Marketing Vox ,  29 December 2006

Still recovering from the Wal-Mart flogging fiasco, PR firm Edelman seems to have made yet another mistake in its latest blog-centric PR push.

Edelman is now asking that free Vista-loaded laptops that it sent out to A-list bloggers on behalf of its client Microsoft be returned, or given away, after they review the new Microsoft operating system, reports Marketing Pilgrim.

The company sent out the laptops without first telling the bloggers, most of whom at first apparently kept the gifts quiet. Microsoft's change of heart about sending out free PCs ostensibly came about because it did not want its intentions to be misunderstood.

Too little, too late, it seems. Marketing Pilgrim equates Edelman's initial slip-up and subsequent request to "throwing water on a pan of burning oil, in an attempt to put the fire out."

Edelman hired Steve Rubel earlier this year in an effort to be on the cutting edge of social media, yet does not seem to have fully benefited from his expertise.