Blogging ethics

Is a sponsored blog just as ethical as an unsponsored blog? It'd be nice if it were true (hey, I could use some sponsorship dollars too!). Disclosure is of course the most important element but it's not the only element.

Today's Content Agenda carried a piece by Wailin Wong (full story at http://www.contentagenda.com/articleXml/LN946598505.html), in which several bloggers seemed to think that as long as sponsorship was disclosed, it was OK.

The CEO of momcentral.com was quoted as saying, "Getting stuff doesn't mean you're biased. If it biases you ... you will lose your audience. People will follow you if you're smart and articulate. The minute you lose your authenticity, people know and they will tune out."

That'd be great, if it were true. Sadly, most psychological research indicates that humans are way more impressionable than we think we are, way easier to fool, and way more likely to believe what we want to believe than we believe we are.

The CEO of a company that connects advertisers with bloggers saw nothing wrong with Kmart providing $500 gift cards to bloggers, who then wrote about their shopping experience. According to the CEO, this was just like furnishing a product for review. No, it's not.

Back at the dawn of time, I worked in the automotive industry, and we provided cars all the time to journalists and other car companies for testing and review. How is that different? We got the cars back at the end of the week.

Have a question about whether a "sponsorship" is OK? Listen to that little voice. You know, the one that you sort of wish you didn't hear....