Quotable (PR) quotes

David Pogue poses an interesting question in a blog post on "Imponderables" ...

Do P.R. people really expect anyone to believe that the standard, stilted, second-paragraph C.E.O. quote was really uttered by a human being?

No. But a well-written quote isn't "stilted" – it should actually have a distinct voice that you can hear in your head when you read it. And it should provide an opportunity to present information that won't otherwise easily fit in the release text. If it is simply a rehash of what does already appear elsewhere in the release, the PR person needs to either rewrite the quote or kill it.

Unfortunately the quote (and the rest of the release, for that matter) sometimes gets dumbed-down as part of the editing process. Which is of course the bane of writers everywhere.

-posted by Paul