Fake blog

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A fake blog (sometimes shortened to flog or referred to as a flack blog) is an electronic communication in the blog format that appears to originate from a credible, non-biased and independent source, but which in fact is created by a company or organization for the purpose of marketing a product, service, or political viewpoint.[1][2] The purpose of a fake blog is to inspire viral marketing or create an internet meme that generates traffic and interest in a product, much the same as astroturfing (a "fake grassroots" campaign).[3]

A fake blog is akin to industry-supported "

social networking and blogging, as these codes of ethics attest. The UK Chartered Institute of Public Relations' social media guidelines cite the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and state that both astroturfing and fake blogs are not permitted.[4]

As

social networking tools gain in popularity, corporations and special-interest groups legitimately use their own blogs to promote company agendas without cloaking their identities (one such example is Southwest Airlines Blog,[5]
a blog sponsored by Southwest Airlines and written by its employees).

One notorious example of identity cloaking, resulting in a fake blog, was exposed when Edelman, an international public relations firm, created a fake blog in 2006 called Walmarting Across America.[6] It was purportedly written by two Wal-Mart "enthusiasts" who decided to journey across the United States in an RV, blogging about the experience as they visited Wal-Marts along the way. While two people actually did travel across the United States in an RV, the publicity stunt was revealed to be paid for by Wal-Mart, a client of Edelman.

The act of writing fake blogs, or the commercial, strategy behind it, has been referred to as "flogging",[7][3]

Fake parody blogs

One genre of fake blogs is the

Fake Steve Jobs, Mock Mark Cuban and the network News Groper. There are also a very popular regional flogs like the one of the Indian Prime Minister and the a famous stock market speculator called Jhunjhunwala

Notable flogs

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-262-35645-9
    .
  2. S2CID 144483794
    .
  3. ^ a b Maurya, Mohit (June 2011). "Evolution of Blogs as a Credible Marketing Communication Tool". Journal of Case Research. 2 (1): 71–90.
  4. ^ Chartered Institute of Public Relations (2009) CIPR Social Media Guidelines (updated January 2009), p.4 - available at http://www.cipr.co.uk/sites/default/files/Social%20Media%20Guidelines.pdf - accessed 9 August 2010.
  5. ^ "Southwest Airlines Blog". 30 December 2006. Archived from the original on 30 December 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  6. ^ Gogoi, Pallavi (9 October 2006). "Wal-Mart's Jim and Laura: The Real Story". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on 17 November 2006. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
  7. ISBN 978-90-272-8938-4
    .
  8. ^ "Edelman screws up with duplicitous Wal-Mart blog, but it's okay?" from The Business Blog at Intuitive.com
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