Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/David Landis (public relations executive)

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. MBisanz ^talk 00:41, 25 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

David Landis (public relations executive)[edit]

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Despite having 28 citations, I do not see any that are actually acceptable/verify notability. Sources include award sites, interviews, brief mentions, large lists, etc., but nothing that suggests this professional is of historical significance. Founder of the 113th largest private PR firm. A vanity page with linkbait sprinkled in. CorporateM (Talk) 16:22, 7 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Coutesy ping to @Hasteur: who accepted this at AfC. Undecided on notability at this time. --ThaddeusB (talk) 16:42, 8 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: As we (AFC volunteers) have been instructed to lower our standards in what we pass to mainspace because "Creating a article is too hard for newbies", I note that being the president of the PR firm for many significant companies, in addition to being involved with several different other organizations suggests in my mind of a reasonable chance at BLP notability. I also note that CorporateM hasn't tried contacting the author of the article, nor tagged the article with maintenance templates, nor attempted to clean up the article themselves. AfD is not cleanup, as I strongly suspect that this article will pass if given some polish. As I did a simple search on the source Continually named “one of the Bay Area’s top firms” by the San Francisco Business Times, PR Source Code, and PR Week, San Francisco-based Landis Communications Inc. (LCI) this year is entering nearly 25 years of doing business in the Bay Area. I can only surmise that CorporateM failed to do their due diligence (WP:BEFORE) prior to nominating. Hasteur (talk) 19:18, 8 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In some cases/markets winning awards can impart notability, but this is not the case within the PR field, where awards are especially abundant. I don't think the sources mentioned above about the firm he founded winning awards qualify this BLP for a page. CorporateM (Talk) 19:26, 8 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Keep: I believe the David Landis article qualifies for publication for the following reasons, which I will take to the AFD page:

Landis is the senior executive of a well-established company or organization. His company’s national ranking (#113 per CorporateM’s linked reference) among ALL PR firms, not just “independent” (per CorporateM) PR firms, is notable. According to the PR industry research firm IBISWorld, more than 30,000 PR firms operate in the U.S., which places Landis’ company’s ranking in the top 1 percent.
Landis is the current co-president of a large joint venture.
Landis was the first openly gay president of a large international consortium of PR firms.
Landis led numerous notable PR initiatives including Match.com and Old Navy retail store launches. Many of his most notable achievements pre-date or occurred during the nascent years of the Internet and linkable references are scant. Hence, verification of his early achievements must be considered as the sum of parts, rather than a single, convenient and recent linkable reference.
Landis is regionally notable for his, and his company’s, philanthropic activities. He has served on the boards of numerous large non-profit organizations in the SF Bay Area.
CorporateM comments that all of the references are unacceptable, but in fact they all support statements in the articles. CorporateM notes that references do not support Landis being “of historical significance.” While a counter argument can easily be made that his activism on behalf of the LGTB community in the SF Bay Area is historically important (his industry achievements notwithstanding), the more germane argument is not whether Landis is of “historical significance,” but if he is a senior business executive whose inclusion in a Wikipedia article therefore qualifies by rule.
The article is not a “vanity page.” It details notable substantiated events in Landis’ long career. Hence the “vanity” interpretation is subjective, not objective. In the course of researching the article, I found no scandals, criticism or controversy pertaining to Landis, which, if I had discovered such information, I would have included. I only incorporated what information I was able to find online, and endeavored to create an article that was thorough and “encyclopedic” in scope.
I hold CorporateM’s comment that “awards are especially abundant” in the PR field to the same verifiability standards that s/he applies to the Landis articles. What is her or his source for this claim? This is another subjective assertion. Awards programs for exceptional individual and organizational achievement are commonplace across all industries.

I hope that CorporateM and other interested parties will work toward creating a better article, rather than summarily deleting this and the Landis Communications article. (Please excuse any formatting errors. I'm not a power user - yet!) Thank you. --User:Sfntv94 — Preceding undated comment added 00:14, December 9, 2014‎ (UTC)

Note: This debate has been included in the list of California-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 16:49, 9 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Businesspeople-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 16:49, 9 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your comments @Sfntv94. I see that the LCI and David Landis articles have been a significant focus of your contributions to Wikipedia and wanted to give you a heads up that if you work at LCI, you should really disclose a potential conflict of interest in this discussion. A couple links for additional information can be found here and at WP:COI. If this doesn't apply to you, then naturally just ignore me. CorporateM (Talk) 22:50, 12 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Delete The references do not support notability. The article has lots of name dropping - an AIDS documentary here, a Vice President of Romance there - but nothing in the sources actually connects Landis to those things. Maybe, like a good PR person, he has promoted his clients while staying invisible himself - but invisible people don't get Wikipedia articles. --MelanieN (talk) 03:44, 13 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Natg 19 (talk) 08:38, 15 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Delete Regardless of notability, the article itslef is hopelessly promotional, consisting essentially of name dropping. DGG ( talk ) 23:58, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.