????對麥當勞（McDonald's）來說，賣出第100萬個漢堡一定是個自豪的時刻，因為它印證了理查德?麥當勞和莫里斯?麥當勞的快餐定制系統(tǒng)的成功，而奶昔機銷售商雷?克洛克認識到了這一點并把它發(fā)揚光大。

????當然，好事過頭也可能變味。到1984年，麥當勞已經(jīng)烤制了500億個漢堡，喜劇演員杰瑞?宋飛都納悶為什么麥當勞還在計數(shù)。僅僅兩年之后，麥當勞在羅馬著名的西班牙廣場（Piazza di Spagna）開店，由此引發(fā)的抗議成就了慢食運動（slow food movement），乃至以后的全面慢速運動。

????第一本記者電話目錄Bacon's Publicity Checker出版于1952年，如果我們把此后全球公關(guān)部門發(fā)送的推廣信息數(shù)量制成圖表，同樣也把麥當勞自1940年開張以來所售出的漢堡數(shù)目繪制成圖表，兩者會相當類似。

????麥當勞的金色拱門出現(xiàn)在西班牙廣場時，著名美食家卡爾洛?佩特里尼發(fā)起了慢食運動，而現(xiàn)在記者和博客作者也開始大聲疾呼，抗議伴隨著郵件而來的海量推廣信息，而這一切都是拜技術(shù)進步所賜。

????慢速運動的維基百科頁面引用了挪威哲學家古特溫?弗洛伊斯塔德教授的總結(jié)：

????唯一不變的就是萬物都在變化。改變在加速。如果你想跟上，你也得加速。這就是現(xiàn)狀。但是我想提醒眾人，我們的基本需求從未改變。需要被人關(guān)注，被人欣賞！需要歸屬感。需要親近和關(guān)懷，甚至還有一點點愛！這些需求只有通過人際關(guān)系中的慢才能得到滿足。我們必須重新找回慢、沉思和相聚。只有在那里我們才能找到真正的新生。

????技術(shù)已經(jīng)對注意力的集中構(gòu)成了巨大挑戰(zhàn)，特別對記者而言更是如此。公關(guān)高手們只需輕點幾下鼠標，就可以向數(shù)以千計的記者群發(fā)同樣的信息。而隨著公共關(guān)系和營銷部門越來越關(guān)注博客作者和“有影響力的人物”（可以松散地理解為任何有數(shù)名Twitter粉絲的人），目前的記者們所經(jīng)受的信息轟炸未來將在更多普通人的收件箱中再現(xiàn)。就像在任何軍備競賽中，總的趨勢就是如何以更快的速度轟炸更多的人。

????然而我們還有希望，它來自于社交媒體。人人都在Twitter, Facebook和其它平臺上暢所欲言，這樣一來，大家就有機會去深入了解記者的專題報道和影響力人物的興趣所在，這種現(xiàn)象前所未有。與那些行業(yè)電話簿和傳真機依然昂貴的年代不同，今天任何人都可以利用科技實現(xiàn)真正的人際互動，從而建立有意義的人際關(guān)系。當然，急吼吼地應(yīng)用技術(shù)手段并沒有什么好處。

????我們可以改一下古特溫?弗洛伊斯塔德教授的話，也許公關(guān)部門需要表現(xiàn)顯出“親近和關(guān)懷，甚至還有一點點愛”，這些“只有通過公共關(guān)系中的慢才能實現(xiàn)。”

????格里高利?加蘭特是面向記者和新聞行業(yè)的社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)Muck Rack的首席執(zhí)行官。他也是短文獎（Shorty Awards）的共同創(chuàng)始人，該獎項頒發(fā)給社交媒體的最佳作者。加蘭特為數(shù)家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司提供過咨詢服務(wù)，并在TechStars創(chuàng)業(yè)加速器擔任導(dǎo)師。

????It must have been a proud moment for McDonald's when they sold their millionth hamburger -- proving the success of Richard and Maurice McDonald's system of making meals quickly that milkshake machine salesman Ray Kroc recognized and ultimately scaled.

????Of course, a good thing can go too far. By 1984, McDonald's (MCD) cooked its 50 billionth hamburger, prompting Jerry Seinfeld to wonder why McDonalds is still counting. Just two years later McDonalds open a restaurant in Piazza di Spagna, Rome, which caused protests that sparked the slow food movement, and more generally the slow everything movement.

????If we charted the number of pitches sent out by the world's PR people since Bacon's Publicity Checker -- the first directory of journalists -- in 1952, it might resemble the chart of the number of burgers sold by McDonalds since its founding in 1940.

????Just as Carlo Petrini spearheaded the slow movement as the Golden Arches went up over Piazza di Spagna, journalists and bloggers are starting to speak up about the relentless volume of mail-merged pitches they're receiving that's been made possible by technology.

????The slow movement's Wikipedia page quotes professor Guttorm Fl?istad's summary of the philosophy:

????The only thing for certain is that everything changes. The rate of change increases. If you want to hang on you better speed up. That is the message of today. It could however be useful to remind everyone that our basic needs never change. The need to be seen and appreciated! It is the need to belong. The need for nearness and care, and for a little love! This is given only through slowness in human relations. In order to master changes, we have to recover slowness, reflection and togetherness. There we will find real renewal.

????Technology has posed a huge challenge to everyone's attention span, especially journalists. PR pros can now blast thousands of journalists with the same message with just a few clicks of a mouse. As PR and marketing departments set their sights increasingly on bloggers and "influencers" (a loosely defined industry term for any person with more than a couple Twitter followers), many more civilians' inboxes will face the assault journalists are suffering right now. Just like any arms race, the trend has been about figuring how to blast more people more quickly.

????However, social media offers hope. As everyone opens up on Twitter, Facebook (FB) and other platforms, there's an opportunity to spend time understanding a journalist's beats and an influencer's interests like never before. Unlike the days of expensive industry phone books and fax machines, anyone today can build meaningful relationships through real human interactions globally using technology. If they use technology the slow way.

????To adapt the professor's quote, perhaps there's a need in PR for "nearness and care, and for a little love", which "is given only through slowness in [public] relations."

????Gregory Galant's the CEO of Muck Rack, the social network for journalists and companies in the news. He's also the cocreator of the Shorty Awards which honors the best of social media. Galant advises several startups and is a mentor in the TechStars startup accelerator.