As if Technorati rankings weren’t enough to prove it, a sudden outbreak of product placement in Singapore blogs should demonstrate that the Lion City owns the blogosphere.
Singapore bloggers get all the good gear. Kevin gets a free Samsung A920 and the Mediaslut gets an xbox 360. Both reserve serious product reviews for later, as professional reviewers should.
Blog queen XiaXue, meanwhile, gets a Creative MP3 player and immediately starts dissing iPods and Mac users evangelists.:
Gah! I hate Mac evangelists.
Hate them as much as religion evangelists and cb MLM sellers and scientologists.
Not because Mac products suck, but because Mac users all seem to think they are so fucking cool just coz they use Mac.
What the fuck? Everyone can own an Apple product, it is just whether or not they are willing to save up a bit. Hell, I can buy 2 ipods with the $800 govt is giving me, but it doesn’t make me a wee bit cooler than I already am.
Unless of course I use the ipod as a yo-yo or use it to hit people. That would be quite cool.
But if you are a loser, you will still be a loser if you own an ipod.
In fact, it makes you even more of a loser coz you are a loser who is trying not to be a loser but failed.
Your shitty taste in music will not turn hip just coz you use a pure white product, nor will your shitty designing skills turn expert just coz you do photoshop on a pure white keyboard.
Man I hate Mac evangelists.
Ask me if I think Creative is better.
AsiaPundit is a dedicated Mac user and owns two iPods (don’t ask why). AP also has a lovely IBM ThinkPad T43 given to him by the office and owns an antiquated Acer Aspire desktop. Wendy getting free stuff and immediately offering a glowing review - before the item has even left the shop - doesn’t really cause offense.
In the day job AP will not take bribes. But as a blogger, AP is not above product-whoring in the likes of XiaXue. He hasn’t received any placement offers yet, but he is willing.
For example, if Japanese robot-maker VStone sends AP one of these he will happily sing the praises of Gigantor and slam all competitors.:
Aibo sucks!!! Gigantor would squish that little robo dog.
(Gigantor h/t Robot Dreams)
March 31st, 2006 at 11:55 pm
I’m actually a Creative user but that statement XiaXue is horrible. I’m glad to hear that AsiaPundit won’t sell out like her at least. That way it won’t be dumb like some other sites *cough. Keep up the good work.
April 1st, 2006 at 11:46 am
myrick: Sprint was pushing the phone to a bunch of tech/gadget bloggers and I happen to be in that range. While a free phone with free unlimited service doesn’t hurt, I mentioned it on the blog out of courtesy. In making my case, I wrote that I wasn’t totally impressed with the service and it’s nice that Sprint accepts the honesty of bloggers in their reviews. Most companies that understand how bloggers work encourage honest marketing over blatant advertising.
Moving along, I didn’t like the way Xiaxue spoke about Mac users at first, but then that’s Xiaxue’s style of blogging and everyone has the right to voice their opinions. I take solace that majority of A-list bloggers in Singapore also happen to use Macs, so she’s kind of shooting herself in the foot in making that statement. Either that, or she’s just trying to “link-bait” bloggers like ourselves to drive traffic.
In any case, many deserving bloggers have built strong reputations for themselves, so just like “in real life”, they get recognized for it. It’ not uncommon for corporations to approach blogger in order to tap on their establish reputations, but what’s more interesting is how different bloggers approach it. While some don’t mind full-on advertising (e.g. Xiaxue, Heather Champion of Dooce.com), some prefer not to let anyone else get in between bloggers and their readers (e.g. Jason Kottke). It might not dawn onto the uninitiated, but too much commercialism might ruin the very foundation of having that personal voice, that gift of authenticity you build with your readers.
I’m sorry if you haven’t gotten any freebies, but really… the real gift you have is your readers. It’s something you can’t really buy!