Blowback

Let the backlash commense:

IPG Establishes Blog Specialty Group
NEW YORK Interpublic Group's MWW Group said it has set up a blogging subsidiary. Called Blog 360, the division promises to help corporations create blogs that will provide "a unique and highly effective platform to connect with key constituents and audiences who are more difficult to reach via traditional marketing and public relations," the agency said in a statement. Blog 360 has enlisted the expertise of Stephen Morgan Friedman, who runs the blog overheardinnewyork.com. "Through blogs, MWW's clients will have the ability to truly speak the language of their customers," he said.
--Catharine P. Taylor

- via Adweek

Seems to me that part of the attraction of blogs is that they are free of the editorial influence exerted by monied interests in traditional media. The Raging Cow blog (that covertly marketed the Dr. Pepper milk drink that went nowhere) was supposed to be a hip way to connect with consumers and it bombed. Robert Scoble is widely read but also widely criticized for being less than critical of Microsoft. Why would I trust a corporate blog?

A blog that makes it easier for you to hear from, and be influenced by, your customers seems like a good idea, but why push the "connect with key constituents and audiences who are more difficult to reach" angle? Why are they that disconnected from existing or potential customers?

Seems like another way companies are trying to fake the funk. Consumers are smarter now, and more powerful than ever. Companies do not get to deliver messages anymore. They get to listen.

It's a user-centered world now.