self-deprecating playful swipe at publicists, who don’t follow through on promises as they engage the media. But the more I delved into the publicity agency that recently contacted me, inviting me to what was billed as a media opportunity, the more I became pissed off. Because in the aftermath, the proposed “opportunity” signified nothing; and made me understand why flacks have garnered such self-inflicted bad reputations.
ANNALS OF PR: The Ideal Client
By Alan Goldfarb
June 6, 2022
Her winery story was the best, the most real, utmost compelling I’d ever heard. Her wines were, in my estimation, the best I’d ever represented. She was the most responsive client I’d ever had. And she paid me the least of any client I’d had.
She was – to date – the most ideal client on whose behalf I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. She made my job pleasurable, easy, and deliciously challenging. In other words: She was a flack’s dream.
In the Wine Industry Where Patience is SOP, PR is Treated as a Double Standard
May 25, 2022
By Alan Goldfarb
It’s baffling, in an industry whose very premise is predicated upon patience -- after all, we know how long it takes a vineyard to come to fruition, or a wine to be ready for release – that when it comes to media relations, vintners’ impatience for achieving brand awareness is akin to hyperdecanting in a paint shaker.
That is, winery clients want their publicists to get them media results, now! “Get me in the Spectator”. “I want Asimov to write about me.” “Send Lettie and the WSJ, my wines.”
During my tenure as winery flack, I have been successful engaging with, and getting the Wine Spectator, the New Yok Times, and Lettie Teague to take a look at my client’s stories and wines. But as is the timeline norm in my field of play, it can – and often does (if at all) take weeks and even months for those stories, mentions, reviews, to be generated.
Winiarksi, McIver & Portet Just Keep on Keepin’ On
By Alan Goldfarb
May 17, 2022
Old vintners might fade away but for a troika of wine icons who are now in the background but still very much with us, they’ll never be forgotten. Certainly not by yours truly.
I was absolutely surprised and gratified when Warren Winiarksi, Bill McIver, and Bernard Portet reached out to me recently after the announcement of this website was launched.
Warren, the ever erudite, gracious, and brilliant mind behind Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars called to congratulate me for my All Winery Media Solutions public relations business.
Women in Wine Deserve (nay) Command Your Support – Now!
By Alan Goldfarb
May 5, 2022
Some might consider this a stretch; and might say, what does this have to do with wine and/or media relations? It well might be a stretch and it only has to do with wine and PR, tangentially. But I’ve got to say something. I and hopefully you, will also say something. We’ve got to support women. Otherwise, who the hell else is going to do that, in this climate except, of course, women themselves.
In this context, I support Katie Kelly Bell, Forbes; Virginie Boone, Wine Enthusiast; Lisa Denning, Grape Collective; Jess Lander, San Francisco Chronicle; Elin McCoy, Bloomberg; Esther Mobley, San Francisco Chronicle; Deborah Parker Wong, SOMM Journal; Sasha Paulsen, Napa Register. As well as Sara Schneider, Robb Report; Lettie Teague, Wall Street Journal; Lisa Adams Walter, Wine Women Radio; Kim Westerman, Forbes; MaryAnn Worobiec, Wine Spectator; and Jessica Yadegaran, Bay Area News Group.