Took this from marketmanila.com, i hope Mad Crowd Media learns a valuable lesson, lets enjoy teaching them a valuable lesson, shall we?
x————————-Statement starts here————————–x
This is a RANT. So don’t read it if you don’t like my rants, which have been almost nonexistent this year. In fact, I am not sure if I wrote a SINGLE full blown rant since January.
Many of the regular readers of this blog, and there are a few thousand of them if my statistics are to be believed, know that I have frequently and CATEGORICALLY stated that this is a NON-COMMERCIAL blog. That I don’t make any money from it. I have no advertising. That I have RARELY, if EVER, accepted invitations to restaurant openings, product launches, groceries, food stores, markets, etc. I have never written a post on a restaurant or a product unless I have used it or purchased it myself. I even wrote a post on “Why I don’t write for (Local) Newspapers/Magazines and Refuse to Accept Freebies” which got comments from at least two prominent food/lifestyle writers, who took some exception to issues I raised regarding intellectual property rights, journalistic ethics, etc.
And in one of my response comments on that post I wrote this:
Here are some interesting internet links on ethics in journalism… I think any serious journalist, food writers and editors included, (AND BLOG OWNERS AS WELL) should read the relevant parts of at least the first link to the NY Times with respect to gifts, freebies, travel, accomodations, free tickets, being “incognito” to experience as any other citizen would, etc…
The New York Times Company Policy on Ethics and Journalism
Journalism Ethics: Gift and Meal Ethics (covering excerpts from the Chicago Tribune, LA Times, + 4 other papers
You are what you eat : a commentary specifically on food journalism ethics
Statement of Journalistic Ethics by the Daily Press, Inc.
Basically, what they say is that journalists, including food writers, SHOULD NOT ACCEPT FREEBIES. And don’t write me to tell me we are different because we are a poorer country. Please. Read and learn.
So what has Marketman so hot and bothered today? Let me first say that I receive dozens, sometimes over a hundred comments and emails a day. I try to answer many of them, but I have started ignoring others when they are pointless (in my opinion), ask me to do their homework (2-3 a day from highschool and college students who cannot even politely ask me to do their homework!), are obviously addressed to someone else (e.g., a store I wrote about), or ask for things like a reservation for 8 people at 8 pm and why am I such an asshole that I don’t return emails confirming their table (seriously, I get these 1-2x a month!). Almost daily, I field requests for me to feature some restaurant, food business, stall, food product, etc. and I almost always answer with a short email letting them know that I don’t do things like that. Sometimes people are just thick. So I let it go if it’s a one off request. I might bite my fingers on the second attempt. I rarely suffer a third. And after that, you are well and truly asking for a RANT of Marketman proportions…
1. THE FIRST EMAIL FROM MAD CROWD MEDIA, June 6, 2008 - verbatim (bold highlight mine):
Re: Business proposal
Hi,
I was surfing and came across your blog.
I\’m Aisha, an associate of Mad Crowd Media.
Please visit our website for more information about us.
http://www.madcrowdmedia.com
Our Client Nestle is interested in getting you to blog about one of their new products.
You will be compensated per blog entry.
This request is quite urgent.
If you could contact me as soon as possible if you are interested, that would be great.
Kind Regards,
Aisha
——-
Aisha Sofia L. Abubakr
Mad Crowd Media
216 FRDC Building
106 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave
Ugong, Pasig City, MM
Philippines
aisha_abubakr@madcrowdmedia.com
Yahoo ID: aisha_sofia_15
Mobile: +63 (917) 502-7494
—
Aisha Abubakr
http://www.madcrowdmedia.com
Despite the completely offensive nature of this email, I looked the other way. Why? Because it was the first contact from Mad Crowd Media, because I know some people at Nestle, because I know some of my readers are working at Nestle and I hoped that this was just a young person’s error in judgment that if I turned the other cheek I could stomach it. I know I must have answered this email, stating something like “This is a non-commercial blog, if you have read several posts, you would know that I do not write positive reviews in exchange for being paid” or if totally nonplussed, I just simply did not answer it. But why does this bother me so? Does the President of Nestle Philippines KNOW that his/her marketing department uses outfits such as MAD CROWD MEDIA to effectively BUY IT GOOD EXPOSURE on blogs? Doesn’t a post such as this one, that will be read by several thousand if not tens of thousands of PRECISELY the target market of Nestle food products, simply confirm that one cannot TRUST what a blogger writes unless they have built up a reputation of credibility and now, in my opinion, OUTRIGHT STATES THAT THEY HAVE NOT BEEN PAID TO WRITE A GLOWING REVIEW OF A PRODUCT/SERVICE? Are ETHICAL considerations completely a non-issue for situations such as this??? And now where oh where are all of those people who were offended when I stated many months back that this kind of thing was fairly common in Philippine media??? MAD CROWD MEDIA didn’t even bother to mask the name of the CLIENT, duhhh.
2. THE SECOND EMAIL FROM MAD CROWD MEDIA, August 12, 2008 - verbatim (bold highlight mine):
Blog advertorial
Hi,
I\’m Aisha an associate from Mad Crowd Media. One of our clients are very interested in getting your blog Market Manila for an advertorial. We will compensate you for the one post.
Please let me know if you are interested.
Much thanks.
———————
Aisha Sofia L. Abubakr
Mad Crowd Media
216 FRDC Building
106 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave
Ugong, Pasig City, MM
Philippines
aisha_abubakr@madcrowdmedia.com
Yahoo ID: aisha_sofia_15
Mobile: +63 (917) 502-7494
——-
This communication contains information which is confidential and may
also be privileged. It is for the exclusive use of the addressee. If
you are not the addressee please note that any distribution,
reproduction, copying, publication or use of this communication or the
information in it is prohibited. If you have received this
communication in error, please contact us immediately and also delete
the communication from your computer.
—
Aisha Abubakr
www.madcrowdmedia.com
This is the second email I got from Mad Crowd Media, and at least they clearly disclose it is a paid advertorial, which if they researched their target, me, they would know I don’t do. In this email, at least they do not disclose the name of the client. And unlike the first email, this one now carries a “confidential paragraph…” Good grief… how can this possibly be confidential? Shouldn’t the consumers know that MAD CROWD MEDIA PAYS OUTRIGHT FOR PEOPLE TO SAY GOOD THINGS ABOUT THEIR CLIENT’S PRODUCTS??? They have some nerve telling me to keep this offensive type of email confidential when I didn’t do any business with them, never asked them to contact me in any way, shape or form? And as a paid advertorial, even local newspapers put fine print that say “Paid Advertorial” - what are the chances that bloggers who wrote about this specific product wrote “Paid Advertorial”???
3. THE THIRD EMAIL FROM MAD CROWD MEDIA, August 29, 2008 - verbatim (bold highlight mine):
Re: Exclusive Blogger Event \”7,100 Flavors\”
Good day!
You are cordially invited to a specially exclusive blogger event in cooperation with Mad Crowd Media. The theme is ╲7,100 Flavors╡.
There will be three of the BEST chefs in Manila in an intimate dinner sponsored by Orbit Gum with Xylitol.
You will experience a variety of different masterpiece dishes with the chefs sitting at the table and describing the idea behind each dish/course.
Tentatively we are booked at Bistro Filipino on September 15,2008 at 7PM.
The Client actually browsed through and specifically requested for you.
We hope you can make it. If there are any conflicts with the said schedule please let me know, because we might be able to work something out.
Of course you will be compensated to create an editorial about your experience.
How much would you guys be able to do the editorial for? Usually, we base compensation on the blogstats of a particular blog.
Please send me a confirmation email if ever insuring your attendance and name on the guest list.
Please also feel free to contact me for any questions and/or concerns.
Much Thanks.
———————
> Aisha Sofia L. Abubakr
> Director for Advertising
>
> (Same contact details as first email deleted for brevity)
This third email starts off in a similar vein, and it sounds like a dinner in exchange for my munching on gum to remove the presumably offensive post dining tastes in one’s mouth. But then, WHAM, they say, “Of course you will be compensated to create an editorial about your experience. How much would you guys be able to do the editorial for? Usually, we base compensation on the blogstats of a particular blog.” Need I say more? And this time, they put the client’s name again!
4. THE FOURTH EMAIL FROM MAD CROWD MEDIA, September 10, 2008 - verbatim (bold highlight mine):
Re: Exclusive Blogger Event \”7,100 Flavors\”
Good day!
You are cordially invited to a specially exclusive blogger event in
cooperation with Mad Crowd Media. The theme is ╲7,100 Flavors╡.
There will be three of the BEST chefs in Manila in an intimate dinner
sponsored by Orbit Gum with Xylitol.
You will experience a variety of different masterpiece dishes with the
chefs sitting at the table and describing the idea behind each
dish/course.
Tentatively we are booked at Bistro Filipino on September 15,2008 at 7PM.
The Client specifically requested for you.
We hope you can make it. If there are any conflicts with the said schedule
please let me know, because we might be able to work something out.
Of course you will be compensated to create an editorial about your
experience.How much would you guys charge for this type of editorial?
Please send me a confirmation email if ever insuring your attendance and
name on the guest list.
Please also feel free to contact me for any questions and/or concerns.
Much Thanks.
——————-
> ———————
> Aisha Sofia L. Abubakr
> Director for Advertising
>
> (Same contact details as first email deleted for brevity.)
This is the fourth email that I have copies of (there may have been more that I deleted). It is a repeat invite to the same event as the third email.
WELL, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Thank you MAD CROWD MEDIA for confirming with your repeated emails over the past three months that YOU BUY GOOD EDITORIALS OR POSTS on blogs for well-known multinational and consumer goods companies. Thank you for confirming for my many thousands of readers that this practice isn’t shrouded in mystery, complete with unmarked brown envelopes changing hands, and that instead, you appear to see nothing wrong with it at all, going as far as to name the companies that pay you good money to do this. And thank you for sending me the emails that are now the crux of this post so that readers of blogs can see for themselves just how discerning they should be when they read about one product or another on a blog. I DO NOT WRITE POSITIVE REVIEWS IN EXCHANGE FOR MONEY. IS THAT CLEAR NOW MAD CROWD MEDIA? AND I PROBABLY WOULD NOT READ A BLOG THAT ACCEPTED OFFERS SUCH AS YOURS. I hope you will stop sending me any more of these offensive emails. GOT IT?
And here is the final nuclear missile, click on this link to MADCROWDMEDIA to see all of their 94(!) partner “publishers,” who while not defined, have apparently cooperated/partnered with MADCROWDMEDIA, whether compensated/paid/given some benefit, or NOT. One CANNOT conclude that just because they are a partner, that they have been paid to write a positive editorial on behalf of a MADCROWDMEDIA client. The list of blogs reads like the ultimate who’s who in blogging in the Philippines. Obviously, Marketmanila is not on that list. And not surprisingly, the 3-4 other blogs I regularly read aren’t on that list either. Marketman asks readers to reach their own conclusions…
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