If You Were Kensington's PR Agency?

Darren Barefoot and Steve Rubel posted the other day on the woes of Kensington, makers of PC locks.

"Darren Barefoot reports that apparently all you need to break into a Kensington laptop lock are some scissors, duct tape and a toilet paper roll. This crisis features a video (WMV, 7.5 MB) of someone cracking the popular laptop lock in just two minutes."

Larry Borsato decided to help Kensington's PR agency:

"I thought, hey, I'll be a good guy and let the company know. I found the press relations contact (jlai@cpcomm.com) and sent them an email with the story and the link. Two days later and they haven't bothered to get back to me, so I sent it again. From the comments in Steve's post, I wasn't the only person that did that.

So here's another lock company who's locks are easily defeated, and the PR firm Kensington is paying - Connecting Point Communications  - doesn't care. And by the way, I am a customer.

Well, I was a customer.

There's something to think about next time you're looking for PR representation. Does the PR firm care about your company's reputation as much as you do?"

It took two days for Connecting Point Communication to get back to Larry ("I was out of the office the past two days, so I didn't get your e-mails until this morning" -- clearly an agency prepared for crisis work).

And days after the story broke, no response from Kensington.

As a PR case study, this one is already shaping up as a cautionary tale. When Gizmodo and Boing Boing laugh at you publicly ("Nothing like a little grand larceny to stir up an otherwise sleepy morning."), you're facing deep trouble. Clamming up is not an option.

So who's to blame here? Kensington, surely, since they must have known before now the locks are insecure. But who would want to be in Connecting "We Don't Check Email on the Road" Point's shoes these days? Either they are clueless, or sadly saddled with a clueless client.

Tip of the hat to Steve Rubel, Darren Barefoot, The Gadget Guy, and Larry Borsato.

Update: (and just indulge me) Adriana Cronin-Lukas picked up on this post. Nice to be notiiced.

Posted by Allan Jenkins on May 22, 2005 at 08:40 AM in Public Relations | Permalink

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» Kensington - another Kryptonite? from the Big Blog Company

There must be something with the combination of a letter K and a lock company… Kensington is another lock manufacturer to get their product 'exposed'. Gizmodo reported that apparently all you need to break into a Kensington laptop lo... [Read More]

Tracked on May 23, 2005 2:05:38 PM

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