If you blog, or follow blogs, you will be aware that bloggers often post product reviews. Sometimes, these will be items they have purchased themselves. Other times, they will be reviewing items sent to them by brands and PR companies.
These items are sent "free of charge" in exchange for a review. It's important to note that reviewing an item properly takes considerable time, so it isn't really free, but that's a discussion for another day. Bloggers who receive products for review will often have a disclaimer on their blogs, usually saying something along the lines of "all opinions are my own" or "this is my honest opinion".
We're not disputing that the opinion of the product in question is honest. However, we are questioning how honest the concept of their product reviews are.
We can't possibly like everything that is sent to us. I blog about fitness and one thing I review fairly often is the humble sports bra. I run. I'm also a 32H. I need a good bra. A lot of my traffic comes from other big breasted women who want to know what bra they should wear, or want to read a review on a certain bra. When I'm researching bras to buy, I want to also read negative reviews so I can form a balanced opinion on whether I should buy it or not.
Now, the argument can be made that if a negative review can't be found anywhere, it's probably a good product and yes, this is a valid point. However, what if lots of people actually thought the bra was bad and didn't write about it, so I couldn't find that out until buying? Exactly.
Unfortunately, there now seems to be a trend developing amongst bloggers where they only write about products they like. If they are sent a product and don't like it, then they don't write about it. Or, they write to the company and say they don't like it, giving the company the option of not having the review published.
Yet, the blogger still claims to be honest.
Is a blogger really honest if they neglect to mention the negative?Or is this honesty by omission of truth?
Not very ethical, is it?
At a time when bloggers are coming under fire for expecting rights, for "blagging" items, and for being rude to brands, is it not time that they got more professional? After all, if you're not professional enough or mature enough to explain why an item isn't for you, should you really be blogging?
Nah, thought not.
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