Has She Flown The Coop?

No, I haven't taken leave of my senses, but there are some things percolating in the blogosphere that I needed to add my two cents to and mention here. Just in case you're wondering, this isn't the second part to the last post. I'll get to it soon though and to all your wonderful comments!

Since I returned from the Blogher Conference, I've been reading the many reactions and posts on Technorati. Right now, there are over 12,000 posts about Blogher and there are more being added constantly. I'm sure they aren't all related to this last conference, but a lot of them are and I've seen a few things being discussed repeatedly.

Many people seem wildly and disproportionately upset about Butterball giving out potholders as a free gift. I like my potholder. It's really sturdy, a nice color and I actually needed a new one. I like Butterball. Just about every Thanksgiving and Christmas growing up and even now, my family has one of their turkeys. I was raised on these turkeys! I like their turkey bacon too. And I'm not being paid for this just in case anyone is wondering.

I don't think Butterball was making any sort of sexist statement about women by giving these. Their products are foods that need to be cooked, which require potholders. The whining and complaining about them astounds me. These were gifts! They didn't have to give anything. They didn't have to sponsor the conference. They sponsored the food blogging session, which I was really happy to attend. There was a question in the session asking about their sponsorship. I'll talk about that more in the second part to my other post. Oh, and I heard that some people received aprons from another company and were upset about that too. I wish I had gotten one! I only have one apron.

Anyway, something else that I've been reading about is the issue of companies approaching bloggers to promote their products. Some bloggers are adamantly against it and others love it; some are in between. I think it's fine as long as there is full disclosure.

From what I've read, in one of the sessions (State of the Momosphere)that I did not attend, since I'm not a mom, a PR guy made some statements that really struck a nerve. Read about it here on Kimchi Mamas. Here is an excerpt from the post.

I also told them that even though I get pitches everyday at CityMama, over at Kimchi Mamas we get none. Not a one. Ever.

Because people of color do not matter to advertisers. ...

Then he admitted, "You're right. We don't pitch to bloggers of color." And here's the money quote: "We just don't know what to do with them."

I found another interesting post and comments here on Mocha Momma.

Now I'm not a mom blogger, so I wasn't in this discussion and most of these bloggers are new to me, but I couldn't help but think that this has probably impacted me to a certain extent too. I've been approached by a few places to promote something for them, but I'm certainly not getting many free products thrown my way. I had to stop and wonder.

Then late last night, when I should have been sleeping, like I should be now, I saw a post looking for posts about race and blogging. I submitted my post A Study In Black for Hump Day Hmmmm on The Ravin' Picture Maven. Take a look at these posts. There are some interesting comments, heated emotions, hurt feelings and a bit of drama happening.

And to you PR and marketing people. If you are interested. Do you want to know how to pitch to people of color? Pitch to us just like "regular people." Because you know what? We are.



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