Anthrax Kills Oprah's 45 Personal Assistants

Local News, By Christian Taylor, 14th November, 2007

Sorry, was that headline misleading? Aussie PR company Markson Sparks is being raked over the coals today for doing something similar – a press release they recently issued made a joke saying that 45 of Oprah Winfrey’s assistants had been killed by anthrax, and people are not laughing.

The press release intended to point out the good things about being a personal assistant – first class flights, luxurious perks, a great salary. It then said that the one major problem with the role was the likelihood of anthrax poisoning.

“A story sadly underreported is the number of celebrity personal assistants who die from opening their bosses’ anthrax-filled mail. Oprah Winfrey’s entire staff of 45 personal assistants was wiped out by the dangerous spores,” said the release.

While most people would have understood this to be a joke, the fact that it was on a press release has many up in arms – including some of the clients that the PR company represents. One client called it “trash” and another used the word “appalled”.

Seems that when it comes to the good old ‘press release’ people don’t have much of a sense of humour. Oprah’s personal assistants were unavailable for comment.