If you’re looking to get people’s attention, chances are putting the words “puppy” and “cancer” together will do the trick.

That’s the route that author Anna Lappé took when a Dow Chemical PR firm made the grievous error of asking her to contribute a video about the future of water for a Dow conference.

Instead of coming up with a PR-friendly video, she submitted this:



It was rejected—in part because of the puppy cancer line, presumably.

According to a press release published at SmallPlanet.org, it didn’t end there:

The PR company swiftly rejected the video, but they didn't give up: they asked Lappé to record a new video. "Dow, as a huge corporation with resources, is sponsoring that ["Future We Create"] effort, which you have to admit is pretty cool," the PR firm wrote to Lappé.

"What would be pretty cool," Lappé replied, "would be if the company put even a fraction of the resources it spends on marketing into cleaning up communities whose water it has polluted."

Awkward ….

Let this be a reminder to PR folks: What would be pretty cool is if Dow had done its due diligence.