According to Sol: "A Blackberry's ability to fit into a shirt pocket or clip onto a belt is irrelevant to women. Of greater relevance is whether a Blackberry fits into a handbag, whether the keyboard can be locked to prevent unintentional dialling from knocking against sunglasses; whether the screen can be cleaned if it's picked up by a toddler with sticky fingers; whether the screen is scratch proof from keys in the handbag; and whether there's a choice of colours."

If that wasn't enough, he followed up with the following words of wisdom: "Women are likelier to be interested in services and applications that minimise travel time to Saturday-morning soccer practice to school pick-ups and can keep track of grocery items that need to be restocked. Don't forget that it's women who love to talk on the phone while performing other tasks. It's women that have so much to gain from the wireless age, especially if they can bathe a baby or prepare dinner and talk to their mother on the phone at the same time. Women are great multi-taskers. "

We couldn't quite fit the women in our life around those labels, and nor could the women who responded on Telstra's nowwearetalking blog.

Sol's comments were sexist, simplistic, and offensive and he should have owned up, apologised, and promised to do better. Instead, Telstra seems to have taken the attitude that the criticism was a put-up job from its competitors. Telstra's Andrew Maiden [pardon us while we insert finger into throat], opined "Could this be the continuation of personal attacks from competitors whose performance in the market is not so great. Look at Sol's record (four times more senior women executives than when he arrived), compare it with the CEOs of other companies, and then judge for yourself."

And Mary Williams [no indication of where her bread's being buttered], responded: "What's all the fuss about Sol Trujillo and women? Sounds like Telstra's competitors are playing the man not the ball. Facts are: Sol arrived in a company that took 100 years to appoint its first female senior executive; Sol took 6 months to quadruple that number. He has been on the record promoting the virtues of a diverse workforce, including the point that, in the battle to recruit good staff, organisations are gonna have to be flexible accommodating parents' needs. And he is a leader in the Hispanic community in the US, well known for sponsoring scholarships designed to give opportunities to capable Hispanic business people. If there's one thing Sol ain't, it's sexist."

Does it seem to have been cut from the same cookie dough to you? Does it seem a particularly stupid tactic? Defending the indefensible actually exacerbates the original offence. Someone really should talk to Telstra about their PR. It's not fooling anyone. It's increasingly seen as a reflection of Sol's take-no-prisoners personality, and seriously stuffed-up values.

UPDATE: We just read Crikey, and Optus (surprise, surprise) isn't all that impressed with Telstra's PR either.

"Optus director of corporate and regulatory affairs, Paul Fletcher, branded Telstra's public policy under CEO Sol Trujillo, and his head of Public Policy and Communications Phil Burgess, a tirade of “hyperbolic pleadings” from 'some self interested short term visitors'.

In an unprecedented analysis of a rival carrier's PR performance, Fletcher outlined a litany of Telstra's perceived failures, putting forward his take on the five key reasons behind Telstra's PR woes:

• Telstra's style and tone is shrill, hyperbolic and personal.
• Telstra demands everything be done its way or not at all.
• The advocacy is not fact based but the opposite – an approach which draws on many unattractive features of the world of partisan US think tanks.
• They have not sought to understand local conditions, but have assumed that the Australian facts can be force-fitted to a US template.
• Their central argument about the effects of regulation is simply wrong."