Nikon Blogger Campaign Draws Criticism
May 31, 2007 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
Bribe, or "evaluation opportunity," that is the question.
Update: (After getting called out on my claim that Amanda Chapel is choosing name calling and contradiction over debate, I have to admit most of her recent comments have been very much in the debate end of the spectrum, with liberal name-calling thrown in for good measure. Apologies for my knee-jerk reaction and lazy research.)
When I said no one is criticizing Nikon’s campaign of offering influential bloggers free use of one of their top digital SLRs, I didn’t count on Strumpette. Two posts later, the campaign has now been called blogola, bribery and unethical.
As the self-declared gadfly of American public relations, the anonymous author (or authors), writing under the pseudonym Amanda Chapel, attacks Nikon, the bloggers, Tom Biro and agency MWW Group.
Some others, using their real names, have piled on, one calling the loans of high-end cameras to 50 bloggers "fraud and manipulation of the highest order."
I often find "Amanda’s" predictably provocative personal attacks tiresome when I trip across them in the comments of various blogs. With this latest assault on PR industry folks, "she" does a decent job of arguing "her" case, before finally sinking into name calling and contradiction (in place of debate).
Previous posts:
- No One’s Slamming the Nikon Blogger "Loan" Program
- The Ethics of Ghost Blogging
- Anonymous Veteran PR Exec Uses Bazooka on Entry-Level PR Blogger
Tags: strumpette, amanda chapel, nikon d80, bloggers, mww group, tom biro, public relations, bribery, fraud, allegations
“Eric,”
As to your quote: “Before finally sinking into name calling and contradiction (in place of debate)”… what do you call that?!
Excuse me but: 1) what are you talking about; 2) what’s the context; and 3) who the fuck are you and what do you know?
Sincerely,
- Amanda
I think it’s hypocritically self-serving of PR professionals to criticize this. Sure… it’s fine for companies to pay a PR person to convince bloggers to talk about their product, but as soon as they cut out the middleman…
They could send out 1,000 cameras for what it costs to try to get a PR person to reach out to 1,000 bloggers. Which scenario is better for the company? Which scenario is better for bloggers?
Let market forces decide this. Readers will either trust their favorite bloggers or they won’t, and those are risk the blogger can decide for themselves when considering whether to accept the offer and whether or not to disclose about it when posting. I don’t feel any safer as a consumer because a few self-appointed watchdogs are telling me not to trust someone because they accepted a free camera.