Posted by: Joseph Hershey
This article captures my thoughts on deceptive advertising in the new media.
If you’re paid to advertise and opinion via the blogging word of mouth marketing (womm) machine, you have to claim it. This medium depends upon a certain level of authenticity and trust in your intent and motivation in making certain assertions or other statement of like, desire, love, or hate.
It sucks when someone tells me that they really like software program ‘X’, only for me to find out that they were really just talking through their wallet. Trust betrayed. Asshole.
This happened to me not to long ago. I was listening to a technology related podcast, no not mine, for the first time. I was gigged and excited. The podcast had been recommended to me by my cohort in new media podcasting — Ed Maurer.
The guy started to go on about program ‘X’, how he’s used it, how he loves it, blah blah blah, and then it came out — he recounted some contrived line of crap that was so blatantly half ass scripted. He read it like the same, contrived, like crap, and half ass. Oh oh. I had a bad feeling in my stomach.
I had to find out whether he was getting sponsored by said program ‘X’. He didn’t say so. He talked of and laid on accolades to program ‘X’ like he was being honest. Until he read the contrived line half ass. He hasn’t really used this program.
I checked. No where did he come out and disclose that he was getting paid to make mention of the program, not leading up, nor near or afterward. He just gave it out. Ouch.
Well I stopped the podcast and went to his website. There, on the top right, in full frontal nudity was a sponsor link for program ‘X’.
sigh.
The dude was sponsored by the makers of program ‘X’, but he never said so in his podcast. I downloaded his podcast and was gigged to listen to him. I never needed to go to, or probably would have ever bothered to go to his website. I would have taken his endorsement as genuine.
I was pissed. I couldn’t believe it. Such outright deception in a podcast medium that I love.
That’s not what podcasting, blogging’s about.
I made a even keeled anonymous comment on his episodes’ post. I just said something to the affect, “hey, you really should say you’re sponsored, give disclosure, when you throw yourself out as giving such a positive product endorsement”.
lol.
It’s a monitored comment blog — no one sees your comments till he reviews and approves. I never saw my comment up on the blog. So much for listening, having a conversation, and acknowledging the negative critique by letting it be part of the conversation on the blog. I’m not surprised. But I am disappointed. I just ran into a sell out.
Needless to say, I never listened to this guy again, and I started telling my story to other people, turning them away from his podcast too.
So, back to the FTC…
According to the FTC, you can still weasel out of full disclosure. You can bury, hide, make very small print, or otherwise not so CLEAR, to say you are sponsored by makers of program ‘X’. You can put the disclosure anywhere on your public website, easy or hard to tie to the actual statements of sponsored endorsement. And in the case of the podcaster in this sad story, it’s within your discretion to put the sponsor link on your website where no one subscribing through ITUNES ever has need to go to or see.
It’s a confidence CON. Don’t be conned. Demand full disclosure from your favorite new media blogger, podcaster.
Keep it real.
