I'm a bit gobsmacked. I've read blog posts from well known bloggers in the past about bloggers being taken advantage of (stop saying "blogger" in here). I guess because I've never regarded this blog anything other than a hobby it's never really affected me in anyway.
And then today I saw a 'competition' for bloggers to become an ambassador for an online brand. In order to enter you must write a blog post about an item from their website & send it to them. Fair enough. A good way to see if the blogger entrants have a grasp on writing a structured and balanced review on something.
But it was the next part that blew me away. After the finalists are chosen from their entries they are then invited to "thrash it out" on Twitter and/or Facebook to gain the most votes.
So basically, he/she who has the most friends/family/followers, wins.
Of course, ultimately a brand would want to reach the widest number of people as possible, and whilst the reward of "ambassador" is a generous one, with a nominal amount to be spent each month on the brand's website, at the end of the day isn't it all just a popularity competition?
Are bloggers throwing away any chance of their blogs being taken seriously by happily canvassing for votes rather than letting their talent and work do the talking for them?
Perhaps, as I said, because I see this currently as little more than a hobby, I'm just not grasping the whole "blogging" thing completely.
I think i'd rather keep the free monthly "payment" from a brand in return for a review than compete for votes that have little to nothing to do with my ability to write and review.
As a not-so-slight aside, there are a few blogs that I follow that currently have this position for this brand, and I AM a fan of their blogs and their writing. I guess we should just hope that the finalists are all up to scratch so that whoever triumphs as most popular will still give balanced and trustworthy reviews, rather than biased and greedy.
Am I just being cranky?
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
A post in which I ramble incessantly about how little I know about 'fashion'
As someone with a fulltime job and a social life outside of both the job & this blog, I often find it overwhelming with the amount of 'fashion week's' that there are. There's S/S, A/W, resort, ready to wear, couture. The list might one day be endless.
To that end, and having had the last 2 weeks off & spending quality time with the family, I'm only just now getting a chance to look properly at the New York Fashion Week for s/s 2012 from a few weeks ago. London Fashion is only just coming to a close, and whilst i've caught bits here & there, I think i'll give it another week to fully digest all the shows and cast a critical eye over them.
Ah...who am I kidding? I'm no critic. I never have, and probably never will, spout myself to be some sort of fashion guru, predicting trends or forecasting the coming season's must-have pieces. However, the more I come to understand about fashion, by reading blogs and magazines, by watching fashion shows, and by making acquaintances within the industry, the more it becomes apparent to me that trends, style and fashion are all very different things.
Fashion, the industry, is a wide and all-encompassing umbrella for everything fashion-related.
Trends are what the magazine editors, stylists and bloggers pick up as key pieces from what the designers put on the runway to showcase their work for the coming season.
And style, style is much more personal. You can be influenced by the fashion industry, you can know about trends, but ultimately it is up to you whether you choose to incorporate those trends into your own personal style.
Style V Trend is something i'm constantly battling with. Do I like something because i've been told to like it, or do I genuinely like it for what it is?
And so, when I look at the collections for the coming seasons, I might identify running trends between designers and collections, be it a colour, a shape, a hemline, a fabric, a heel height. And if I do, great. But that doesn't make me a critic.
So to that end, whilst I hope to be able to pass an interested and eager to learn eye over collections, I don't claim to be able to give insightful or particularly balanced commentary, other than, simply, "I like this because..." or " I don't like this because...".
I guess this is some sort of weird disclaimer so if/when I start posting pictures of the emerging 'trends' that I see or pieces that I'm crushing on, that ya'll don't think i'm just blowing hot air out of my backside!
My plan is to spend a few days looking through the entire NYFW collections and post my favourite and most-likely to interprate pieces for my personal style.
I'll hopefully then do the same with the LFW and then, to be a bit more relevant to now, and because the days are quickly getting colder, i'm going to revisit the A/W 2011 collections and pick out the items I fell in love with a few months ago & where I can find me some highstreet versions!
Though I do fear i'll fall into my usual winter wardrobe-trap of skinny jeans, boots and oversized jumpers!
Thank God jumpers are on TREND this winter ;)
To that end, and having had the last 2 weeks off & spending quality time with the family, I'm only just now getting a chance to look properly at the New York Fashion Week for s/s 2012 from a few weeks ago. London Fashion is only just coming to a close, and whilst i've caught bits here & there, I think i'll give it another week to fully digest all the shows and cast a critical eye over them.
Ah...who am I kidding? I'm no critic. I never have, and probably never will, spout myself to be some sort of fashion guru, predicting trends or forecasting the coming season's must-have pieces. However, the more I come to understand about fashion, by reading blogs and magazines, by watching fashion shows, and by making acquaintances within the industry, the more it becomes apparent to me that trends, style and fashion are all very different things.
Fashion, the industry, is a wide and all-encompassing umbrella for everything fashion-related.
Trends are what the magazine editors, stylists and bloggers pick up as key pieces from what the designers put on the runway to showcase their work for the coming season.
And style, style is much more personal. You can be influenced by the fashion industry, you can know about trends, but ultimately it is up to you whether you choose to incorporate those trends into your own personal style.
Style V Trend is something i'm constantly battling with. Do I like something because i've been told to like it, or do I genuinely like it for what it is?
And so, when I look at the collections for the coming seasons, I might identify running trends between designers and collections, be it a colour, a shape, a hemline, a fabric, a heel height. And if I do, great. But that doesn't make me a critic.
So to that end, whilst I hope to be able to pass an interested and eager to learn eye over collections, I don't claim to be able to give insightful or particularly balanced commentary, other than, simply, "I like this because..." or " I don't like this because...".
I guess this is some sort of weird disclaimer so if/when I start posting pictures of the emerging 'trends' that I see or pieces that I'm crushing on, that ya'll don't think i'm just blowing hot air out of my backside!
My plan is to spend a few days looking through the entire NYFW collections and post my favourite and most-likely to interprate pieces for my personal style.
I'll hopefully then do the same with the LFW and then, to be a bit more relevant to now, and because the days are quickly getting colder, i'm going to revisit the A/W 2011 collections and pick out the items I fell in love with a few months ago & where I can find me some highstreet versions!
Though I do fear i'll fall into my usual winter wardrobe-trap of skinny jeans, boots and oversized jumpers!
Thank God jumpers are on TREND this winter ;)
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