People who've been following this blog for a while may remember the case of "Heidi Cee." I wrote about this fictional leader of a sponsored anti-counterfeiting campaign several times this winter.
This morning's Adweek has a major feature on the campaign. The feature, written by Andrew Adam Newman, is called The True Story of a Bogus Blog, and it's a tremendously well-reported, solid piece of work (and would be, even if he hadn't interviewed me).
Perhaps the most disturbing part of the piece for me is the quotes from the student Newman tracked down, Hunter College senior Sarah El-Edibi. From the story:
"Prior to that class, I had two PR internships and they were bullshit. You end up doing the grunt work and you learn the nature of the business, but no methodology...
What does El-Edlibi think of Facebook saying the profile violates its terms of use?
"Oh, please," she responds. "People do crazy shit on Facebook like every day."
El-Edlibi also does not believe the campaign was truly deceptive, because at the end of the semester the class issued a press release revealing Cee was fake, and linked to it on the social networking sites. On Cee's blog, the press release is the 32nd -- and final -- entry, and is preceded with, "Here is the catch -- I am totally not real!"
...Still, if the campaign was less than forthright, El-Edlibi says she believes that's how things really work in the field. "Public relations people, in general, have very little morals when it comes to being completely honest with the consumer," El-Edlibi says.
She also disputes Coach's claim that it didn't give its imprimatur to Cee.
"I think the entire PR team from Coach was in the class, maybe six or seven women," El-Edlibi recalls. "We were supposed to be working for Coach, who was the client, and they really liked the idea of making someone fake. If they had some ethical issues with it, they should have said so. If there was anybody who could have stopped it, it would have been Coach."
One of my concerns when I first heard about this story was that students were not learning that there are ethics to this business. And my concern appears to be well-founded.
Ciao,
Bob
May 05, 2008
The True Story of a Bogus Blog
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2 comments:
Wow. This is a little disturbing. As you say, these students aren't learning about ethical practices - they're learning that ethics aren't important. The quotes are pretty worrying.
As for the statement that the client didn't raise any concerns about the fake blog... that's no excuse. That's why you have PR people - to offer that advice.
As you said in one of your earlier posts, there's blame to be laid all around here. It's a dubious sponsorship program by Coach, suspect hands-off approach by IACC and horrendous oversight by Hunter and the prof. The question now is, is there something to be done so this doesn't happen again?
I feel bad for the students - it looks like they're coming away from this with the kind of attitude that gives this profession a bad name. I really hope they have an opportunity to learn a more ethical approach to public relations after all this is done.
Hey, glad someone else was bothered by this story and the unbelievable quotes from the chickie giving us a bad name.
I mean, come on, I already have to deal with my mom telling people I'm a spin doctor. We don't need this.
Glad to find your blog!
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