Earlier this week, we posted up word on a new article in the New York Times that had a profile on Mark Penn, the corporate vice president in charge of Strategic and Special Projects at Microsoft. Penn is the person in charge of the team that came up with the recent "Scroogled" campaign, which tries to show Google Shopping search results are full of paid ads.
The New York Times got a quote from Google PR rep Jill Hazelbaker for the article, who said " ... our focus is on Google and the positive impact our industry has on society, not the competition." That small quote was enough to get Microsoft"s corporate PR head, Frank X. Shaw, to call out Hazelbaker on his Twitter account this weekend.
While Hazelbaker also has a Twitter account, it is a private one just for her followers. However, Shaw still proceeded to post messages addressing her directly. At one point, Shaw posted:
So, @jillhazelbaker how about a little light?So far this year, Google has outspent Microsoft by a factor 2.3 to 1 lobbying.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) December 15, 2012
There were a number of other Twitter messages that Shaw posted that were directed towards Hazelbaker, including the following series:
Turns out if you shine a light on Google like we did via Scroogled, Gmail man, putting privacy first, they run for the shadows.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) December 15, 2012
Yes, @jillhazelbaker, that would be you. You may want to talk to @mattcutts for social media advice. Pretty easy to uncloak.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) December 15, 2012
Want to talk about privacy? Name the time and place. And don’t sent the NYT next time. Or BusinessWeek. Use your own voice.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) December 15, 2012
Or get scroogled. Totally up to you.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) December 15, 2012
It"s pretty rare for the head PR rep of a major company to respond directly to another RP exec in this manner. Hazelbaker has yet to respond to Shaw"s messages
Source: Frank X. Shaw on Twitter
Via: Business Insider