The cost of ethics: Influence peddling in the blogosphere

Several events have sparked a debate about whether an ethical threshold has been crossed: the decision by Marqui, a company in Vancouver, to pay bloggers to mention the company; Newsweek‘srevelation that a group of 100 technologists in Silicon Valley accepts free products and services in return for word-of-mouth endorsements (or not); and the news that BzzAgent, a 3-year-old Boston company, has enlisted thousands of volunteers to generate buzz for clients? products, sometimes in ethically questionable ways.

The ground is shifting so rapidly that the Word of Mouth Marketing Association last week released a draft Code of Ethics to help define the rules of the road. (The group invites the public to participate in the process.) —J.D. LasicaThe cost of ethics: Influence peddling in the blogosphere (Online Journalism Review)

2 thoughts on “The cost of ethics: Influence peddling in the blogosphere

  1. “Word of mouth” is the brass ring for marketers; it’s also, perhaps, the very definition of the blogosphere. The blogosphere has an economy, too, that’s as invisible as it is “open.” Although I value (nay, treasure!) the “voice of the people” that is democratically available via the blogosphere, I also sometimes wonder if traditional commercial publishing is actually more honest in this regard.

  2. Companies will have to pay Vaspers the Grate to bad-mouth them, otherwise I shall ignore them.

    I have issued a Blog Pro Survey, which I want Jerz to take, if he will go to:

    http://www.blogpros.blogspot.com

    But I am against “Pro Bloggers”. In other words, you cannot pay me to say nice things about you. But, if your product is good, like Squarepusher music, or Blue Moon beer, or General Motors automobiles, or K-Swiss tennis shoes, or Morton Subotnick electronic compositions, or Jacques Derrida philosophy, or the Bible revelations, I will proclaim, for free, how great it is.

    Paid bloggers? Prostitutes!

    Here’s the workable compromise: I will blog for a corporation, only on general topics related to your industry, but not on your specific products. If you want me to drivel on about how great you are, piss off, you schmuck.

    But if you want me to discourse about general topics, so you look like an expert, without my pandering to your specific products, that’s fine.

    You’ve just been vasperized.

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