Crossing the line? LOFT barters gift cards for blog coverage

An e-mailed invite from LOFT (also known as Ann Taylor LOFT) circulated amongst fashion bloggers last week with an unusually pointed -- and some might say, inappropriate -- footnote attached.

The invite was for an "Exclusive Blogger Preview!" of LOFT's Summer 2010 collection, to be held on Jan. 26 at the Industria Superstudio in New York. "Come take a sneak peek at LOFT's Spring 2010 collection before anyone else!" the flier urged, promising a special gift to all attendees and entry into a "mystery gift card drawing."

But at the bottom, in small print, the company got down to business, stipulating: "Please note all bloggers must post coverage from our event to their blog within 24 hours in order to be eligible. Links to post must be sent to [address], along with the code on the back of your gift card distributed to you at the event. You will be notified of your gift card amount by February 2. Gift card amounts will vary from $10 to $500."

So, essentially, there's nothing mysterious about the "mystery gift card drawing." The mass fashion company is clearly bartering coverage of its new collection on blogs in exchange for gift cards. And -- from the sound of the sliding scale card values -- the bigger and better your coverage, the greater your reward.

It's a footnote that would never appear on an invite to print journalists -- there's a tacit understanding between clothing brands and fashion journalists that editorial coverage isn't something you can buy or barter for. It goes against the rules of ethical journalism (which mandate that journalists cannot -- or at least, should not -- be influenced by money and gifts). Are the organizers suggesting that the new generation of journalists aren't playing by the same rules?

Granted, in the Wild West environment that is the fashion blogosphere, the ethics of news journalism are often flouted. And it must be frustrating for brands when they invite a pack of indie bloggers to an event and see little-to-no coverage of it.

Still, this mixing of Church and State is promoting pay-to-play journalism, which -- at least in my mind -- is an insidious and worthless breed. If writers can be swayed by gifts, we can't exactly trust them to be unbiased.

In response to requests for comment on the footnote, a LOFT representative e-mailed this:

"Engaging the blogging community is a new way for us to communicate product information. We put a premium on the editorial media that covers our brand and we do not incentivize media for coverage. ... It is not uncommon for LOFT to offer contests, promotions or special offers in-store and through various online channels to our clients, similar to other retailers."

-- Emili Vesilind

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Comments

[Louise Armstrong]

I don't see any blurry line here. This just seems unethical and a sad example of what's happening with our profession. Our agency holds preview events on behalf of our clients to which we invite traditional editors and bloggers and, while we hope they will result in both mainstream and online coverage, we would never ask for a guarantee or offer something in return for coverage. Together with our clients, it is our job to develop useful ways of sharing new and interesting products with editors in the hope that they will deem it of interest to their readers and include it in upcoming stories. After the event, we'll follow up to see if there's anything they need. Whether coverage appears or does not appear is ruled by many factors including the product itself, timing, audience, availability of product samples, photos, spokespersons, whether it is a good fit and the ability of the PR agency to connect positively with the media and tell the product story. This is all hard work on everyone's part and to see it reduced to writing about products in exchange for the possibility of winning a $500 gift card is disappointing.

[Courtney Henley-Anderson]

This is much ado about nothing! The major magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and the like all receive truck loads of freebies to review and are swayed by those freebies. So what. Fashion editors receive whole wardrobes and beauty editors have thousands of dollars worth of beauty products. This is simply the mainstream traditional publications trying to impose restrictions on online publications that they do not follow themselves and is a glaring double standard. Bloggers are being unfairly targeted. If I have to disclose my relationships, so should Anna Wintour and any other magazine editor or publisher. And readers are not stupid. Even if you gift us with an item, most bloggers don't write about it unless they genuinely like it, as there are just too many products to review.

I was at the Ann Taylor event, did not even know about the gift card incentive, and still wrote a glowing review of the line! In addition, my colleagues that did receive the card said that they simply called the number on the back of it to redeem their amount WITHOUT having to write a positive review.

Courtney Henley-Anderson
That Girl At The Party

[Yvonne DiVita]

I agree with Courtney. Bloggers know better and good bloggers reveal they've been gifted or asked to write a review. They also only write what they really feel. If they hate your product, they say so (or they are silent - in which case the product was of little incentive). For traditional media to pretend this doesn't happen, and get covered up all the time, is a lie. I believe readers - online or in print - form relationships and trust their sources or not. Gifting someone or compensating them for their time, is not a guarantee of a positive review.

Brands need to insist bloggers announce the relationship, and bloggers need to admit it if they received any compensation for their editorial writings. It does not mean their opinion has been bought. It can mean that, but it doesn't...always.

As with folks PAID to write editorials or do reviews (restaurants, books and movies come to mind). Do we trust them? We do.