They say blogging doesn’t pay, but in this case, it pays. When the incomparable Bertel Schmitt wrote his Toyota exoneration story, none of us knew that he was just one quick sex-change operation away from scoring a $10 Amazon gift card. It’s true. A marketing organization with no connection to Toyota (chuckle) has decided to comp “mommybloggers” free gift cards for getting the word out about Toyota’s exoneration.
Details, and a photo of the mommyblogger who blew the whistle on the whole sordid operation, after the jump.
In her rather interesting article on the subject, Crissy Kight reveals that she was offered ten bucks to “spread the word” about the recent NHTSA Toyota findings. Here’s the incriminating email:
Hello!
A new opportunity! Another chance to score a $10.00 Amazon gift card for the mommy bloggers who help out.
There was a big report released about Toyota, by the NHTSA and NASA, stating that there was no electronic flaw found, which was originally assumed to be the cause of all the recalls with the Priuses last year. It actually turned out to be pretty much “user error” that was causing the accelerator to stick.
It’s a big deal for Toyota since this has affected their reputation heavily and they had a lot of negative stigma around their brand as of late, and we’re helping to spread the positive news:
I need you to:
Write a post about the report & good news
In the post, link to a few of the articles or videos below
If possible, share on social networks or “thumbs up” the YouTube videos.Tiffany Lewis
MommyNetworks.org
Mrs. Kight has, as of this morning, 33,723 followers. That would mean that Toyota would be paying about three-hundredths of a cent for every “eyeball” they would reach by compensating her. Compare that to the GM blogger junket to Detroit, where GM incurred costs I estimate to be in the two-thousand-dollar range per person to bring in professional Tweeters with between one and six thousand followers… and it’s easy to see that Toyota still knows how to control costs better than the General.
Unfortunately for Toyota, however, Mrs. Kight is considerably more ethical than the GM pawns — that, or she’s holding out for more cash. She blew the plot wide open on her blog, creating a PR nightmare. In the aftermath, the aforementioned Tiffany Lewis chose to fall on her sword in public and claim that her Toyota-PR program was a completely independent effort brought about by her, ahem, personal love of Toyotas. Smart move, Tiffany. You’re the G. Gordon Liddy of PR people. Call me.
Not even Malcolm X could enjoy chickens coming home to roost the way I’m enjoying watching this little plot backfire. This news came right after I got a Gchat message from a fellow journalist warning me that one of the GM-trip bloggers was bragging that I’ve been “blacklisted” by General Motors for “going too far” with the “My Fair Lady” article. Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive the public by Astroturfing auto-show news or grassroots Toyota support!
Normally we could wrap up the story here, but there are two things left to consider. The first is that TTAC eagerly reported the news that Miss Lewis was so eager for Mrs. Kight to “report”, and we have even more readers than Crissy does. So we’ll be expecting our Amazon gift card in the mail.
Secondly, it turns out that this “influential thirty-year-old mother” lives in central Ohio. Using the always-reliable MS Paint, I’ve taken the libery of modifying her personal photo so our readers can see how cute she is without being annoyed by the excessively emo, hipsterish, vacuous fellow standing next to her. Any resemblance between the “Impact Carbon Air Draft” in the photo and my personal helmet is strictly deliberate.
…and DELORTED! at the request of the bloggess in question. If you want to see what she looks like, you’ll have to toss her advertisers a click.
GM paid for it just to make Toyota look bad.
Lets think about it, if GM will pay for its own professional astroturfers, then why not this?
The internet has turned dirtier than a piece of roadkill crawling with maggots, and it will only get worse.
Why don’t we just call you Jack Boner
This is really not new. Videogame and smartphone makers have been astroturfing blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace (yes, they’ve been doing this for that long) and review site comments—if not paying off actual reviewers—for years now. It’s cheap (people are given micropayments) and very effective.
You’ll hear companies refer to this as “social media marketing strategies”, and it should give you pause when you see waves of excessively positive or negative metacommentary. Hyundai and GM are heavy practitioners of this in automobilia as of late. Oh, and in case you wanted to know which makes seem to do the least finessing of the social internet, well, it should be obvious.
I know a few, well, I’ll call them “semi-professional” social networkers who do reasonably well by this.
Cute must be a synonym for chubby.
C’mon man… we can be a little more gentlemanly than that.
And chubby can be a synonym for healthy.
We’d all be better off if “heroin-addict chic” would go away.
Jezze you guys are harsh, no wonder Jack get’s laid plenty. He’s realistic about what a woman is supposed to look like.
A chick whose less than size 6-8 always looks to me like I could snap her in half with a few well placed… um well you know.
“And chubby can be a synonym for healthy.”
only in an overweight-majority culture like ours. otherwise, don’t kid yourself.
“We’d all be better off if “heroin-addict chic” would go away.”
as we would if the same would happen with “chubby chic”. healthy is somewhere in the middle between the two.
I prefer petite women myself, but chubby can indeed be cute and sexy.
Unless someone is physically repulsive attitude counts more than anything.
“Cute must be a synonym for chubby.” says the man whose avatar photo is a mass produced consumer product.
hey ho.
Deriding Chrissy Kight for her perceived weight issue is inappropriate, period, but especially when it’s obvious that she’s not overweight. One quick glance at the photo that accompanies this article gets this woman labeled as chubby by several commenters, yet, before making snarky comments – did anybody take the time to look at her hundreds of self-portraits she’s posted on-line? Chrissy Kight is an attractive and size appropriate female, has a university degree, is an accomplished photographer and writer, and operates a blog with a sizeable audience and a nice advertising base. How many of those that commented upon her weight can claim a list of similar accomplishments?
I’m curious as to why two members were banned for the word idiot, yet the comments regarding Chrissy Kight’s weight are allowed.
Between this post, and the “New and Used” post from yesterday, it’s apparent that some of the much-vaunted “Best and Brightest” are small-minded misogynistic bigots.
“…without being annoyed by the excessively emo, hipsterish, vacuous fellow standing next to her…”
Baruth wins again
And there is the reverse. You can get paid for doing a companies advertising for them, or you can get sued for posting a report of a negative experience.
Several times over the years I’ve seen people rant about problems with their car and or their dealership experience on one blog or another, only to be sued into silence. Usually by a dealership who is trying to protect their reputation by burying the evidence. Although it’s usually when the poster crosses over from factual experience to plots of revenge.
hehe, I doubt Honda has a small internet army now that they’ve suffered through the crosstour launch. I remember seeing the comments on their facebook page get flooded with positives once autoblog started posting screenshots of the site and discussing the controversy. The day before it was all Honda owners who hated the look of the new car, the day after, it was entirely good reactions.
I don’t care if Ronnie Schrieber thinks I’m a cynic…
It’s all propaganda.
If it’s out there, someone wants it out there. Who, what, when, where, how and why are now used to not only construct and explain a story, but also need to be applied to the story behind the story.
i don’t think that’s cynical. that’s today. anyone who doesn’t think this is all planned or orchestrated on some level for propaganda has got one eye closed. besides, controversies like this only get more eyes on the brand in question. and in this case it shouldn’t hurt toyota since the story is its exoneration of any electrical problems in their cars.
Domestic,
So, pray tell, when I write an article for TTAC, or Cars In Depth, what’s the story behind the story?
I’ve written ad copy and advocacy pieces that I’ll concede are not too far from propaganda, but for the most part in these here parts I write about what interests me and what I think will interest others. That’s my agenda. That and the going rate of 5 to 15 cents a word.
Sure, the stuff I write for Left Lane News might have more of a political slant (when you’re doing a series call the War On Cars that’s hard to avoid) but for the most part you can take what I write on face value. If there’s an agenda, it’s usually obvious without any need to find the story behind the story.
Ultimately the story behind the story is getting paid for wordsmithing.
I’ve written propaganda. What I write for TTAC ain’t propaganda.
It’s not so much that I think that you’re a cynic, it’s that I don’t buy the postmodern deconstruction of texts. Sometimes a cigar is just something you smoke.
Also, I can recall Kia handing out $10 phone cards at media previews and when Staples/en Bureau was the corporate sponsor for the CIAS in Toronto, their press kits included an envelope labeled “our gift to you” which included a $10 gift card. I’m glad I didn’t toss those press kits out when I got home because it was worth the bridge toll to Windsor to go get $200 worth of free office supplies.
Look, when the folks working for the car companies even joke from the podium at press conferences about media swag ending up on eBay, nobody’s fooling anyone.
A $10 gift card is less likely to get me to say something nice about Kia than the fact that after I gave the Sportage a somewhat lukewarm review they still made the AWD version available to me.
I like this stuff – it’s what makes TTAC so good and why I decided to be a very small part of it. I’m not familiar with the term “astroturfing”, but I do believe in spreading a good word about things I care about – for no monetary reward – maybe that’s the difference. I spread the word about only two things, both media-related: TTAC and my only internet radio station: Martini in the Morning.com. Why? because I love cars and the automotive industry, even though I’m an expert at nothing, and the internet radio station because I love that type of music, but play no instruments except my turntable, CD player and computer.
So good?
It’s a rehash of a story from Jalopnik yesterday.
Whatever shall we do now that the journalistic integrity of MommyBlog.com has been breached?
How can we trust their binky reviews, or their nipple moisturizing tips now that we know they’ve been tainted by that filthy $10 gift card?
File under: “Who cares?”
Jalopnik didn’t break this particular story… but yeah, we are late with it.
@Vespafiz: Whatever shall we do now that the journalistic integrity of MommyBlog.com has been breached?
I think that train left the station a while ago. From the cited blog:
http://dearcrissy.com/ads-pr-friendly/
AstroTurf(tm) is artificial grass. It’s popular in pro-football fields (uhm, American “football”).
“Grass Roots” is some kind of a popular uprising, spontaneously arising amongst the public. Favorable “grass-roots” sentiment is exceedingly valuable public relations for any company.
“Astroturfing” is a calculated attempt by a company to simulate or create “grass roots” public relations.
Astroturfing is commonly done by commercial enterprises and in politics. For example, many political organizations created to influence the public are given names like “People for Smarter Investment” to sound like a “grass roots” organization.
When Toyota offers money to bloggers to “get the word out” about their latest Good News, that’s classic astroturfing.
stuart
I don’t see any reason for TTAC to jump into the “we broke this first” TV evening news fray. I come here for reasoned and accurate information, sometimes that takes time. If I want up to minute speculation I can go to the Gawker sites or TMZ.
No, it’s classic “business relationship.” This is no different that Hot Rod writing a kick ass story on Edelbrock intakes after Edelbrock takes out a whole ton of advertising.
To wit:
Dear Crissy accepts various forms of advertising and sponsorships, including:
Sidebar advertisements
Text links
Leaderboards
In-post banner ads
Sponsored blog posts
Sponsored Tweets
Sponsored Facebook updates
Twitter backgrounds
Product reviews and giveaways
Brand Ambassadorship
I must counter with a sincere and genuine plug for radioparadise.com.
“…a piece of roadkill crawling with maggots” Little of OUR roadkill remains unclaimed to end up maggotized but that’s a different topic for a different venue.
Disinformation is commonly used and may be present in the event written about.
But, maybe not.
A possible “he said she said it said none said all said what are you trying to say” phenomena.
Whatever.
I, the Disgruntled One, will admit, I will proclaim Toyotas to be the epitome of autodom for a bacon cheeseburger payment.
Of course I will stress it is mere Coot Opinion and worth what the reader paid to read Coot Words.
No PayBuddy account to remit funds to me.
As if creating one would result in spare change trickling my way.
Off to the dentist today. Don’t laugh at me if I cry. I know the gals present will. And call me a wimp.
No sympathy for old Baby Boomers.
Sniff.
The mistake made here was assuming that bloggers would agree that their praise was worth so little. It would be one thing to offer someone $500 and have them refuse. They may refuse, but at least their not insulted enough to throw it back in your face and point.
I frankly don’t find it an inappropriate response from Toyota; someone spent a great deal of money falsely besmirching their reputation and they have a responsibility to their shareholders, and their customers, to try to set the record straight. This is no different than the Audi 5000 “unintended acceleration” issue; among the possible failures with modern cars is that an accelerator is stuck, or pressed by accident. Cars with cable or lever-actuated throttles were capable of the same problem AND did not have nearly the braking capacity of any modern vehicle.
You have a point here… up to a point. The blogging culture thrives on debunking myths and and criticizing the excesses of “old media”… as such, the Toyota recall story was made for the blogosphere. Toyota could have played on that culture and made their effort about uncovering the truth… instead they (or MommyNetwork) decided to pay for links. They gave up the moral high ground in return for links from people who need a $10 gift card to be bothered with the story (i.e. bloggers without integrity, credibility or interest in the story).
Toyota is still denying involvement… which means this is either an “overzealous underling” scenario, a “rogue agent” (either pro- or anti-Toyota), or MommyNetwork is falling on its sword to protect Toyota. Whatever the case, there are some important lessons to be learned here.
"It actually turned out to be pretty much “user error” that was causing the accelerator to stick."
Liars. Conveniently forgetting floor mats and poor CTS accelerator design.
Whoa thar, pardner. Presumably all through the development process Toyota’s drivers hadn’t reported a problem. In the real world some people did have a problem. I think characterising that as user error is not unreasonable.
Seriously, if Crissy Kight passes for cute these days, I don’t want to know what represents fat and ugly.
And Tiffany seems to have closed the mommyNetworks site… seems to have been some sort of
half-assed site that preys on stay-at-home-moms. Their monetization strategy seems to have been to hook a bunch of moms to the site with useless ass-licking articles about how difficult it is to fold laundry and drive your kids around in a minivan, and then sell out this audience to advertisers. It seems too small for Toyota to have been really interested in. More likely Tiffany swallowed a bunch of SEO snake-oil and was on some misguided quest to “drive traffic” from other mommy sites to her site.
And Crissy? Yeah, okay, she didn’t bite for $10. But the niche-blog scene has become so overpopulated that bloggers are beginning to act like cannibals in their desperation. Crissy’s reaction may just have been self-preservation instinct to get rid of someone who was trying to steal her followers.
“Seriously, if Crissy Kight passes for cute these days, I don’t want to know what represents fat and ugly.”
Context is important here. They might harpoon her off the stage at the Spearmint Rhino but among rural 30-something Ohio mothers, this broad might as well be a young Audrey Hepburn.
Seriously, if Crissy Kight passes for cute these days, I don’t want to know what represents fat and ugly.
Perhaps you only date supermodels. She’s definitely got a prettier face than a fair number of the professional models working the Chicago Auto Show (though the lady working for Scion’s picture is in Webster’s next to the word “cute”).
The average American woman is a size 14-16. By that standard she’s hardly “fat”.
In any case, like Ed said, it’s not gentlemanly to publicly criticize a woman’s looks. That’s a fairly mean and cutting remark to publicly make about someone you don’t even know. She doesn’t post comments about your looks.
Crissy’s reaction may just have been self-preservation instinct to get rid of someone who was trying to steal her followers.
Nah, she wisely saw this as a great opportunity to promote her blog. To be sure, she’s probably getting a bunch of traffic from testosterone laden sites like TTAC and Jalop, but in Google Analytics, nobody knows if you’re a dog, a man or a mommy.
Spearmint Rhino.
Learned something new today. A quick google and…seriusly NSFW. But thanks!
“Whatever the case, there are some important lessons to be learned here.”
Read: Whatever the truth is, we don’t know what it is yet.
So the lesson to be learned here is that “journalists” should be spending their time working the phones trying to figure out what actually happened, rather than perpetuating overheated, half-cocked mythology.
See, @xyzzy knows how to do a little rudimentary digging. This broad draws the line at a $10 Amazon gift card, but openly solicits product giveaways and “brand ambassadorship” (whatever that is), and describes her blog as “PR-Friendly.”
She asked for this. In unambiguously clear language. I’ll tell you what, honey: You can’t get un-effed.
@Vespafiz: Whatever shall we do now that the journalistic integrity of MommyBlog.com has been breached?
I think that train left the station a while ago. From the cited blog:
http://dearcrissy.com/ads-pr-friendly/
This broad draws the line at a $10 Amazon gift card, but openly solicits product giveaways and “brand ambassadorship” (whatever that is), and describes her blog as “PR-Friendly.”
She asked for this. In unambiguously clear language. I’ll tell you what, honey: You can’t get un-effed.
I think you’re being unfair to her. In her solicitation (as if a publication soliciting advertising and sponsor support is somehow unethical) she herself raises the issue of transparency:
“Dear Crissy accepts various forms of disclosed advertising and sponsorships, including:”
The key is disclosure. What makes astroturfing ethically problematic is that it is designed around a lack of disclosure.
She changed the language to read “…disclosed advertising and sponsorships.”
javascript:alert(document.lastModified) says it changed on 02/24/2011 at 02:58:54
Not that it’s worth pursuing, but . . . What the heck is Mommynetworks in the first place? How long has it existed? Was it created for the sole purpose of disseminating this particular Toyota blog? And if Toyota didn’t fund the gift cards, then who did? Where would Mommyworks get the money from and are we to believe that tTiffany Lewis “loves” Toyota so much that she would do this of her own volition?
Come on, Toyota built its success on manufacturing cars that people can’t get emotional about.
how cute she is without being annoyed by the excessively emo, hipsterish, vacuous fellow standing next to her.
Why do I have the feeling that JB could give tips on game to Roissy? Well-played alpha cyberflirt simultaneously dissing her beta provider. The part about being in mid-Ohio, inferring your geographical proximity without being too obvious, was very adept.
Not that I’m particularly comfortable with alphas scoring chicks by putting other men down, but it was a well played move indeed.
It’s interesting to note that though Chrissy didn’t take the $10 gift card, she did end up writing about Toyota and the study showing them not at fault for UA. So did Jalopnik, TTAC and all the other sites that picked up this story. While it would take a particularly clever (or devious) PR person to cook this up, the fact remains that Toyota got their story amplified.
If I was more cynical, I’d say that Tiffany and Chrissy were in cahoots, working somehow at the behest of Toyota.
Now THAT’S what I’m talking about Ronnie!
We’re on exactly the same page. Couldn’t have wondered the same thing better myself.
We also agree that a gentleman, even when posting anonymously on the interwebs, never needs to insult anyone, especially by calling out a woman’s age or weight. That’s seriously unclassy, boorish, and lazy commentary.
Bingo on Baruth’s story-behind-the-story Ohio reference as well.
1) TTAC has been “full of win” of late, including this article (and Bertel’s Toyota masterpiece)
2) Because I didn’t want to visit a “mommy blog” http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/02/dearcrissy.jpg
3) Does anyone else find the term “mommyblogger” to be annoying/offensive/vapid?
3a) I seriously hope no one is a “daddyblogger”
Jay-zuss. Toyota gets trashed by the media tools of tort lawyers, working in harmony with the DOT-owned Government Motors, over a RIDICULOUS sham safety claim…and then they get hammered AGAIN trying to respond in kind? I can imagine just how befuddled the polite Japanese who run Toyota marketing are becoming…as the rules seem to shift like quicksand.
This is hardly news. Only a fewel reads an obscure low-traffic blog and expects to find vetted, unvarnished Truth. People do with they do for REASONS. It might be for pay, pay by a promoting sponsor (like the buff books); or it might be to settle scores or stir up trouble.
This whole episode smells like what makes the grass green; and it’s getting smellier. Now the government, no longer a disinterested party, is going to run its GM competitors out of the market.
And what happens then? Why, we get the same high-quality build that State-owned automobile plants ALWAYS deliver! Yugo! Trabant! Lada! Leyland! Ain’t the future grand?
Cripes, leave it alone. I don’t turn to mommybloggers for expert advice on car purchases.
I still rue the day when the 19th amendment commenced the decline of USA society in general by allowing females to nullify the male vote.
“ARE YOU SERIOUS you withered Old Coot, you disgusting misogynist and who is assuredly chock-full of “issues” of all types and who, if I had tome, assuredly worthy of every emotion-laden negative label ever created or can be concocted.”
Well… mostly. Gulp.
I had ulterior motives for creating the Females as Property Movement before dismantling it and the “viral seeding” I utilized to promulgate it; hoping to profit from the venture eventually, such as being invited to Oprah’s TV babe-babbling blather show and other venues where I would be paid for my appearance.
Silly females could have had an easy target to lambaste and vent their excess emotionality but…. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dizzy dames. Such simpletons. Emotion driven with little ability in rational thought.
Yeah, exceptions exist but not enough.
Just one Disgruntled Old Coot Opinion based upon decades of life experiences and extensive non-fiction readings.
HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I DID write that exceptions exist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The few I have met WERE impressive but the HUGE number of airheads overwhelmed their non-airheaded brethren.
Your mileage will likely vary.