How NOT to Press Release
A case study in narrative omission, courtesy of Temu and the IACC
Today, my Google Alert for Temu turned up something unexpected:
Temu has joined the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC), an organization I know well from my time at Alibaba.
Let’s talk about how not to press release—especially when you’re joining a cross-sector coalition.
For starters:
to press release (verb, informal)
/too pres rəˈlēs/
1. To issue a public announcement crafted to highlight selective truths, gloss over inconvenient facts, or subtly reposition a narrative in one’s favor.
2. To reframe a shared event so that your role sounds central, even if it wasn’t.
Example: “Rather than embrace the spirit of collaboration, the company chose to press release its own version of the story.”
The Context
In 2014, Alibaba became the first e-commerce platform to sign the MarketSafe MOU with the IACC—a first-of-its-kind agreement that established a framework that has since become a global model for IP protection. During my time at Alibaba, I worked on various aspects of communicati…
