Latest in advertising: hogging the blogs
December 23 2006 at 02:30PM
By Laurence Benhamou
The curtain has been pulled on a deceptive new advertising tactic where companies camouflage ads as product praise in online postings masquerading as independent blogs. Several companies have been exposed for launching fake blogs known as "flogs", in a practice that coincides with an increase in the number of real bloggers secretly paid to endorse products.
Blogs, a term derived from "web logs", are rampant on the Internet and are considered to be online journals in which people post personal opinions, musings and more. Online firm Technorati reported this week it was tracking more than 63 suspicious blogs. Wily marketers have infiltrated the blogging world, paying for favourable commentary on products. However, posting product commentary without alerting readers that bloggers were compensated for their opinions is unethical and potentially illegal, according to US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules.
Sony Computer Entertainment America, a subsidiary of Japan-based Sony, admitted last week that it created a bogus blog baptised "All I want for Christmas is a PlayStation Portable". The blog was passed off as the work of an amateur hip-hop musician named "Charlie" who enthusiastically praised the PlayStation. In a short message on the Charlie blog, Sony apologised for being "a little too clever".
The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, came under fire in October for a blog portrayed as an online journal kept by a typical US couple, named Laura and Jim, as they travelled across the US in a motor home. The couple's blog praised Wal-Mart for letting them park their hulking recreational vehicle overnight in store parking lots and told of encountering Wal-Mart workers nationwide who praised their jobs and their employer.
Business Week magazine revealed that the couple's cross-country trip was sponsored by Wal-Mart - a fact unmentioned in the online postings. Companies such as PayPerPost and ReviewMe, which link bloggers and advertisers, are fuelling the phenomenon. PayPerPost, a five-month-old pioneer in the practice, is true to its name regarding favourable online blog postings.
On ReviewMe, bloggers in any language can offer to post their thoughts on products for $500 a review. ReviewMe explains on its site that it cannot guarantee favourable reviews, but most of the posted opinions are positive. Fake "independent" blogs by companies or secretly manipulated by advertisers break US law by misleading consumers, according to federal regulators. The FTC warned this month that "such connection must be fully disclosed" and that its staff "will determine on a case-by-case basis whether to recommend law enforcement actions to the commission".
Faced with the FTC threat, PayPerPost announced this week it would change its service agreement to require bloggers who were being paid to say so in their postings. Many PayPerPost competitors have yet to adopt such a rule, and the torrent of user-generated videos, images and text flooding the Internet has aspiring advertisers navigating uncharted waters.
Attention-seekers from fledgling music bands to major corporations have seen clever online content "go viral" - lingo for being spread for free worldwide by people using e-mail and online links. Both video-sharing website YouTube and teen-oriented social networking MySpace, for example, have become venues for companies to establish promotional pages. - Sapa-AFP
This article was originally published on page 4 of The Star on December 23, 2006
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