Scoble points to the mess that Warren Kremer Paino Advertising might be making for the State of Maine's tourism business - after Lance Dutson criticized them, they tossed down what can only be described as a SLAPP suit. Boy, there's a way to generate business - whenever you get criticized, make sure you sue the guy behind the criticism. Dunston was completely unknown before this suit; soon a search for their firm will turn up high pagerank criticism of this (I wonder if the geniuses at that agency have googled for "Dell Hell" recently?)

I'll say this - it's really bad publicity for Maine, and worse for the agency. Ask yourself - would you want to hire an agency whose best skill seems to be creating negative PR events for you to deal with? Follow this story and I bet you'll see the State of Maine finding a way to break the contract - and it'll serve that agency right.

I have two suggestions for the *cough* smart *cough* folks over at the agency that suing Dunston:

• Go buy this book, and read it over and over again until you understand it.
• Find a web designer, fast. Your site looks like something from 1997.

Update: Scott Johnson has a different take, based on a conversation he had with Tom McCartin of Warren Kremer Paino. Here's the thing though - whether Lance Dutson is in the wrong, or whether McCartin's agency is in the wrong isn't the big thing anymore - the suit is. If the Boston Globe had run the stories that Dutson did, do you think McCartin would be suing them? Of course not. He's created a negative PR event whether the case has merit or not.