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Editor & Publisher - October 9, 2000
Copyright (c) 2000 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.

How to Catch Flack

Flack-bashing, that time-honored pastime of cynical newspaper scribes and editors everywhere, has gone high-tech. Recently launched "Whack-a-Flack" allows reporters some cyber-retaliation, giving them a chance to pummel publicists with paper airplanes fashioned out of press releases.

Dubbed a "stress release," Whack-aFlack gives users a chance to vent on public-relations firms they feel deserve a good paper pelting. "Shoot the paper airplanes one at a time at the PR flacks that pop up from behind their cubicles (everyone knows that a flack can't stay out of sight for too long)," the instructions note. Players pick a reason for targeting certain firms, ranging from being "clueless" to "butt kissers."

And in an ironic twist, Whack-a-Flack (http://www.whackaflack.ck.com) was created by none other than a ... PR agency, Boston-based Sterling Hager, for a company called e-tractions Inc. An online entertainment company based in Bedford, Mass., e-tractions figured it could attract some positive PR by acknowledging the negative aspects of the profession.

But reporters and editors who now feel smug about having a Web site that validates their frustration with spin doctors had better be ready to take cover: The company is considering more games, including one dubbed "Whack-a-Hack," in which flacks return the favor against arrogant reporters who blow off PR phone calls and press releases. - Joel Davis