Daft PR from Google and GrandCentral

Someone call David Letterman.

The late night talk show host should create a segment specifically for companies such as Google/GrandCentral, the search and unified communications vendor that decided to score some cheap PR points last week by announcing it will give away life-long phone numbers to the poor of San Francisco.

The segment could be called "Stupid PR Tricks" - the first guest would be the marketing and PR folks from Grand Central. (Google bought GrandCentral in July of last year.)

What a joke. It’s a cheap and unnecessary PR tactic. Besides, it’s been done before! It was cheap looking then and it’s cheap looking now.

Many if not most homeless people don’t have their faculties about them or are mentally incapable of doing much else besides wandering around on the streets.

Besides the service is already free. There’s another service in the region called Community Voicemail.

Why not "give it away" to someone that can actually use it like students?

Students may actually buy GrandCentral’s service at some point in future; heck they may even work for Google in future! Students are meant to be exploited; the homeless, well not so much since they’re already downtrodden. Students have hope; the homeless more often than not do not.

If you want to do something useful for the homeless of San Francisco, set up a shelter, give them food or maybe even a job. I’m guessing the needs of people in such unfortunate circumstances are more immediate anyways. The phone number can be given away (remember it’s free?) later.

Let me be clear - there’s nothing wrong with turning a profit but surely there are less abhorrent ways of making a buck other than exploiting the homeless?

For Google and GrandCentral, the real reason for the PR stunt can probably be traced to the office of San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom who now owes the company a favour or two (read: tax break) as one corporate citizen looks like its trying to do something useful with respect to the city’s massive homeless problem.

To be fair, there are many that feel differently than I, including those from Community Voicemail. Nonetheless, I believe it’s still a cheap PR stunt.

March 4, 2008 | Filed Under News Items and Commentary