The Internet Marketing community has been in an uproar ever since the rash of promotional emails about the Rich Jerk's Playboy Mansion Party. Some were upset about the location of the event, but many others were even more offended by the crude sales copy and the blatant exclusion of female Internet Marketers (myself included).
Several of the promotional emails from well-known Internet Marketing experts were particularly upsetting. Frank Kern's "dont rat me out" and Yanik Silver's "permission slip from the wife" were two that got an immediate unsubscribe reaction out of me.
The email from John Reese about this event got a quick reply from me, but having grown to like and trust John over the years... well, he'd earned at least one get out of jail free card with me.
My instincts about John were obviously on target, because late this evening he sent out an email to his readers that contained a sincere apology and detailed explanation about his involvement with the Rich Jerk event...
He even expressed concern over how damaging this event, and the related promotions, was to the women in the industry. Here is a snippet from this message:
The Internet Marketing industry is what it is because
of MANY great women marketers. Women like Lynn Terry,
Alice Seba, Rosalind Gardner, Alexandria Brown,
Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, and Liz Tomey just to name a
few.Many of them have contributed to this industry equally
if not MORE than many of the men have. They bust their
butts and work extremely hard. And they all (including
many, many more I didn't mention) deserve RESPECT
as well as RECOGNITION for their contributions.The one thing they DON'T deserve is EXCLUSION.
Thank you, John.
The entire email was a very sincere confession and apology, and it hit home with me. Regardless of the fact that he mentioned my name, I took his words personally and accepted his apology. I imagine that hundreds of other women on his list felt the same.
I was glad to see John Reese make this move. I dont doubt that we may see several 'copycats' stand up and make a public apology in the shadow of John's move in the right direction. Unfortunately, many of those will never get read, because the people that deserve the apology most unsubscribed and have no use for a message from those marketers...
Best,
Technorati Tags: rich jerk, playboy mansion, john reese
About Lynn Terry
I received the email from John promoting this event as well and I was really turned off by it. I didn't unsubscribe from his list because I still value what he had to say regarding IM based on past experience. I just didn't dwell on it.
And I received the apology letter as well and found it very sincere. I was also pleased to see you mentioned there along with Alice and Rosalind (two other women who've had a huge influence on me).
I've unsubscribed to many lists in the past, and have been very selective as to what I let into my inbox. I'm glad I stayed with John, as I do respect the work he's done and the information I've already gleaned from him.
It just goes to show having a reputation...a GOOD reputation *is* worth something.
Hey Lynn,
I too was relieved to see John step up to the plate and apologize - moreove RECOGNIZE exactly how the Jerk had excluded us from the fun. 🙂
I wrote him a personal note to accept his apology and acknowledged that it takes a REAL man to admit when he's wrong and apologize.
Still pretty disappointed in some of those other fellows though. It'll probably be a matter of too little too late if they too follow suit at this point.
Anyway, nice to know who our friends are...
Cheers,
Ros
Agreed, Ros 😉
Good for John! He's still allowed in my inbox 🙂
Lynn, I largely ignore anyone that presents internet marketing as a field just for good ol’ boys to play in. Anyone connected to the real world knows the statistics: women make the majority of purchasing decisions. You offend them at your own risk.
And I wasn’t bothered by the location of the event in question. In terms of sexual hedonism, the Playboy Mansion is surely passé. Anyone that’s watched on TV as three busty beauties parade around with the corpse of Hugh Heffner, ala “Weekend At Bernie’s,†can see for themselves that the only sexual activity likely to be going on there is necrophilia.
No, what’s making this event noteworthy to me is the current crop of men shouting mea culpas followed by “but I’m going anyway because, despite the stink, it’s still a great opportunity.â€
Excuse me? This is where I get confused.
Not by the mea culpas. I’m willing to believe any man that says he’s not sexist, even John Reese, who sadly trips over his tongue when he apologizes “to the hard-working WOMEN of the Internet Marketing industry†while pointing out that “…there will be 200-300 party guests and probably 10-15 girls working as waitresses and hostesses.†(Uh, Mr. Reese? Working women generally find it demeaning to be called “girl.â€)
No, what confuses me is that the men-folk are still going to the party. Even after they realize the whole affair offends a good many women. So let me ask this:
If the event was being held at, say, the headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan, and the promotional material urged all red-blooded, white marketers to gather round for a night of business talk followed by a minstrel show, would anyone be going? I’m just asking.
The entire thing was in bad taste. I think we all agree on that. From the event itself to the marketing strategy to the emails that were sent by the "major players".
It will be interesting to see the long term effect that this has on Internet Marketing industry as a whole. I've seen it going downhill for awhile now and I predict we'll be looking back on this particular controversy as a major turning point.
I already respected him a lot, and it took a lot of guts to send that email. He hasn't lost a fan here.
I'm (thankfully) late to this discussion since I too unsub'd from many lists.
I have never been impressed by the RJ and certainly not this stunt... besides being crass and sexist it promotes the "get rich quick any way you can" mentality that is so destructive. That's really what bothers me most - IM newbies can get sucked in to this type of scam. Thankfully they have people like you, Lynn and Ros to set them straight!