There’s no easy way of raising this concern without appearing to be poking at a competitor. It’s also, inevitably, going to involve some poking at Dana Flavelle.

So – for the record, before I start: I like Environics, think highly of their people, and have even referred clients their way in the past (when I wasn’t agency side, natch). I also like Dana’s work. A lot. She is, to my mind, one of the most interesting reporters working in Canada right now.

Having said all that, here’s the poke. Let’s just check the list of sources quoted in that piece, shall we?

Bruce McClellan: President, Environics
David MacDonald: President, Environics Research
Jordan Banks: eBay Canada, an Environics client
Roger Hamshaw: Fusepoint, an Environics client

Um… anyone else seeing a pattern here?

The other thing that really bothered me (apart from the obvious “Er, Bruce – where’s your blog?” thought), was this comment:

“The best rule of thumb is to write as though your identity could be revealed at any moment, MacLellan said.”

Unless I’m wilfully misinterpreting this point, it seems that what Bruce is saying is that blogging is typically a case of obfuscated identity. This is clearly a concept entirely in conflict with the nature of blogging.

The thought that one should write from a mindset of complete candour and transparency is muddled up in there somewhere – but the very fact that the way it is stated assumes an anonymous/pseudonymous approach to be the norm – that’s just icky.

However, I was just about to comment on your previous post to make the same point you did. Nobody from Environics Communications blogs themselves or even seems to be tracking their own company’s rep in the blogosphere, or they would have been all over your previous post.

I know I track our firm’s mentions throughout the blogosphere as I do for all of my clients and would have been here to set the record straight, or posted on my blog and trackbacked to your post.

I don’t like to trash my competitors, but I’m worried that the whole blogging and PR thing is about to jump the shark (a title for a post I’m toying with based on the Star article today.) When PR firms with no real presence or expertise in the blogosphere start talking like experts, get quoted in the paper and end up generating a PR agency feeding frenzy, it will make all of us look bad.

Now, I’m not naive enough to think there won’t be opportunists who talk a good game to sell something hot to their clients. I just hope all those firms that are late to the party can actually walk the talk.