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Lt. Gov. Pinnell forgets to BCC mass email to OklaX invitees…

4:35 PM EDT on August 21, 2019

Marketing professionals, PR hacks, graphic designers, art directors, ad agency types and even a few carpet-bagging social media influencer types from Los Angeles will meet at Chesapeake Arena tomorrow morning for the first ever OklaX marketing summit.

In case you forgot, it's the fancy part of the state rebrand where the best and brightest and most notable names from the Oklahoma creative class meet in a room and lend their talents and expertise for free.  Here's how the state explains it:

We’ve assembled a special team called the OklaX, a consortium of the finest creative minds and marketing professionals from every corner of Oklahoma, to craft a new story and look that will make us proud and attract more tourists, talent, businesses and investors. This rebrand includes our state government agencies.

Invites to be on the "special team" began to appear in the in-boxes of our finest creative minds a few months ago, but for the most part, the full OklaX invite list has been shrouded in mystery. Well, until now.

Earlier this week, Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell sent an email to the people who committed to work for free in the name of networking and resume padding with more details about the summit. In typical Oklahoma goof politician fashion, he forgot to BCC the attendees, leaving 126 email addresses in plain, forward'able site.

Check it out:

Seriously, what is Matt Pinnell doing? Did they not teach about the BCC field at Oral Roberts? Does he think he's your right wing uncle circa 2007? Next week, he'll probably start forwarding emails from Bill Gates promising free Old Navy gift cards if you forward them to 20 friends.

The email list is a who's-who of a lot people I've never heard of, and a few that I even dare call friends. The name on the list that made me LOL the most was Richards Janes. He's a "personal brand expert" / "social media influencer" who moved to Oklahoma City from Los Angeles in 2018, and now spends every waking minute kissing ass and pretending that OKC is some amazing utopia on social media. I guess that's all it takes now to be considered one of our state's finest creative minds and marketing professionals.

Here's the actual meat and guts of the email:

Yikes. All-day work meetings where you're not getting paid are already brutal enough, but providing lunch on-site takes things to an extreme level. Not only are you kept captive for eight hours, but how are people going to be able to go home and use the bathroom?!

For some reason, I wasn't invited to attend the summit, but because I'm a team player, I went ahead and emailed everyone who is and invited them to our unofficial impromptu OklaX afterparty. It should be fun. If you want to crash it, feel free.

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