Michelle Obama Watch

HAHAH! Hawa! We were snookered. That’s okay. That just means bloggers are going to have to step up their game in 2009. The fact that a blog about her is a case study is an interesting concept.

Say it ain’t so, we’ve been tricked by Mrs. O. I’m not surprised, the Obamas have been money makers since they hit the national scene. I guess I wouldn’t have visited the site if I’d known. However, it is a nice site & it shows the First Lady in all of stunning glory. So if it helps reflect her in a positive light I’m OK with that. Go ahead and sell everything but the church fans & those awful looking commemorative coins

I had a very interesting exchange with Mary when it first started. I am a “Michelle Obama Watcher” but I she did not contact me in that capacity. She contacted me regarding my beauty and fashion site 55 Secret Street. She emailed me complimenting me on my Michelle Obama coverage (Heh…) and requested a link. I was already familiar with “Mrs. O” and saw that 55 Secret Street was linked on the site (they removed it after our exchange) but, being me, I googled her right away because I noticed that she was emailing from a company email address and I was thinking “Uh, girl… Is it a good idea to blog or do blog business from your job?! My google search on her immediately came up with the agency. At that time, the “Mrs. O” Facebook fan page only had one fan – Steve, Mary’s boss. Side eye…

When I emailed her back, I told her that I was under the impression that she was a lone, independent blogger like most of us. I told her that if she is running a business then she should just say so instead of masquerading as an Michelle Obama fan/fashionista. I’m sure that MOST people are under the impression that “Mrs. O” is an indie. I didn’t say anything because I have enough to deal with trying to figure out what to do with three blogs.

I have no problem with corporate blogs – but SAY you are a corporate blog. Most company blogs have a logo of some type indicating that they are a division of XYZ for example. Don’t pretend that you’re “just one of the girls” because you’re not.

Also, regarding Edwina’s comment, it wouldn’t matter to me who was bankrolling the blog without the charade. And it’s not that I minded the site – but I don’t like the purposeful deception. I got a lot of free advice from other independent fashion and beauty bloggers when I started my blog and I have given other bloggers free advice, but if an ad agency or a public relations company came to me and said, “Hey, we’re starting a blog – what do you think we should do?” I would NOT give them advice for free! There is nothing wrong with making money but there IS something wrong with the shadiness – and manipulating Gina for free advice.

I agree that is not a huge deal that they are a corporate run blog, but in the spirit of good ethics, as soon as you gave them free advice, someone should have fessed up. Because trust and believe if the shoe were on the other foot, they certainly would have charged a consultation fee. But, now we know and we can keep it moving.

I can’t lie, I’m a little sad now. That site led me to this one. I guess it’s still a great blog, but I do feel like I’ve been tricked.

I think we all are going through “withdrawal” because we all liked the blog. the crazy thing is that if they had just come out and said who was backing it in the first place, we still would have read it and linked to it.

They should have been upfront from the jump…

I know you were just joking, but why shouldn’t/can’t we come up with an MOW t-shirt, coffee mug, totebag? Personally, I think that would be cool. Just imagine…

I hear you…mine, too. But, I’ll see what creative juices I might be able to keep in the glass…

Mrs-O is a nice blog and I’ll keep checking in from time to time, but now that we know it’s a corporate funded blog saying “Hey look Michelle Obama is wearing J. Crew and it’s available on their website,” I wonder how much money J. Crew etc. is paying the agency to steer people to them via the blog.

I guess im one of the few who does not care, because I still love the site, and I still love the fact that they are devoted to Mrs. O

(while if I was on the other end, and I gave free advice, I will probably be more upset)

but simply as a HUGE Obama supporter, and a private citizen, I love ALL pro Obama sites, no matter who produces or bankrolls them!

AJ,

What does that chart have to say about lying? Getting free info and advice while pretending you are a stand-alone blogger?

My blog has advertising and I work with PR companies all of the time, so I have no problem with making a profit off of a blog, so I’m not getting your point.

AJ,

Where are you seeing the expressed concerns of the badness of corporations as a whole by bloggers and those who read blogs”?

Most people here have said it’s not a big deal that it’s a corporate blog. The big deal is that they did not SAY that in the first place – and cozied up to other bloggers who had written about Michelle Obama for info and advice. If you read Gina’s post and my comment for instance, you will see that neither of us said anything about the “badness of corporations” or overt advertising. I have advertising and links to designers and stores on my blog as well – that’s not the point.

We (especially me) had issues with being approached from behind-the-scenes for free advice, etc. under the guise of being a lone blogger without the backing of a corporation. Surely they were concerned that it wouldn’t be easy to wheedle free info if they were upfront from the beginning.

The blog is not the problem. It is only the backdoor stuff that has left a bad taste in my mouth.

Hit submit too fast.

I completely understand the issue of presentation by the way. It’s harder and harder to tell things apart. But given your experiences, I don’t see wrong doing in asking for a link. Whatever the source.

As for free advice, I’d ask, if the NY Times or say W magazine came and asked for fashion advice from you, what would you do? Ask for money? or would you offer it in exchange for a mention?

Anyway, I am done with this topic. I will continue reading this and their blog because there is wonderful information coming from both.

Go back and read up on what the new division of BBH called “ZAG” is all about: it creates new, BBH-owned brands with the goal to create new revenue from these new brands. Other brands/produtcs launched by ZAG (which started out in BBH’s UK offices) are ready-to-heat meals sold at Tesco’s (UK grocery chain) and personal security alarms! Any revenue from cross-promotion, etc. of other brands would be in addition (but of course the Mrs. O. website would seem ideally suited to this type of activity and even gettig new clients like J. Crew, Jason Wu, Isabel Toledo, Narciso Rodriguez and Jimmy Choo to name a few).

So what is the brand – it is “Mrs. O” of course. And as of February 1, 2009 we learn that the first product line Mrs. O. will be launching is its own new line of clothing!! Go to http://www.mrs-o.org and you too can order a $35 poly-cotton t-shirt branded Mrs. O. The t-shirt was launched a few days after the inauguration when Obama fever was at an all time high and when the site had reached 100,000+ visitors.

The creators of Mrs. O, have also admitted to the Wall Street Journal that they intend to aggressively expand the line with more clothes, “tote bags” and a book! Just what we need!!

After a discussion erupted on the Mrs. O. blog (courtesty of moi) about the deception of not disclosing BBH’s role and commercialisation of the blog, BBH still refuses to edit the “About Us” section to disclose the corporate connection and commercial nature of the site. BBH and the BBH-paid contributors to the blog insist their disclosure is adequate as is, buried in the fine print of ‘terms and conditions’.

And to add insult to injury, the poly-cotton t-shirt is being offered for sale with a claim that 8.5% of the proceeds for each t-shirt will go to “Mrs. O’s favourite charity”. Spare me the sales tactics.

I like many others am concerned about the women who go to the Mrs. O. website, oblivoius to the real intent and purpose of the site. Many of these women will buy the tacky t-shirt along with the other over-priced crap-ola that will be offered for sale over the coming months. How many of these women should be using this money to pay off their credit card debt, buy groceries or saving for their kid’s education…but are instead lining the pockets of multi-national advertising firm BBH / ZAG??

We need to monitor Mrs. O. carefully and take every opportunity to expose them. I have also written to the Office of the First Lady to understand if the real Mrs. O. is aware of an improves of this blatant commercialisation of her name and image and the exploitation present in the sneaky-ways of BBH.

Stay tuned…

BETRAYAL
BETRAYAL
BETRAYAL
BETRAYAL

I can’t say that enough, Mrs T has masqueraded like a sweet young “I am unsure about myself but I know I love MO” character. And using black talk at times, I am sure many were freaked out to discover that Mary Tomer was a white gal, who obviously tries to pass herself off as black to connect with the majority black posters. Damn! they didnt again, with a black pres, This is betrayal in its worst form!
It would help if they clearly identified the Advertising agency right at the top of the blog, to INFORM bloggers, that they are being used as guinea pigs for the money making machine.
Now they are trying to collect more ideas for the book deal and encouraging people to go and ” contribute”. Pretending to be a community effort and yet they are misleading bloggers, with little white lies here and there. I see why Mrs Obama has ignored their letters for the book interview.
Now I see why sandra rose never uses them on her site, and uses Michellleobamawatch, please she always does her research.

Michelleobamawatch, I encourage you to keep your game up, and update your site more regularly, that is the only reason I would end up visiting MrsO, because they have “on the minute” coverage. But you are equally competitve!