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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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Get used to fake blogs

Every time some ad agency launches a fake blog, outcries ring from the “legitimate” blogging community. “Here Comes Another Fake Blog” is the headline on Steve Rubel’s Micropersuasion today, referring to a blog from the company GourmetStation, written by fictitious character T. Alexander.

Earlier, Steve also pointed to a blog from Captain Morgan, the trademarked character who pushes Captain Morgan rum. (I’m not picking on Steve; he just reports what he’s read about fake blogs from other sources.)

First off, the blogs aren’t fake. The Delicious Destinations blog from GourmetStation is a Typapd blog. Only the blogger is fake. But that’s picking nits. The real question is whether these fake blogs are anything to get outraged about. I’ve decided not.

You can define a blog any way you like. Initially, they were private journals. (That’s the perception David Kistle, IABC’s chair, has of blogs, based on his interview posted today on Jeremy Pepper’s “Musings from POP PR.”) A number of evolutionary paths have evolved, however. There are blogs used for citizen journalism, for community building, for thoughtful analysis, for comic soap operas, for public relations purposes.

Ultimately, though, a blog is a lightweight content management system that allows people to comment. If someone wants to use that for traditional marketing, what’s wrong with that? It can fall into the category of “lame marketing blogs.” They may be lame. They may also work.

Consider the Captain Morgan blog. Here’s a cartoon character writing posts like the one from from April 2 that talks about a bar contest in Detroit. At the end of the post, the Captain (or whatever marketing flack has assumed this silly identity) asks, “What???s the best bar contest you???ve ever heard of? And how???d you do?”

The query produced 80—that’s 80—comments. (Example: “Sorry, I just don’t do bar contests. I’d rather watch the idiots than be counted as one of them!”) Do you have any idea how excited I’d be for any of my posts to generate 80 comments? And that’s not even a high for the Captain Morgan site. One post produced 159 comments.

So it’s a fake blog. On the other hand, it’s attracting consumers who are enjoying engaging—as artificial as the engagement may be—with the company. They’re having fun. The brand is being reinforced. All through the application of a lightweight content management system.  It’s not like any of those posting comments think they’re actually conversing with Captain Morgan. (Okay, maybe a couple, and they’ve been dipping into the Captain’s product a bit too much.) I just don’t see anything wrong with this.

Of course, it’s a different scenario than one in which a company works to convince readers they’re reading a real blogger when in fact it’s a fictitious character, or even a ghost-written blog for a real person. I’m convinced Bob Lutz is writing his own posts for the GM Fastlane blog. If someone from GM’s PR agency were doing it, that would be a troublesome fake blog.

But blogs like the Captain Morgan blog? I just can’t get worked up over them.

UPDATE—In comments to Rubel’s post, I like what a couple of people have said about referring to these as “character blogs” rather than “fake blogs.” Definitely.

10/30/05 | 9 Comments | Get used to fake blogs

Comments
  • 1.Dammit, Shel, I was going to write about this!

    But you've saved me the trouble!

    You recently mentioned Mama's Cucina, the old Ragu website. Everyone knew there was no "Mama" writing the thing, but it was fun, bright, witty, informative. Not well-tied to Ragu's marketing, as you note, but you have to admit it was fun.

    Same with Captain Morgan. It's fun. So what if it pretends to be a blog. You just know the next White House cat or dog will blog; I wonder what the blogosphere will think then.

    The blogs that trouble me ... but these are usually quickly identified ... are the ones that hope they will succeed in deceiving me. The famous Mazda M3 blog is an example. Not badged as a Mazda site, and not even about the M3, it lasted all of 2 days.

    Allan Jenkins | April 2005 | Copenhagen

  • 2.Exactly, Allan. And I'd dub those "fraudulent blogs" rather than "fake blogs." Fake blogs are clear in their fakeness. Fraudulent blogs try to deceive. I never once thought the Geico gecco was actually blogging, of course; it was a fake. The Mazda blog was fraudulent.

    And you're right, I LOVED Mama Ragu. Hated the fact that she existed in a vacuum, apart from the rest of the Ragu marketing campaign, but in her own right, Mama was a hoot.

    Britt, if I could ghost-blog for any fictional character, it would have to be Uncle Sam, the Grateful Dead's skeleton icon.

    Shel Holtz | April 2005 | Concord, CA

  • 3.Another approach is fiction vs. non-fiction, but character blogs sounds much cooler.

    And you get high marks on your choice of the Grateful Dead. Keep on Truckin!

    Kevin Dugan | April 2005 | Cincinnati, OH

  • 4.I was going to send a comment to the FIR blog about this since you covered it in a recent podcast. You talked about how this may not be the most tasteful thing, but it is a reality. Also, as you mentioned on the podcast, the Captain's Blog is generating quite a bit of comments, so it's working for them.

    Speaking from the designer in me, I equate this to driving around and seeing very poorly designed billboards or other ads. Yes they are awful, but guess what, they get attention for the client.

    On the TV front people complain about the poor quality of some shows, but they're watching them. As long as the ratings are there the networks will continue down the same path.

    Give us our bread and circuses

    Josh Hallett | April 2005 | Celebration, FL

  • 5.There is a difference between a fake blog, and an imaginary blogger!
    Do you think all those Captain Morgan comments are real? - no way!! I can have 80 comments on any post in my blog too, just take me a few minutes! And that post by "Morganette Julie" - just 'cause she's cute doesn't mean she's illiterate, but I sincerely doubt she wrote that post. It's unlikely.

    Now an imaginary blogger is cool and I'm 100% behind that idea. Imagine Bugs Bunny blogging for Disney!! Or Tony the Tiger blogging for General Mills. Or Captain Morgan blogging for - errr, Captain Morgan, minus the fake comments and fake guest postings.

    Ted Demopoulos | April 2005 | New Hampshire

  • 6.Hi, Ted. Thanks for the comment! I have no doubt that some of those comments are bogus. I figure they're seeding the blog to generate more posts. Reading them, though, I'd be willing to bet most are real and, after momentum has built up, the agency behind the blog won't have to seed it with any faux comments at all.

    I'm a Cap'n Crunch fan, myself. And if I were going to read any cartoon character's blog, it would definitely be South Park's Cartman.

    Shel Holtz | April 2005 | Concord, CA

  • 7.I was contacted by somebody who owns a horse that is well known in a town here in Florida. In fact the horse is a bit of a mascot for the town.

    She asked me if there would be any issues with starting a blog that would be 'run' by the horse? This blog would be part of a mixed-media campaign. The city and the local chamber thought it was worth at least discussing.

    In the initial conversation I asked, "I don't want to be morbid here, but how old is the horse? I see...what happens if the horse dies? What happens to your campaign and the blog then?"

    They're not going to be using the horse.

    Josh Hallett | April 2005 | Celebration, FL

  • 8.Too bad, the horse blog would have been fun. I would have encouraged them to go for it and dealt with the dead horse later. You could always replace it on the down low and cover up using the blog. They went through a dozen General Lee's every episode of Dukes of Hazard and no one noticed, there were probably 5 Lassie's and the Olsens were originally quintuplets.

    Im just started my first blog this week, it is to post Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy info and updates as the movie approaches and also to promote my tshirt designs. Didn't realize that this was a controversial area.

    I don't post as any fake characters, just myself, so I hope that keeps it real even if there is a commercial aspect.

    Its nice that GourmetStation explicitly states multiple times that their character is fictional.

    Time_Warp | April 2005

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