{"id":1291,"date":"2013-01-30T20:55:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T20:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/forbes-fooled_013012\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T20:55:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T20:55:00","slug":"forbes-fooled_013012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/forbes-fooled_013012\/","title":{"rendered":"Fooled by Forbes\u2019 fantasy fiction?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
One issue dominating the tech-media back channels of late is publisher\u00a0Forbe\u2019s use of its column \u201cBrandVoice\u201d to promote\u00a0blatantly\u00a0<\/strong>various technology products, such as Oracle and SAP.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with advertorials?\u201d I hear you ask.\u00a0 Well, simply put, BrandVoice articles are not clearly portrayed as advertorials, such as when you read a car advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, but appear to be regular news and opinion pieces.\u00a0 For example, take a look at this write up of SAP\u2019s \u201cPioneering Walk in the Cloud<\/a>\u201d, or Oracle\u2019s \u201cWhy Exadata Is Rocking the Tech Industry<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 The only indication that these are sponsored columns, is the “BrandVoice” note at the top, if you happen to know what “BrandVoice” actually means. There is no sponsored content indication anywhere<\/em> on the BrandVoice articles, not even a company logo at the top of the pieces.\u00a0 Moreover, midway through last year, the column title was changed from AdVoice to BrandVoice, further blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.<\/p>\n The list of praiseworthy articles is endless, and (seemingly) very convincing to the general reader, who is being fooled into thinking they are reading real journalism.\u00a0 And why would you think these articles were suspiciously fictional marketing puffery, while skim-reading over your corn flakes and coffee? It’s Forbes<\/em>, for chrissakes… has to be great content, right?<\/p>\n Sadly, these pieces are not even written by journalists, but by marketers within the respective vendors.\u00a0 And hey \u2013 it\u2019s awesome marketing. A prestige media platform like Forbes allowing sponsors to pen their own content under their famous brand? Can\u2019t fault the savvy CMOs for buying up some serious media real-estate.<\/p>\n