Archive for the ‘ethics’ Category

I’m likely not adding a lot to the discussion here, but my column today on CBC Radio’s The Business Network dealt with the Microsoft laptop giveaway. You can listen to it online, or read the script here.

“Big targets are easy to hit. And in the crosshairs of the blogosphere and the mainstream media right now are Microsoft and its PR firm, industry giant Edelman.

What turned the holidays sour for these two company? Ironically enough, trying to give stuff away.

Microsoft and Edelman used a Microsoft site called The Hive to contact nearly 100 bloggers at the top of the influence list. The bloggers were offered a hot new notebook preloaded with Windows Vista and other software to review over the holidays. The bloggers were told that once they’d tried the stuff out, it could be sent back, donated to charity, or kept.

Now there are two streams of invective flowing like lava from high ethical peaks. One is from angry bloggers, critical of the companies for not being more forthcoming, and for trying to buy good PR.

The other is coming from the mainstream media, which has pointed out that readers should put their trust in… well, the mainstream media, and not those ethically-challenged bloggers. Insert harrumph here.

There’s no doubt that this is a gray zone. Some bloggers either were silent or lied about where this new computer came from. Others hastily backpedaled and changed their mind about what to do with it after the review period.

And it’s true that mainstream media have far more transparent guidelines for accepting products or services than do blogs. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that little sentence at the end of a sports car road test that reads “This article was prepared based on travel to the Luxo Hotel and Spa provided by the manufacturer” is enough to clear a writer’s conscience.

But I think this story’s getting more attention than it deserves, for two reasons. First reason: you’re dealing with Microsoft, which has a dedicated group of detractors in the tech world, and Edelman, which is a whipping boy for bad blog-related PR strategies right now.

Lots of small and large companies give products and services away for review – cell phone companies, software, car companies. But nobody gets watched like Microsoft.

And second, it’s an opportunity for journalists to land punches on the blogosphere and on Microsoft at the same time.

While this might not have been the perfect strategy, all this outrage is a bit over the top.
For the Business Network, I’m Bob LeDrew in Ottawa. Happy New Year!”

One additional point: I take the MSM to task a little in the script for preaching from the ethical mountaintop, but I could have said more. Look at the junkets that journalists are offered for movie or video game marketing. This Chicago Reader book excerpt describes that phenomenon, as does Eric Snider’s “I was a junket whore.” (Of course, Snider was banned by Paramount from further junketeering for writing about it…)

My point in talking about this is that journalists are far from pristine on the whole giveaway field, and I think it’s chuckle-worthy that they’re piling on MS, Edelman, and bloggers for the whole Ferrari giveaway scheme.

Ciao,
Bob.