Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Follow-up Part IV: Company Outrage Online

Since last year, I have been following the issues between Clean Air Gardening in Dallas, TX, and its former IMC agency, Christie Communications based in Santa Barbara, CA.  

Clean Air Gardening launched a Web site alleging egregious and horrible mistakes made by Christie Communications and over the last several months has appeared to post legal communications between their respective lawyers as both sides attempt to resolve the issues.

Looking at the latest updates, it seems like neither party is closer to a resolution and talks have atrophied in recent months. It appears that both parties are back where they both started - no closer to a resolution. You can review the Web site here to get Clean Air Gardening's side of the story and allegedly to see communications from Christie Communications lawyers.

I hope both parties are able to amicably resolve their issues. 

6 comments:

Calla Gold said...

I needed a press kit for a speaking engagement in Las Vegas. There was a short deadline. I used Christie Communications for the job. They did nice quick work and knew what was needed.
I appreciated their personable-ness and professionalism.
I also appreciate all their charity work in the community. They are givers and an asset to our community.

Anonymous said...

Dear Ms. Campbell,

While I agree with your general approach and sentiments to many subjects, I do feel a small error has been made with regard to the Christie Communications-Clean Air Gardening dispute. The error is the willingness to forward the sentiments of just one side of a dispute. And to forward the idea that Christie’s communication’s errors were egregious, when they amounted to a typographical error or two.

As I have done business before with Ms. Christie and consider her a highly ethical and competent individual, I asked Mr. Hundley if he would allow Ms. Christie airtime on his site to explain her side of the story, so that one could make a balanced and hopefully accurate judgment of the situation. That was a week ago and he has yet to respond.

I then asked Ms. Christie directly for her side of the story. It certainly gives one pause for thought. You may want to ask Mr. Hundley about times he has done the same to other companies. You might want to ask him about hiring Christie Communications so they would be obliged to forgo their account with a competitor, and that when the competitor continued to utilize Christie Communications, only then did Mr. Hundley start to become unreasonable.

Steven Ferry
President, MK USA

Colleen Campbell said...

Mr. Ferry,
Thank you for leaving your comment. I make no judgments whatsoever regarding Christie Communications or its work. I have never hired them or worked for them. As I've mentioned in several other blog posts on the subject, we do not know Christie Communication's side of the story because it has not been shared. I hope that the two parties are able to resolve any differences.

Unknown said...

Please add Christie Communication's side of the story to your blog. Have you asked for them for it? I'm sure they would be happy to give it to you.

I say this because your blog only provides the reader with links to their ex-client's smear campaign website with nothing said on Christie Comm's behalf.

You may not be making any judgements but the information you provide is totally one-sided. Not fair!

Anonymous said...

In fairness to Colleen, she's not a journalist. She's not contacting people for information, she's pointing out information that's freely available to anyone on the Internet. She doesn't appear to have spoken with either side, and neither side appears to have contacted her. As far as I can tell, she's a PR person who sees something interesting happening in the PR world and is pointing it out. More to the point, none of these comments have been deleted or edited in any way, so clearly Christie Communications is able to make their case if they so choose.

Colleen Campbell said...

FPSB,
Thank you for your comment. Again, I make no judgments. I am interested in this strictly from a public relations standpoint as an example of how client/agency relationships can play out in new media. I am happy to link to any stories or information Christie Communications has issued to address allegations. I hope both sides are able to work out any differences they may have.