'professional mass media journalists are bound to these standards: objectivity, accuracy, truthfulness, fairness, public accountability and limitation of harm' he forgot to mention giving products a thumbs up in order to keep the advertisers sweet and keep magazines in the money.
If you can say anything about bloggers it's their truthfulness, objectivity and fairness is unsurpassed. More so (I find) than mass media journalists who often care more about what's new or 'trendy'. Bloggers aren't bound to the same restrictions as magazines and newspapers as we really don't have anything to lose. The majority of us don't make money, nor care about it. We just want to let people know our thoughts about beauty!
Oooh it makes my blood boil! Sorry for the long comment... I'm calm now. Promise.
Has he ever read (insert mainstream magazine title here) - talk about sucking up to the sponsors...
Conversely, I guess not all beauty blogs are made equal. There are those who can be easily swayed by a bag of booty but then...that's usually quite easy to spot.
You are right - it's an easy spot. He forgot that blogs have intelligent readers who quickly gauge the blog's personality. It's easy to be swayed by a bag of booty or whatever but that's not exclusive to bloggers! Anyone would love a bag of MAC or similar but that euphoria quickly dissipates...I forgive anyone a swayed post or two...but no more than that. Just think it was a cheap shot to try and influence bloggers and PRs to go via a network.
I think it's hilarious that he brought up trips. I've never received a trip! And the only paid trips I know of, were offered by Total Beauty themselves. And with their free Sneak Peek program, they are basically speaking of themselves.
Someone forgot to think before he wrote...
Nice reply though. I appreciate you taking the time to do it!! Well said. :) Jami
Emrah Kovacoglu is nothing other than a slimy salesman. His letter is clearly something he tried to write on a topical, newsworthy subject, but couldn't leave it at just that. He had to turn it into a sales tool for his network.
I wrote a rather lengthy post from another point of view: I'm one of those brands who shouldn't be talking to bloggers. You might find it an interesting read: Blogger Product Review Uproar
Thanks for posting this. He's biting that hand that helps feed him, namely us bloggers. Tomorrow we should hear a response from him to all the comments etc.
As for the US potential rules, it is just that- potential and no one knows what they may do( hopefully nothing, doens't the country have a lot more bigger issues at hand ?)
I also haven't heard any brand managers rethinking blogger relations. I doubt he will be able to tell PRs what to do.
I have a great relationship with most of my PRs and am never asked to give special treatment, or be postive etc. I certainly have never been paid nor would I want to be. I write what I write and put hours in a night on my site.
His whole piece was so unprofessional. It's all about slamming us so he can get business. Shame.
It's so obviously just a plug piece for his "network" - what a hypocrite!
I totally agree with Row - it's very easy to see when someone is giving something a thumbs up because it was free, and it's also easy to spot when a company is love bombing bloggers.
He's clearly not a blog reader - despite making money from them... He doesn't understand that people log onto blogs like this to get the negative - along with the glowing - reviews. We don't just want to know what to spend our last £10 on - we want to know the things that we should avoid spending our last £10 on... If it only spoke about the good things, it wouldn't be anywhere near as fun or useful to read.
A totally unbiased blog is in everyone's interest - including the brands. Food critics have always been honest - and it pushes restaurants to up their standards - but that didn't happen in beauty until blogs came along. If the product receives bad blog reviews, the brand can take note. I'm sure PRs understand how useful blogs can be at reaching a wider audience and getting product feedback - perhaps he needs to speak to a few more of them before going public with his views.
It beats me how anyone can read the vacuous rubbish that passes for reviews in a lot of the beauty press. I would much sooner get my information from blogs. You can spot prejudice a mile off anyway. I don't want middle men taking control of who talks to who either.
11 comments:
'professional mass media journalists are bound to these standards: objectivity, accuracy, truthfulness, fairness, public accountability and limitation of harm' he forgot to mention giving products a thumbs up in order to keep the advertisers sweet and keep magazines in the money.
If you can say anything about bloggers it's their truthfulness, objectivity and fairness is unsurpassed. More so (I find) than mass media journalists who often care more about what's new or 'trendy'. Bloggers aren't bound to the same restrictions as magazines and newspapers as we really don't have anything to lose. The majority of us don't make money, nor care about it. We just want to let people know our thoughts about beauty!
Oooh it makes my blood boil! Sorry for the long comment... I'm calm now. Promise.
Money?! Money?! I should be so lucky!
Has he ever read (insert mainstream magazine title here) - talk about sucking up to the sponsors...
Conversely, I guess not all beauty blogs are made equal. There are those who can be easily swayed by a bag of booty but then...that's usually quite easy to spot.
You are right - it's an easy spot. He forgot that blogs have intelligent readers who quickly gauge the blog's personality. It's easy to be swayed by a bag of booty or whatever but that's not exclusive to bloggers! Anyone would love a bag of MAC or similar but that euphoria quickly dissipates...I forgive anyone a swayed post or two...but no more than that. Just think it was a cheap shot to try and influence bloggers and PRs to go via a network.
I think it's hilarious that he brought up trips. I've never received a trip! And the only paid trips I know of, were offered by Total Beauty themselves. And with their free Sneak Peek program, they are basically speaking of themselves.
Someone forgot to think before he wrote...
Nice reply though. I appreciate you taking the time to do it!! Well said. :)
Jami
Emrah Kovacoglu is nothing other than a slimy salesman. His letter is clearly something he tried to write on a topical, newsworthy subject, but couldn't leave it at just that. He had to turn it into a sales tool for his network.
I wrote a rather lengthy post from another point of view: I'm one of those brands who shouldn't be talking to bloggers. You might find it an interesting read: Blogger Product Review Uproar
Thanks for posting this.
He's biting that hand that helps feed him, namely us bloggers. Tomorrow we should hear a response from him to all the comments etc.
As for the US potential rules, it is just that- potential and no one knows what they may do( hopefully nothing, doens't the country have a lot more bigger issues at hand ?)
I also haven't heard any brand managers rethinking blogger relations. I doubt he will be able to tell PRs what to do.
I have a great relationship with most of my PRs and am never asked to give special treatment, or be postive etc. I certainly have never been paid nor would I want to be. I write what I write and put hours in a night on my site.
His whole piece was so unprofessional. It's all about slamming us so he can get business. Shame.
It's so obviously just a plug piece for his "network" - what a hypocrite!
I totally agree with Row - it's very easy to see when someone is giving something a thumbs up because it was free, and it's also easy to spot when a company is love bombing bloggers.
I take no advertising on my blog, and have only ever gotten samples from YOU to review on my blog!
I say what I think on my blog, and I don't care what beauty editors think is trendy--if it's gorgeous, great, if not, well, I say so!
He's clearly not a blog reader - despite making money from them... He doesn't understand that people log onto blogs like this to get the negative - along with the glowing - reviews. We don't just want to know what to spend our last £10 on - we want to know the things that we should avoid spending our last £10 on... If it only spoke about the good things, it wouldn't be anywhere near as fun or useful to read.
A totally unbiased blog is in everyone's interest - including the brands. Food critics have always been honest - and it pushes restaurants to up their standards - but that didn't happen in beauty until blogs came along. If the product receives bad blog reviews, the brand can take note. I'm sure PRs understand how useful blogs can be at reaching a wider audience and getting product feedback - perhaps he needs to speak to a few more of them before going public with his views.
It beats me how anyone can read the vacuous rubbish that passes for reviews in a lot of the beauty press. I would much sooner get my information from blogs. You can spot prejudice a mile off anyway. I don't want middle men taking control of who talks to who either.
I think reading your article was the best thing I did today. Very fine work!
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