Common Courtesy

October 26, 2003, 1:22 p.m.
I write a lot of advertorials and for the past week I’ve spent the majority of my time trying to schedule interviews with advertisers or waiting by the phone for someone to call me back. I am offering free publicity to companies and no one is interested.

This week alone I had a restaurant, grocery store, furniture store and an electronics store fail to return my calls despite leaving several messages. I had one rude assistant tell me that of course her boss was given the message, but didn’t I still have several hours until my deadline? I called another grocery store.

It took several phone calls, including two from my editor, to get the chef from a local restaurant to speak with me.

I’m still waiting for a call from the furniture store, and although I managed to reschedule an interview with the electronics retailer that cancelled on me just mere minutes before our scheduled interview last week, I have a feeling this week’s interview won’t work out either.

The most frustrating part is that, in many cases, the advertiser has paid the publication to have an article written about them. They understand that writing an article entails being interviewed and have agreed to that. But, when I call, they act as if they have no idea what I’m talking about. If and when we finally do schedule an interview, they manage to reschedule multiple times (because hey, I work from home, so clearly I have nothing better to do than rush out to meet with them with absolutely no notice just hours before my deadline).

Over the course of the past few years I have been fortunate to work with advertisers who understand deadlines, are eager for the publicity and offer the moon and the stars to accommodate my schedule. Sometimes I even work with people who take the time to say thank you.

Just this week I received an e-mail from an advertiser that said, “Jodi, the article is fantastic! We are so happy with it! You’ve articulated exactly what we want to get across! I just love how you started and ended it! Thank you Jodi for your above-and-beyond effort and lending us your obvious talent. We are so appreciative!”

Of course, she hated the first draft and I had to completely rewrite the advertorial, but in the end, the fact that she returned my phone calls, understood my deadline and was willing to spend the time going over, in detail, exactly what she wanted and then took the time to send a thank-you message, made up for the fact that I’m still waiting for the furniture store to call.