PR execs are constantly looking for ways to generate publicity, but we're still undecided (although certainly amused) about this company's recent move: SoftTek, an intranet fax server software development company in Trabuco, Calif., has issued about 200 press releases about a demo CD disk sent in response to a request for its fax software. The request apparently came from an ad it had placed in BusinessWeek. But the disk was later returned by the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The disk was returned because the intended recipient was an inmate at the Greenville Federal Correctional Institution outside of St. Louis. Accompanying the tongue-in-cheek release was a simulated graphic of the prisoner, created in Photoshop, holding a SoftTek disk. The disk was returned with the reasoning that the inmate couldn't receive the package. Or for that matter, any "body hair, plant shavings and sexually explicit personal photos" - which, on the other hand, SoftTek luckily didn't send.
Staff at SoftTek's PR agency JPR Communications said they put together the press release and black-and-white picture to poke fun at the scenario. "We took a lighthearted approach," recalled JPR account executive Joe Austin. "We thought it was interesting when the disk was returned to us and we called the prison to find out more." (Joe Austin, 818/992-8867)