Lots of conversation today about fake blogs, which got me thinking, just what is a "fake blog?"
The McDonalds fake french fry (FFF, also stands for fake fast food) blog is a creation from McDonald’s ad people, but it was supposed to be poking fun at the "whole food that looks like dead people phenomenon." So is it really "fake?" Or should we criticize it not for being fake, but simply for being lame.
Pepsi Girl blog wasn’t covertly sponsored by Pepsi, so not "fake" in that sense. According to the latest info from AdRants, Pepsi apparently had nothing to do with it, but it was developed as a joke. So it wasn’t authentic, or "real" as we have come to expect of blogs. But does that make it fake?
Here’s a round-up of the fake blog opinions I read today:
Jim Logan ; Matthew Oliphant/BusinessLogs (you’ll find the links to the mentioned blogs in this post); BL Ochman’s original post on the Pepsi Girl blog ; InsideBlogging ; Dan Gillmor ; courtesy Dan, I found Kevin Dugan’s Strategic Public Relations blog and his review of the FFF blog as well as a later post Fake Blogs Should Sponsor Real Blogs ; Andy Lark
So what’s a fake blog?
On one hand, I agree with Andy Lark — these were jokes, and perhaps we should lighten up a bit, like ’em/love ’em/hate ’em, have a laugh and get back to something more interesting than a styrofoam french fry that is supposed to look like Abe Lincoln.
On the other hand…. we need to figure out how to tell a blog that has the reporting or opinions of a true live person (whether we think they are a wing nut or not) from a blog that is an invented piece of fiction (funny or sad, effective or lame, it doesn’t matter). Why? Because we rely on blogs to be the voices of real people, people like us with whom we will agree some of the time, and disagree others. People we can respect and trust.
So I’ll make a suggestion… if you want to write a fictional blog, go ahead. Just tell the readers somewhere … like in the "about this blog" link … That’s what we do with books, right. We tell the reader whether they are reading Fiction or Non-fiction 🙂
Now, the big brand marketers are definitely going to continue to try and manipulate blogs. By creating fake/covert ones, or by trying to pull the wool over our eyes about the "buzz" something has (example: the recent Ogilvy-Mather stunt for client American Express. For details, BL Ochman summarizes it here.) And it will probably get more subtle, even as we get better at sniffing out fakes. They just won’t be able to help themselves. In the end, they probably won’t do much damage to their brands.
But, of course, they won’t do them any real good either, and that’s the point that they miss: done right, real blogs can actually help build the brand.
Of more concern to me is the smaller firms who follow in the fake blogger’s footsteps. Their brands likely won’t be strong enough to survive a serious mis-step in the blogosphere. They have to get it right the first time.
Which is why I was so pleased by the news out of NY PR firm CooperKatz today. As covered in MarketingVox: Congratulations Steve Rubel: CooperKatz Makes Blog PR Practice Out of Exec’s Blog.
Steve’s own post at Micro Persuasion provides more detail. CooperKatz’s approach, and public commitment to "doing it right" is a much better example for companies trying to figure out the blogosphere than some of the other examples we’ve been reading about this week.
Do you want fries with that?
Micro Persuasion says
Someone Will Fake a Fake Blog
Susan Getgood asks
Kevin Dugan says
“So I’ll make a suggestion… if you want to write a fictional blog, go ahead. Just tell the readers somewhere … like in the “about this blog” link … That’s what we do with books, right. We tell the reader whether they are reading Fiction or Non-fiction.”
Actually, this is perfect. I think this puts a fine point on, and hopefully an end to, the discussion.
Hopefully everyone will “fake off” now?
🙂
Susan Getgood says
Thanks for the comment, Kevin, and for visiting Marketing Roadmaps. I think we will see more and more fictional blogs, as distinct from covert corporate blogs, whether parodies or short stories or novels or whatever. And that’s fine, as long as the reader knows that she is reading something created and crafted to tell a story or make a point. It’s not that different from a historical novel — fictional characters placed in reality to tell the story. I wouldn’t even mind if a company did it, as long as it was honest, and told us, up front: “this is something we thought would entertain you, but these aren’t real people.” And it would help if it was really entertaining and not lame 🙂
Covert corporate blogs… that is another story.
PUSHlogs says
Marketing Roadmaps: When is a blog a “fake blog”?
Marketing Roadmaps: When is a blog a “fake blog”?
Yvonne DiVita says
Fake blogs…blogs without comments turned on…blogs without an About Us page and an obvious contact link…the verdict is still out on the authenticity of these kinds of writing. A blog is a communications tool… citizen publishing. I don’t think we can put restrictions on that. I do think the old adage– buyer beware– is truer than ever. It’s up to the reader to search out the true bloggers, true reporters, true voices, from the not so true, or blatantly fake. IMHO
Susan Getgood says
I agree, it is very much buyer beware… as much as it ever was. I suspect we would even enjoy the parodies and the fictional blogs, if they were clearly labeled as fiction, instead of masquerading as something else. No different than how some of us enjoy films like Spinal Tap (which I love) and Blair Witch (which I never saw) — they use the documentary form but are clearly fictional. A well written blog-like thing that did the same, could be okay, even great. As long as we knew what it was.