Selfish Mom

There are a lot of bloggers who feel that accepting gifts from companies looking to promote their products somehow cheapens their blog and dilutes their opinions. I am not one of those bloggers. I like free stuff, and I like to pass as much stuff as possible on to my readers. Yes, I do keep some stuff for myself. It’s my blog. But whenever possible I try to get at least two, in case I get greedy and keep one.

If I write about a product that was given to me for the express purpose of getting me to write about it or review it, I will mention that. If I paid for the item but got some sort of discount or other deal for promoting it, I’ll mention that too.

If I don’t say anything specific about how I got the item, or I use phrases like “picked up” “have” “got” or “shoplifted”, then I bought the item myself, or received it as a gift from a friend, with no help from a company or marketing firm (except for the help we’re all getting, in the form of relentless advertising).

I do not accept products from companies if they come with strings attached. A few times I’ve been offered products for review, with the understanding that if I don’t like the product I will send the product back without reviewing it. Are you kidding me? Once I decide to review a product, you’ll get my honest review, whether I liked it or not. I also won’t give a company any kind of editorial review or advance view. Companies should be confident in the quality of their products before they send them out for review.

If I’ve used a product, maybe at a store or a friend’s house, and like it, I may contact the company and ask for a free one in exchange for blogging about it.  I will state this in the post, but I just wanted to mention it here, since this is probably as bad as it gets, ethically.  But here are two things to keep in mind: I already know that I like the product before I ask for it, so I’m not accepting the product in exchange for a good review - there’s a good chance I’ll write about it whether they give me one for free or not.  And two, I really like free stuff.  Did I mention that already?

Now, the argument could be made that simply by sending me products, companies are swaying my opinion, because I’m more likely to review their product if they give it to me for free. That is absolutely true. The only way to combat this is for all companies everywhere to send me as many free products as possible. Spread the word.