From the Associated Press, courtesy of the Concord (NH) Monitor’s website: “FairPoint Hires Two Ad Firms in Bankruptcy.”
FairPoint Communications, struggling to emerge from bankruptcy, has hired two Maine firms to beef up marketing and communications.
The phone company has hired Portland-based Garrand and the VIA Group to help get the word out about its services.
Okay, I acknowledge that every business has to publicize itself, and that this is most likely a legitimate expenditure. (It’s certainly a legitimate type of expenditure; I’m not willing to concede that this particular expenditure is legitimate because of FairPoint’s record of, ahem, business savvy.) But FairPoint has no one to blame but themselves for the massive outbreak of teeth-grinding this story will evoke among its benighted customers, and for the inevitable jokes the story will inspire. To wit…
I assume the PR firms are getting paid up front.
Suggested tagline for a new ad campaign: Bullwinkle T. Moose saying “This time, for sure!”
One more from me. A brief visit to the VIA Group website reveals this motto:
The difficult we do immediately.
The impossible will be done by Thursday.
So, by Friday, everybody will be happy in FairPointLand?
Maybe that will be part of the new ad campaign
This from a meeting in Sept. where FairPoint CEO Hauser took a shot at blaming bloggers for his troubles .
http://www.fairpoint.com/Image…
I tried to contact Fairpoint this spring to see about getting a DSL line, but I was stuck on hold until I gave up entirely.
The problems were predicted, but now that they can’t be denied, hire a PR firm to get people to buy the product anyway.
And, the PSB will probably say that Fairpoint is still the best option.
Of course, the bankruptcy judge can nullify labor contracts, and singlehandedly force workers to take less.
I wonder how early bankruptcy became part of the plan.