A big couple of weeks for the PR industry what with Ketchum and Burson Marsteller's efforts, and now Ogilvy apparently thought they would try snowing the blogosphere - will these big, arrogant (PR/advertising) companies ever stop it?
Adland discovered the alleged dishonesty in an Ogilvy effort to publicize a campaign it did for American Express. Someone claiming to be a marketing student sent a note to many bloggers and trade pubs pointing to an integrated online and outdoor AmEx campaign in Europe.
Adland covered the campaign but soon discovered that the email came from an Ogilvy address.
Why would ad agencies or PR firms think that bloggers are so easily snookered? It's easy to check facts online, and news spreads so fast, that it's remarkably dumb to pull a stunt like this one.
Is this stuff happening more often, or is the hyper-media environment we live in bringing more of these deceptions to light more often and spreading the news much faster and further than ever before?
Second question, if someone misrepresents who they are online in order to secure commercial gain (even if its just more publicity) why isn't that illegal, and why aren't the perpetrators fined or gaoled for their trouble?
maybe Jay Rosen can be a guest lecturer
http://www.scps.nyu.edu/landing/index.jsp?wfId=971
Posted by: Dave H | 15 February 2005 at 03:24 AM