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 (c) 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.