We’ve all seen infomercials, product marketing campaigns, and other websites that proudly boast “featured on CNN,” New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or some other popular journal or trade publication. The usual objective is to convey trust to the visitor, essentially saying that if a trusted source like NBC featured the product, service, or author, then it or he must be legit!
In some cases, I believe this is simply a marketing ploy and can be misleading. Some of the leading press release companies offer great placement on leading websites and trusted resources, assuming you can afford to pay for their services. This is great for companies who want to distribute information to a wide audience, but I think it’s misleading to say they were “featured” in the specific publication, when the company paid to have its news posted.
While the definition of the term “featured” can vary and may semantically be accurate to boast, I think it can be misleading and it bothers me when companies undeservedly boast.
With that title I thought you had been featured in them when I clicked the link — was all excited to hear about it 😉
I have to agree with you though Elliot — I know Forbes will put pretty much anything on it’s pages that comes through PRNewswire. It sure seems like a pretty cheap way for those snake oil salesman to trick people who aren’t aware of this. Press release and media companies need to do more to protect the public from some of these marketers — imagine some regular guy running an investment article through Forbes and then passing yourself off as an expert financial consultant!
@Reece
“With that title I thought you had been featured”
Exactly my point 🙂