The Fact that You Advertised is Not News
This is one of our favorite blunders of all time. A furniture company issued several press releases about placing ads in several major publications.
First, this is not news. If you are creating a major promotions campaign for a product launch, that is news. A whole press release dedicated to your company placing an ad is absolutely not news.
Second, you just asked every publication you didn’t buy advertising from to give free coverage about you spending money with their competition.