I just read in one of the latest issues of PR Week that ‘flogging’ (fake blogging) is likely to be made illegal when the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directives passes into UK law in December 2007. In 2006, Edelman was exposed for creating a fake blog for its client, Wal-Mart, where a couple were paid to post positive stories about Wal-Mart stores.Edelman got away with an apology, however, under the new EU directive, PRPs who falsely represent themselves as customers to blog for their clients risk facing civil court proceedings.
I truly welcome this new move, as ‘floggers’ increasingly undermine the credibility of blogs. Blogging is about being personal – it is a personal way for individuals, the consumers, to communicate with each other. People trust blogs, but when a company like Wal-Mart intrudes into this “personal sphere”, pretending to be a customer, it takes advantage of this trust and exploits it in order to manipulate the consumers. This is in my view, highly unethical and not to mention extremely unprofessional.
‘Floggers’ not only pose a threat to the credibility of bloggers in general, but it also threatens consumers’ trust in PR professionals. Blogging provides an opportunity for PRPs to “join the conversation” - to get insight into public opinion, but if PRPs pretend to be consumers in order to manipulate their opinions, they will further damage the reputation of the PR profession. There is already a widespread public distrust of the PR industry and ‘flogging’ is certainly not going to change that, which is why it is absolute necessary to treat ‘flogging’ as a crime. I certainly do not want to work in a profession where having a “false identity” is part of the job description.
7 comments:
I definitely agree that flogging should be considered illegal. It gives the profession of PR a bad name. In the Edelman and Walmart case, Edelman made the decision to flog, while Walmart, who I am sure agreed, allowed their reputation to be tarnished. As a consumer, it does make me think twice about shopping there, but then again their items are so inexpensive that the consumer does benefit.
Since the illegal flogging is only taking place in the EU it makes me wonder if the US will ever follow suit. In my opinion I think the EU is slightly more strict than the US. In the EU and even in the US I think that it might be slightly difficult to uncover floggers, but I do agree with the present action that the EU is taking.
Hey Ida!
Although I agree that flogging should be illegal I find it hard to believe that anything will really change. How many floggers will actually get caught? It is hard to regulate what is online already that is illegal(child pornography being one big example) so how on earth can they possibly catch enough floggers to dissuade others from doing it? If it is highly unlikely you will ever get caught then I believe it will continue happening. That being said, I cannot really think of a good way to stop the problem except educate people that what you read online is not always the truth. I am very critical of anything I read online unless it comes from an peer reviewed journal and I believe kids should be taught how to differentiate what is legitimate and what is untrustworthy when it comes to information posted online.
This is an important debate. I think there definitely should be some kind of guidelines in how far you can go in promoting a client. I’m not sure if PR has to be transparent in every field of the work. Sometimes you might have to twist the truth in order to achieve the best results. However, I don’t think deliberately lying and changing identity are ethical ways to succeed.
Ida,
It is extremely shame to see a big commercial company as Wal-Mart flogging. I can’t imagine how a professional team like Edelman gave Wal-Mart such bad advice. You know ethics are very important in our job as a PR practitioners. The biggest problem now is what they'll do to the overall credibility of online communications.
Anyway, I fully agree with you that flogging is illegal but this case is a debate which should be discussed deeply. For some people flogging appears to be a common practice.
Also I think that a lot of politicians now are flogging. Do you agree with that?
Yay for the possibility of banning flogging..then again how credible is blogging? Time magazine covered something about trawling through the hundreds of blogs out there to determine information that was correct - everyone seems to have an opinion and a blog is a great platform to air your views. But at the end of the day, its a personal opinion which might not be correct. Many people espouse views and talk about issues as if they are the voice of authority on that topic. In some ways is that not endorsement of some kind and that too the incorrect kind?
As most people have said, the essence of blogging is to get the opinion of those who might already have a voice, but blogs also give those who don't have a forum for expression a place to do just that.
In a society where people are now given unprecedented access to information, it's important that businessses remain as transparent as possible. If they can't do it on their own, then applause to those who are going to help them do just that.
I agree with Emily, it seems unlikely that any prosecution of floggers will actually take place. It would be incredibly difficult to police the internet and its skyrocketing number of blogs and I think this law is unlikely to be successful
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