Do Journalists Care About National Days (like National Ice Cream or National Lipstick Day)?

Some do, some don't. Here's what to know and how to leverage these timely opportunities — and the ONE big mistake to avoid, too.

Happy Tuesday, Top Tier Community!

For those of you still knee-deep in holiday gift guides, here’s a quick glance at our resource center:

• The ULTIMATE INSIDER’S GUIDE to Holiday Gift Guide Pitching Workshop (one full hour of best practices, sample subject lines, a checklist of what to include in your pitch, advice for how to stand out from the crowd, tips for getting your sources included, examples of real HGG pitches that worked and answers to your most pressing questions)

• Christmas in July Zoom Q&A with Affiliate Marketing Expert Sarah Karger (this will answer ALL your affiliate-related HGG questions!)

• A Real-Life Example of an HGG Product Pitch Format that Most Writers Will Delete (hint: Don’t do this!)

• What NOT to Pitch in a Holiday Gift Guide (seriously, save these pitches for another time)

• A Handy-Dandy Checklist of 10 Things to Double-Check Before Sending Your Pitch (don’t send another pitch before making sure you’ve included everything a journalist needs!)

• 5 Golden Rules of Sending Press Packages

• 6 MORE Golden Rules of Sending Press Packages

For everyone else, it’s time to give some attention to other PR/media topics beyond HGGs! And this week, we want to take a look at those “National Days” we all know and love so much … yesterday was National Schnauzer Day, so Jill celebrated with her pup Lily, and TODAY is National Pancake Day in case you were wondering why you’re suddenly craving a stack of carbs!

Mark your calendars for a few fun ones:

July 15th: National Gummi Worm Day

March 1st: National Sunkist Citrus Day

December 1st: Faux Fur Friday

January 25th: National Belly Laugh Day

January 23rd: Measure Your Feet Day

May 18th: National Bike to Work Day

When it comes to these “national days,” the possibilities seem endless (and sometimes ridiculous). For a publicist who is trying to follow the cardinal rule of pitching a journalist while tying the client to something timely, this may seem like the very best way to do it.

Everyday, Jill and Nicole get pitches tied to everything from National Hug Day and National Avocado Day to National Mental Health Awareness Day and National Chewing Gum Day. But are journalists biting on these pitches? Let’s dive into when and why they might and how to make these opportunities work for your clients — and we’ll share the #1 mistake we see with these pitches, so you can avoid it!

Oh and don’t just take our word for it (though we’d like to think we’re a trustworthy source!): We polled some writer friends and have shared their candid responses as well!

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*Note: Our consulting sessions, workshops, Zooms and Substack newsletters are strictly educational. Signing up for anything has no bearing on landing coverage in any of our outlets. Our role is to finetune your approach and tactics so that you can apply these learnings when pitching other journalists.