Het Financieele Dagblad and the limits of free publicity
Do you want the media to represent your story 100 percent the way you envision it?
Then buy advertising space. If you broadcast a press release, then the journalist is free to do his thing with it. This is how my soothing words have sounded for years, when a disgruntled client comes complaining that the newspaper "misunderstood" and wrote it. Until it happens to yourself, of course...
I wasn't entirely disgruntled, but to be honest: I wasn't entirely happy with the title the FD put above the article on my brainchild "Guinguettes à gogo" either. As a Fleming, I find that the word "pub" fits a "guinguette" like a pincer movement. It conjures up for me the image of a mooching and roaring crowd in a third-rate pub that stinks of attenuated beer🍺 🍺 🍺 🍺 🍺. In my mind, therefore, it has nothing to do with a more finely crafted, culturally responsive summer bar in the idyllic French countryside 🇫🇷 🌳 ☀️ 🎶. Whereas to the straight-talking Dutchman, a pub is simply a café or bar. Period. I guess it's all down to the national character, as they try to explain on this website
https://lnkd.in/eX_vMaBB 😉
It is also not at all certain that the title came from the journalist. Perhaps it was the editor-in-chief again who wanted to score from the wings with a somewhat wilder title. He or she did a fine job, by the way, because despite my initial reservations, this article gave sales of the book another boost. If things continue like this, more Dutchmen than Belgians will be traveling around with my book this summer....
