Media Culpa

The Swedish free daily Metro lost a case in the Swedish Market Court in June this year. The paper had published a “wrap” – a front and back cover page – that was an advertisement in the form of an article. The Court set a fine of 500,000 kronor if Metro should continue the practice since there needed to be a clear distinction between ad space and editorial content.

But the paper continues to push the blurry border between ads and articles. Metro has a co-operation with the two Hachette magazines Elle and Café regarding a page with fashion news. Yesterday the top of the page contained two short paragraphs with information about the content in the latest editions of the two magazines. The articles were signed “Metro”, as if they were news items. While some might argue that this is no big deal, the two magazines’ logos are right next to the articles, it shows an attitude that it is ok to let advertisers or contributors influence the editorial space.

I read today that journalist Isobel Hadley-Kamptz decided to stop blogging, among other things because of all the negative comments and nasty emails she received. (Read more at Sigge’s blog.)

As some of you may know, I performed an online survey of 700 Swedish blog readers and bloggers recently and the report is almost finished. But I felt that I could give you a sneak preview to one of the questions – “Have you ever felt harrassed by what others have written about you on their blogs or in the comments on your blog?”.

One in four bloggers (25.2%) in the survey answer that they have felt harrassed. (Click to enlarge the picture)

– 5.9% answer “yes, several times”
– 19.3% answer “yes, at least once”

Tags: blogs, bloggar, media, bloggsverige. Ping.

According to an article in Independent Online, Google have sent a series of legal letters to media organisations warning them not to use the word “google” as a verb, meaning “to search the internet”. The search company is worried that wrong usage of its trademark will harm the brand. In the long run a brand could degenerate into a generic term if it becomes synonymous with a product category or a term (like aspirin, or “to xerox”). This is of course a very unwise decision PR wise by Google and will only result in massive badwill. [Link via Micropersuasion.]

If they are that fond of protecting the brand, they shouldn’t call themselves “Googlers” and their headquarters “the Googleplex”. If you mess around with your own brand, others will too.

In Sweden it’s called “googla”. Can we still use that?

Tags: Google, internet. Ping.

Left: Election poster from Sweden’s Liberal Party – “News from the future – Drug lord arrested”.

Right: Swedish athletes in cocaine bust.

Tags: cocaine, friidrotts-em, Patrik Sjöberg. Ping.

Branding rule 1: Don’t choose a name that is a) taken, and/or b) taken by a porn site.

Dell has quietly launched a new blog to create a direct channel to consumers, named “one2one” which was also the name of a porn site. This site is #1 if you search the term in Google. Dell explains:

“We looked at the site in question before we launched. We were planning to use a sub-domain and felt it would not be an issue. We also were betting that the few Dell customers who ended up there would realize it’s NOT Dell’s blog. Other than that, we just admired their SEO skills.”

Whether that is true or not, the blog has now been renamed Direct2Dell. Apparently Dell also linked to the adult website in question in the blog post above. That link has now ben removed.

Via BL Ochman.

Tags: Dell, public relations, PR, pr. Ping.