Perspirational PR

5th May

They say ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’ but the media furore surrounding ‘Sweaty-gate’ probably doesn’t feel so small to PR agency, Fuel.

The agency has ended up in a pickle after it supplied the Press Association with a misleading story detailing how poor Esme de Silva overcame her excessive sweat problem with the aid of a brand of antiperspirant called Odaban.

Picked up from the PA newswire, the story achieved coverage in Daily Mail, Huffington Post, Daily Mirror and others.  A great result for Fuel….. until they were spectacularly rumbled.

Esme De Silva was revealed to be a senior account executive employed by Fuel called Leandra Cardozo.  And, you guessed it, Odaban was a Fuel client.

A senior spokesperson at the agency has since claimed that all the information provided was true but that Leandra’s name was changed due to the sensitivity of her condition.  This could well be true, but as the story was heavily supplemented with photographs of Leandra, any hopes of preserving her anonymity were probably a touch naive.

Whatever the truth of the matter, you can’t help but feel that a fairly junior member of staff has been exploited here.  Either Leandra really did suffer from excessive sweat production and was encouraged to disclose this for a client PR opportunity, or she was bone dry and encouraged to lie.

Either way, if she wasn’t sweating before, she probably is now.

The agency now faces an investigation by the PRCA and I hope Leandra’s been given a pay rise.