The controversial Microsoft Ad Campaign
Recently Valleywag posted about a Blogger sellout where major well known bloggers such as Om Malik, Richard Macmanus and Michael Arrington amongst many others sold out to do a similar ad as displayed above. This caused a firestorm where people are talking about a blogger sellout to big bad Microsoft. Om Malik immediately apologized, Michael Arrington is unapologetic, who is right and who is wrong? Many more continue to chime in.
It’s just an Advertising for crying out loud, relax you people. Everyone seems too fussed about how these bloggers sold their soul. They are web celebrities, that’s what web celebrities do! Michael Arrington put it best when he wrote:
So here’s my position on all of this: Go pound sand. People understand that if there’s text in an ad box, someone is paying for it to be there.
Indeed, how is this different than some business person endorsing a new drink, credit card or banking service? It’s the same as opening up a newspaper and it says in big bold writing: THIS IS A SPONSORED PAGE PAID BY THE ADVERTISER.
No difference.
With Valleywag posting up a storm on this issue they’ve proved one thing over and over again about blogging. It’s as sensationalist driven as the traditional media they blame for being too "sensationalist".