Mommy blogger community MomDot has proposed a challenge to mom-bloggers everywhere: to stop promoting the wares of sponsors, PR agents and free-gift-givers — for a week.
From August 10-16, the PR Blackout campaign will encourage mom bloggers to go back to basics.
"We want to see your blog naked, raw," wrote MomDot. "Talk about your kids, your marriage, your college, your hopes, your dreams, your house and whatever you can come up with for one week."
No mention of PR or products will be permitted during the blackout. The rationale for this stance was described thus:
With the allure of giveaways, reviews, and blog trips, Mom Bloggers have turned from what they love the most, their family, into working directly as public relations for their captive audience. It boils down to knowing your worth and then standing up for it.
The movement comes amidst growing concerns that prominent bloggers in general have become vessels for advertisers eager to appear on their sites — sending them free products, gifts, coupons or financial compensation in tacit expectation of a write-up.
That bloggers accept the products, then review them, has upset word-of-mouth purists that believe blogs are a trusted reviews-and-opinions medium because they stem from the good faith of real consumers, not PR shills.
The Federal Trade Commission has also begun examining these practices and may soon require online media, including blogs, to comply with disclosure rules under its truth-in-advertising guidelines, reports The New York Times.
Most prominent bloggers, such as mom blog Classymommy.com, take care to disclose to their audiences when a product has been sent to them for review.
But according to MomDot, "[while] we adore many of our fabulous PR reps and treat them like bloggy friends, our site, and many others, are inundated with hundreds, if not thousands, of product requests each year resulting in massive obligations and deadline stress equivalent to what the General Motors CEO must feel every time he drives into work."
This pressure to review products to appease friendly PR reps has derailed mom bloggers from their true priorities: their families and values, the site suggests.
Other terms of the PR Blackout include not blogging giveaways, reviews and absolutely no press releases.
"We will host a linky during that week for you to link up every post you do. We will also provide some topic suggestions for each day of the week to get your blog blood flowing again," MomDot wrote.
"We feel this is an important challenge to show mom bloggers that what they are doing, the stress they feel, the deadlines, the time away from their family, it has to be worth it."
Mom bloggers that wish to participate in the blackout are encouraged to contact MomDot directly.
20% of the online population consists of what Nielsen online calls "power moms," reports a May 2009 survey.
Last year, research conducted by Millward Brown for PRWeek and Manning Selvage & Lee, a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe, found that one in five senior marketers buy ads on content sites in complicit exchange for accompanying news coverage.
