Let’s give them something to blog about – Paino attention

Here’s my guess: A bunch of ad agency guys (Warren Kremer Paino Advertising) are sitting around a boardroom table and wondering how to get their agency on the map. They clearly ruled out the traditional ways of growing a business and building awareness, like a strong portfolio, client referrals etc…, so instead they try and come up with something completely ridiculous.

According to a recent article on www.boston.com - Blogger who criticized Maine tourism office faces lawsuit, the agency is suing a man by the name of Lance Dutson of Searsmont, Maine, for his having defamed the agencies work on his blog www.mainewebreport.com.

I’ll let you read the article and judge for yourself, but essentially, Dutson criticized the agency's work on his blog and the agency didn’t like it very much…what was he thinking? How could he do that (extreme sarcasm in case that didn't translate in type)?

''I'm basically a freelance Web designer," he said. ''I have three kids. We're just a dead-middle-of-the-road Maine family. If they succeed in this, it'll ruin us. I can't write that kind of a check."

I have two sets of two words for Warren Kremer Paino Advertising:

1) Free Speech
2) Grow up

According to the article: “Other bloggers have rushed to Dutson's defense, portraying the matter as a clear-cut free speech and First Amendment issue. ''This is a deep-pocketed litigator trying to stop a small media outlet, a blog, for saying things that they don't like," said Robert A. Cox, a New Rochelle, N.Y., blogger and cofounder of the Media Bloggers Association.

I’ll bet clients are going to be running to engage this agency – after all what better a source for creative output than insecure ad guys. At least they stand by their work I suppose.

Doesn't the whole thing seem a little strange to you? Has the web not yet been recognized as a platform for freedom of expression? People have choices and voices. Let them decide what they like and don't like, and let them be heard. I can’t wrap my head around this one…So I ask: is this for real? Or was the legal cost to file suit against Lance Dutson a marketing expenditure gone bad?

Either way, I hope the guys at Warren Kremer Paino Advertising don't read this blog…I would not want to get sued.