Latest idiocy in my inbox:

Avoid the PR Spam Blacklist

Last week a well-regarded blogger published and blacklisted the names of individual PR firms and publicists who have sent ”unsolicited (and almost always irrelevant) product pitches.”

While we know that you do not set out deliberately to “spam” journalists, it is clear that the practices that we have relied on in the past are no longer effective for engaging today’s media. Many of these practices are, in fact, counterproductive.

Our industry is changing.  And as professionals, we must adapt to the way that our audience – the media – is doing business today. Journalists want story ideas they can use. Journalists don’t want an email box full of spam.

New rules require new tools. And we think our application…(Named product and sales pitch begin here)

Hello–how did this happen to get into my in-box? If you guessed as a spam, you’re right. I have no prior relationship with this company, and if spamming me with a message about how spamming is ineffective is any indication of their intelligence, I’m not going to have a relationship with them.