cross-posted to my personal blog.
Sara Jameson sent me this a while back, but I finally got around to reading it. I guess I kind of suck when it comes to doing things with any expediency….
But anyway, this blogger, henrycopeland, in his original blog post here, notes that Volvo, in buying adspace on Microsoft’s blogare Spaces,
is getting a raw deal.
As Steve Hall of Adrants notes that most of Spaces blogs are “empty, useless, pointless weblogs.” “A quick review of weblogs listed as recently updated on MSN Spaces revealed few, if any, containing more than a post or two. Many simply state, ‘There are no entries in this blog.'” (Steve wrote asking what I thought of the deal — my reply to him seeded this post.)
I completely agree that advertisinging on Microsoft’s Spaces is about the dumbest place on earth (Though henrycopeland argues that Microsoft Spaces blogs are also low-quality because of a high instance of profanity; this is a bullshit classist stance revolving around some bourgeois ideology of politeness).
Henrycopeland continues,
Why advertise on the blogs of the anonymous once-a-month-bloggers when you can associate your brand (probably at much lower cost!) with intellectual stars, folks who have national reputations in their respective fields and who are hubs for rabidly loyal communities? And why inrich Bill Gates’ another 0.0000000027% when you can put money directly into a smart blogger’s pocket?
Blogging is the ultimate meritocracy and the name brand of Microsoft (or any other traditional publisher) is no guarantee of quality or safety. On the contrary, corporate umbrellas are increasingly havens for publishing mediocrity. Rushing to be trendy, Volvo has bought the wrong end of blogging and ignored the only name brands that mean anything: the bloggers’.
While I have to agree that advertising on Microsoft’s blogware is not the best corporate move (but what do I care, they’re corporate fucks), I have to disagree that “blogging is the ultimate meritocracy.” A blog is not just well read because it has merit (i.e., that it is written well), but also because of savvy advertising, a chance hit from google, or because we, as a culture, value masculinist and public rhetoric over private. You want my favorite blogs? I bet henrycopeland isn’t reading them.
Once again, back to the post that Sara sent me:
But why didn’t Volvo just didn’t buy advertising on their blogs and actually pay those bloggers, rather than Microsoft?Again, to restate my case, blogging is about individualism, personality and self-expression. It’s about human automomy.
Well, let’s see… Volvo is a corporate jerk and Microsoft is a corporate jerk, so why would they want to give individual bloggers money? And then, you claim that blogging is about individualism and human autonomy? Then explain how your blog is part of a company to sell advertising…does autonomy mean being supported by a capitalist system? Why is it that there are “best blogs” – perhaps because other people comment and support those blogs? If there is a supposed meritocracy, or even a pretend one, it is because there are social networks online that create a readership and community around a blog. Complicate this further by the fact that most blogs are either run on open source freeware (which means that many people have contributed to your supposed “autonomy”) or by a corporation like google or microsoft (meaning you’re depending on someone else’s capital). I think henrycopeland’s exhaltation of American rugged individualism is a bit simplistic.
But yes, Volvo screwed themselves. But who cares?
