Occasionally, PR people have taken to contacting me when they have things they would like reviewed.
In some instances, they’ve invited me to free dinners, or asked me to cover things like Conviction Kitchen, or even the launch of a new chef cookbook.
Recently I even had the wonderful people representing Pom Wonderful send me an envelope of coupons in order to sample their new line of juices.
Just the other day a representative for a company called Pop Chips asked if she could send me a few samples bags to try. The irony here, which I made her well aware of at the time is that I don’t typically enjoy salty snacks all that much. However, she was fairly confident that her product would be the one to change my mind, so she sent them anyway.
All of this is a roundabout way of saying that I will occasionally be giving my 2 cents on products; but only if I like them. Things that I don’t care for are never going to see the light of day here, which is why you’ve never seen me covering the opening of the latest chain restaurant like so many other Toronto bloggers (also because I would rather throw up than eat at a chain restaurant, but that goes without saying).
I know there are a lot of people who think that the PR business is this big, dirty machine, and in some ways, I suppose it does come off as a little sleazy. Let me reconcile that by saying that I have never been the kind of person who is swayed by anyone else’s opinion. It’s great if someone has an opinion (and everybody does) but it’s not going to make up my mind for me about anything, in the same way that other people might look to restaurant, movie or product reviews. That being said, my opinions should never be the deciding factor in making your own decisions, either, because just because I like something doesn’t mean that you will. If anything, I hope that if I find something that’s worth sharing, it will do nothing more than to highlight its existence, which will allow you to draw your own conclusions.
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Tags: Conviction, Pom Wonderful, Pop Chips, PR, ramblings, YMMV
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I’d be lying if I didn’t say that nutrition-based food claims make me more than a little uncomfortable.
It seems that for every “scientific” paper that proves the benefits of consuming a certain type of food or nutrient, there are still others disputing it. In a way it’s no different than the claims made by the multi-billion dollar diet industry bent on pushing yet another new faddy regimen. Every few months new research surfaces to show that some thing (that until recently had been a workaday foodstuff) has been catapulted out of obscurity and into the limelight. At times it makes me wonder if all of these studies are in some way connected to each food’s saavy marketing board…
In the last few decades, we’ve had studies revering margarine and vilifying butter. Years later, butter faced a (luke-warm) reprieve, if only due to the fact that research arose stating that margarine had gross things like trans fats in it. Then there was the jump on the olive oil bandwagon, backed up by research into the healthful Mediterranean diet. And on, and on, ad naseum.
Which then prompted a string of books about why one culture’s diet was better than another, including French Women Don’t Get Fat, (a book a well-meaning friend once brought me to stave off boredom while I was sick) that among other things advocates living off a watery leek broth when you’ve overindulged (real healthy… snerk!) Or the (more than a little smug) rebuttal Japanese Women Don’t Get Old Or Fat, which I bought for the express purpose of seeing what exactly they would claim was better in their “lifestyle” book than the French one, but 3 years later, I’ve yet to get past page 2.
The revolving door of nutritional recommendations doesn’t stop there, either.
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Tags: Activia, bl regularis, Booster Juice, Crofter's, Danone, French Women Don't Get Fat, Haagen Dazs, Japanese Women Don't Get Old Or Fat, Mireille Guiliano, Naomi Moriyama, Pom Wonderful, rantings
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