February 22, 2004
pimp central
Abigail from St. Louis wrote me yesterday. In her e-mail she asked:
“And then there’s the question of integrity. There’s all sorts of criticism of product placement in print media. If a magazine starts talking about how wonderful a product is, and they’re being paid for it– suddenly the mag is one big infomercial. Would your site have the same sort of problem?“
Abigail, I think that’s a definite issue. Especially when you think the main engine driving the blogosphere is goodwill. To abuse that is not only wrong, it’s economically stupid.
I think the trick is (a) making sure the main content far outweighs the pimping content (b) being upfront about the pimping © making sure the product is one you honestly believe in.
“Tell the truth” is the best advice I can give anyone.
I have no qualms about pimping my friend’s movie. I want people to see it and I make no apology for it. I think it’s a damn fine movie and I’m willing to stake my reputation on it. Same is true with EVO.
When a basketball player or famous actor lands a multi-million dollar endorsement/pimping deal, he is praised to the skies by the media for it. But when a regular guy (blogger) does likewise on a vehicle that he owns himself (blog), suddenly the media is talking about “integrity”.
There’s a subtext here: “Pimping is OK for rock stars like us, but how dare the little people try to do it.” The usual big-media arrogance.
That arrogance to me is really nothing but kvetching by a lot of mediocre hacks in dead-end media and advertising jobs. All sound and fury, signifying nothing.
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