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The Pepsi Can on the Table

Pepsi CanI’ve gone to quite a few movies in my day.  I love films, especially some of the more thought provoking ones like Kassovitz’s Hate or Nolan’s Following.

Nothing ruins a film more for me however than noticing that every time the shot goes to the kitchen there is a Pepsi can on the table or somehow noticing despite Scarlett Johannsson’s starring role in the film that every car on The Island happens to be a Dodge.  You buy a ticket for what you think may be some high art and end up walking into a TV commercial.

As life often imitates art, it follows that this same phenomenon happens in blogging as well.  We’ve all clicked on a link to a blog boasting an InfoComm Wrap-Up, or How to Sell Software, or even into a LinkedIn Group discussion hoping to find some valuable objective content only to find that behind the first 100 words there is a Pepsi can on the table, and that the real motivation in writing was to promote a brand or service.

We’ve all experienced this so there is no need for me to call anyone out specifically here.  There really is no gain inherent in that strategy in today’s world of content marketing.  It’s OK to lay out the dots, just not to blatantly connect them.  Odds are if you provide value as a writer, others will seek you out to play a role in their projects.

To the product blogger’s credit, at least they aim their marketing efforts squarely at the heads of their potential clients and not at their groins.  We’ve seen enough written about that in the last 2 months.

Most trade publications are guilty of printing some of these pieces, although some are better than others.  It would be interesting to do a quick survey of those bloggers and their companies and cross reference their advertising participation.  If you find yourself reading a product blog written by a competitor that happens to advertise there, I would challenge you to write your own product centric blog and submit it to the publication and see what happens.  If you do that however, please call me first as I’d like to make a gigantic wager on the outcome.

Publications who want to help out their advertisers should also honor their readership by making sure these blogs are filed under a manufacturer’s category, so at least we know what we’re gonna get up front.  If there is a ton of beef in that blog burger, editor’s could also trim them to remove the side of self promotion and give us the Atkins approved version instead.

If a product blogger asks you if you saw their latest piece, I would advise you let them know you read the trades like you watch TV. I consume the good content and fast forward through the commercials, and if there are too many of those, I change the channel.

So what do you think?  Am I being too hard on marketing content disguised as blogs?  Should we really snatch their Groucho Marx glasses, nose, and mustache off of their faces?

Let me know in the comments.  I’d love to hear your take.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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