Imagine receiving an e-mail from a potential paramour asking you and 15 other guys or girls to send your vitals and level of interest in hooking up. Keep in mind, you’ve never met or heard of this person before. And, you’ve even been given a deadline to respond: Tuesday, May 15th at 4pm.

Well, that’s exactly what a firm called Terrachoice Environmental Marketing did to about 15 or 20 PR firms (including mine).

In the e-mail they say they want a PR firm (or "agent," which is an interesting use of words), to represent Terrachoice in such sectors as commercial interiors, JanSan (one of my favorites), building materials, carbon neutrality (a sure Silver Anvil winner) electricity and printing services.

I don’t react well to cattle calls and never have. I think responding to such inquiries belittles our profession and makes one feel more like a plumber, carpenter or medical supply executive than a public relations counselor.

Terrachoice Environmental Marketing probably doesn’t know any better, so I won’t comment on the professionalism (or lack thereof) of the mass e-mail. I would ask the firm, though, if they would employ the same tactic to look for a mate in their personal life. After all, what sort of quality firm (or person) responds to a mass e-mail?

Thanks for including us, but we’ll miss tomorrow’s deadline. Happy hunting…