Food blogging

New Disclosure Law for Bloggers: $11,000 Fine

October 9, 2009 by diannejacob

As mentioned in a previous (and my most popular) post on accepting freebies, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) now targets bloggers in its updated guides on endorsements and testimonials. If you write about a product or service, and don’t disclose that you got something for free, you risk a fine of $11,000.

Before you freak out, let’s review the categories that might require disclosure if you choose to write favorably about them:

1. Free products or services (also called product-in-kind) including:

books from publishers meant for review, even if you’re given a book at an event
a goodie bag you get at an event
kitchen equipment sent for possible review
prepared foods sent for review or mention
free service, such as Sur La Table sharpening your kitchen knives.

If you’re involved in a viral marketing program, such as General Mills MyBlogSpark program, you must say so. (If you don’t know about this kind of program, welcome to the new world of inexpensive marketing. According to an article in AdWeek, “General Mills contacted 100 mom and food bloggers in conjunction with the launch of a new blueberry acai flavor of its Yoplait Yo-Plus yogurt. It provided coupons to try the product as well as tote bags and other swag to give to readers. General Mills also sent out key product messages touting the yogurt’s health benefits…Overall, the program resulted in 5 million total impressions and over 8,000 comments with no media costs. [General Mills does not buy ads on blogs, Witt said.]”

2. Free trips or free meals at restaurants or events.

3. Nice blogging gigs for pay, such the National Pork Board, Pork, Knife & Spoon. (Are there other examples? I’d love to hear about them.)

4. Independent reviews in exchange for cash. I’m sure none of you do this, where you get paid to endorse a product by writing positive comments on blogs and websites. Plenty of unethical people are willing even if you aren’t, and I hope the FTC fines them all. Still, if you get a book for free and write a positive review on Amazon without disclosing, that could be a problem.

Now, let’s get to the wording. I suspect saying “ScharffenBerger sent me this new baking chocolate” or “a sponsor gave me this” is not specific enough. The FTC rule says “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.” You have to say you got it for free, or that you were compensated. Conversely, if you bought the item, it seems more important than ever to say so, to cover yourself. And if you don’t have a policy on your blog about receiving free products and services, now’s a good time to write one. Of course, if you don’t review items you receive, or if you return them, these rules don’t apply.

The good news is that individual bloggers are not the target of this ruling, according to an interview with Richard Cleland of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. It’s more about going after advertisers, he says. Still, the best practice is transparency in writing, and being held accountable to your readers, who trust you. I hope this new ruling results in fewer positive reviews now that bloggers might feel less beholden, or more honesty about personal reasons for trashing or praising.

Thanks to Mary Margaret Pack, Carole Bidnick and Faith Kramer for sending me links for this post. They were free and I did use them.

So, are you ready for this new law? Do you already have a process in place? Let me know how your food blogging will or will not change.

Sony promotes food bloggers on J&J site

August 2, 2009 by diannejacob

images Talk about great publicity. Sony Pictures is promoting food bloggers with links to a whole bunch of them on its official movie website homepage for Julie & Julia.

The navigation isn’t obvious, so let me tell you how it works. Click on the white egg in the right-hand corner, and a long list of food bloggers will go by to the left. Just click on the blog name you’d like to see.

Pretty impressive, except I’m wondering why they threw in a link to Epicurious’s Epi-Log. The earliest pos t on that blog was a breathy report of the New York premiere focusing on name dropping and what people ate. The Sony site also provides a link to Great Grub, “a forum where you can connect with people who share your passion for food.” If that’s what Sony wanted, why not steer people to with Chow.com or Serious Eats?

Thanks to Sarah at Lettuce Eat Kale for sending the link.

The Verdict: Great Food Blogs Come Down to 4 Things

July 22, 2009 by diannejacob 7 Comments

images Thanks to all who weighed in on my last post, both here and on Facebook, about what makes a food blog worthwhile. I’ve read through your comments, and will now attempt now to boil them down into four main elements. Based on my own opinion and the comments, a great blog has:

1. A strong personality. We want food bloggers who are fun, intelligent, opinionated, creative, make us think, and make us learn. No matter what they’re writing about, we want them to be passionate and well informed.

2. Great recipes. We readers want to be inspired by creative, innovative recipes that are also technically excellent. We want something new and different, not what we have in cookbooks at home.

3. Good storytelling skills. A great food blogger knows how to write a tempting title, a lead that draws us in, and uses techniques like self-effacing humor to great effect. With high-quality writing, reporting and research comes the feeling that we’re right there with them, cooking, eating, tasting and discovering.

4. Excellent photos. There’s no way around it. We want to be seduced by the images.

So there you have it. If you’re a blogger, does your writing and photos meet this criteria? If you’re a blog reader, maybe you think I’ve left something out. Let me know.

Here's What I Ate Today. Does Anyone Care?

July 19, 2009 by diannejacob

Like you, I’m obsessed with food. My favorite kind of day is when I meet a friend over a meal, we talk about food, visit a cool food market or street, I cook something that tastes great, and maybe later, I read about food. But most of the time, my days are not that exciting. Does a normal day around food, in and of itself, constitute a good blog?

Usually, no. The topic is too broad. It’s based on chronology, as in “here’s what I did with food today.” It does not qualify as a theme or a focus. And that is why so many food blogs fail. I just don’t care enough about where you went for lunch, or what you made for dinner.

images I’ve been thinking about what makes me want to read a food blog. The first blogger I read with any regularity was Grist’s Tom Philpott, because I enjoy and appreciate his well-researched take on food politics. (In this link he skewered the notion that eating farm-raised salmon in a chain restaurant is defensible just because it tastes good.) He rarely writes about himself or his life, and I always learn something. He’s more like a traditional newspaper columnist, and maybe that’s why I started with him. I felt comfortable.

images Now, to contradict myself, I love checking in with David Lebovitz, who writes about his day. Yes, in the hands of a skilled writer and photographer, the most ordinary events can become worthwhile. First, there’s the anticipation of a gorgeous photo. Today’s post about sardine pate leads with, instead of an obvious photo of pate on a slice of baguette, a more mysterious snap of a flipper sticking out of a stainless steel bowl in hues of cobalt. Next, he writes as though he’s my best friend: intimate, funny, charming and sweet. He covers food in Paris, a focus that’s more exotic than daily life in the US. Lastly, I always learn something about cooking or baking techniques. So even though it’s a guilty pleasure, I get lots out of his posts.

Tell me if I’m off base here. Maybe you’re a food blogger who thinks it’s perfectly fine to have “food” as the focus of your blog. Or if you read general food blogs, which are the most worthwhile and why?