Warriors PR Guy Caught Posting Fake Comments
By JOE KUKURA
Updated 5:15 PM PST, Fri, May 22, 2009
The Warriors are having a hard time getting good publicity at a time when the team seems adrift and is curiously consolidating power to an indifferent one-year-and-done coach. So now they've resorted to new methods of building fans' confidence in team management -- posting rah-rah positive comments anonymously on Warrior blogs under the name "flunkster dude".
In a mini-scandal busted open last night by the always on-point Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News, Warriors PR Director Raymond Ridder admitted it was him who posted unreasonably positive comments on a Warriors forum defending his bosses.
It happened after a conference call for season ticket holders Thur day. Fans were posting irately on a WarriorsWorld.net message board about the Pollyanna nature of the questions asked of management. Ridder logged on anonymously -- posing as a season ticket holder under the handle "flunkster dude" -- and posted a glowing fake comment about how much he "appreciated the call" and how Warriors management are wonderful fellows who should do this kind of really fabulous thing more often.
But the flunkster hit the fan when WarriorsWorld moderators traced the comment back to team headquarters and realized they were getting shilled by some corporate plant. And not just any old low level, jeans-on-Friday corporate plant -- but none other than the Warriors' Director of Public Relations, Raymond Ridder.
Now the blogs are all having a good laugh at Ridder's misguided efforts, and his comment had the opposite of it's intended, confidence-building intent.
Next time they want to leave comments on blogs, Warriors management should just stick with saying "FIRST!" and "I'd hit it."
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who posts on Warriors message boards under the handle "TonyaHardingFan#1."
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: May 22, 2009 2:18 PM PST
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