Flogs are funny. Flogs demonstrate just how dumb some people can be. How do these people ascend to the jobs they have?!? Do they really think they can get away with it?!?
Flogs are defined as a “fake blog” (as in a sales or marketing gimmick site masquerading as a fan site or genuine consumer blog, and authored by a PR or marketing hack).
Perhaps the most famous flog is the disastrous Walmarting Across America hack job, written by two Walmart “fans” who drove across America in an RV blogging about the Walmarts they visited. While two people did in fact leap from Walmart to Walmart, they were paid very well to do so (and this was not disclosed in the blog). It was a PR stunt allegedly cooked-up by Walmart’s PR firm Edelman PR (see Wal-Mart's Jim and Laura: The Real Story in Business Week).
Can you imagine a company pulling off a flog on the intranet, and getting caught? Tell me that wouldn't implode employee morale.
I express my fondness for the Trailer Park Boys, the "I'm Tom Cruise and I'm in Love" flog, and name drop a bit in my full column: Flogging (Content Matters).
PS - Mark Cuban was kind enough to email me aftter my last entry (The Internet is Dead, Long Live the Intranet) where I disagreed with his definition of intranet and his assertion that the intranet is ahead of the Internet. In short, we agreed to disagree. Mark, no hard feelings. Let the debate continue....
