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October 15, 2006
Edelman, WalMart
Edelman, WalMart: A blogosphere tizzy in two parts: (a) a PR firm (Edelman) hires people to write a feel-good weblog for a client (WalMart) where the affiliation is not disclosed in the page; then (b) prominent PR bloggers who work at that firm do not engage in the ensuing conversation about the ethical issues involved. Shel Holtz has an overview. For the first issue, I think it's more useful to suspect everything we read is a lie anyway... the credulous end up causing more damage than the inevitable liars do... a "shared code of conduct" is a nice step but doesn't protect against the Kim Jong Il types in the world. We've got to grow skepticism. For the second issue -- the sudden silence on the part of those who gave advice to others -- I suspect that there's internal group pressure for no member to say anything until the owner of that issue gets their story together... the public bloggers who gave advice to Dell about "transparency" may not have known anything about this WalMart blog until they read it in the papers themselves. Working in groups is essential to accomplishing great things in the world, but it's not always the cleanest of processes. (Disclosure: Edelman also does some type of work for Adobe, but I'm not sure of the scope, and I wouldn't think it the same team as the WalMart team.) Takeaways: In online conversation, it's strong protection to disclose your identity and affiliations... keeping things hidden can offer short-term benefits, but great long-term risks. But readers need to stay skeptical... for instance, by even linking to this issue, how do you know I'm not in the pocket of the whole anti-WalMart campaign, eh...!? ;-)
Posted by JohnDowdell at October 15, 2006 9:53 AM