Comments on: Brand Bullying: Is It The Power Of Social Media? Or Is It Just The Power Of Celebrity? And Who Will Protect Maytag From Us?

By: anna

anna — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:15:31 +0000

Yeah, that story was BS. I mean, that’s what they’re calling reporting over at Forbes? I understand that she isn’t part of this subset of the blogosphere, and as such would read Dooce’s actions differently from how we would. But she made it sound like we just sat around all day thinking about how sucky our lives are in comparison to Dooce’s. And she made it sound like Maria is quoting Spiderman without irony!

By: Deb on the Rocks

Deb on the Rocks — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:39:50 +0000

The best part of the story is MommyMelee’s suggestion of donating to the women’s shelter. A publicist long ago should have told the Blurbdoocery that modeling charitable giving or even generosity in the blogosphere is an admirable use of power, and Heather’s lack of public generosity has cost her a lot of good will–but really only among a segment of keyed in bloggers. That is something that someone like a sloppy Forbes reporter wouldn’t be able to understand about why bloggers would dis her when she throws yet another claws-out diva fit. (I hate it that you and Maria didn’t get linked to in that story, and that Maria didn’t get credit for the idea. )

By: Leslie

Leslie — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:37:11 +0000

Sorry folks, but this entire situation reeks of entitlement to me. Dooce didn’t think she should be ignored and went public to over 1 million people to make sure they knew about it. Here is a person whose entire income is the product of her writing blog posts (none of which require research, editors, or a staff to produce) whining about the kinds of things that happen to normal folk all the time. She has companies tripping over themselves to give her new products and yet she remains surprised people aren’t showering praise upon her for complaining. Dooce, YOU ARE ENTITLED. You have umpteen people drinking the Kool-Aid willing to read, eat, or watch whatever you say. You created a public space to write your thoughts and want to get upset that people respond in ways you don’t like? You’ve been doing this for 8 years and you just figured out that is how this works? C’mon, girl. No one is calling you a bully, just shedding light on the fact that you’re a celebrity and they have to play by different rules. Stop apologizing and pretending and just accept it.

And seriously, while you’re waiting to get the machine fixed, go to a laundromat. It ain’t rocket science.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:50:29 +0000

Actually, now that I think about it, the couple of times Oprah’s done something like this, it didn’t go well. There was that one time, with the designer store in Paris (Hermes, was it?). She took a bunch of crap for that.

Then, obviously, the one about the beef…that didn’t go so well either.

Not that Dooce is Oprah…but I’ve said some nasty things about beef too, and no one’s sued me. Being famous is obviously a key variable.

By: anna

anna — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:06:41 +0000

@Jessica, interesting perspective! I would say that I agree with most of your points–a brand should have to stand by its product, no matter who their consumer is. They should be putting stuff out there and assuming that it’s going to Oprah, or Ashton, or Dooce, because it might be and if it’s bad, then that is bad news for them.

I think what turned many people off with this incident was the tone of the posts leading up to it–like when she made quasi-threatening posts, because some of the tweets sounded possibly diva-like. And people don’t react well to that. But then again, others have argued that they would have used any routes available to them, had they been in her position. I know it would have been tough for me not to do so, if I had been in her place.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:56:10 +0000

@Anna, good questions, and I can only speak for myself, but if any of those people said what Dooce said via tweet, I’d have the same reaction. Perhaps be MORE curious because I can’t see Oprah ever getting bad service. But just like with Dooce, I’d wait for more of the story to come out. If nothing ever was posted/announced for the why they were hating Maytag(or who ever), like many people seemed to expect with Dooce, then I’d brush it off. People rant, even famous people and I believe we have this fantastic thing called free will where we make choices. We chose to believe or chose to not. When I go shopping for something, especially something major like an appliance, I take everything into account. My cousin’s neighbors MIL’s battle over months for them to fix her…fridge, that had broken after initial use. Dooce’s experience would be something I’d consider, but in the same way as my cousin’s neighbor’s MIL. I think that people, even famous ones, have the right and IMO should assume that people will use their free will and intelligence to make decisions. Are there nuts? Absolutely, but I don’t feel we can or should play to the crazies.

If I was a Maytag employee? I’d be appalled by my companies behavior. If what Dooce says is accurate, which I have to assume it is as Maytag hasn’t blogged their side and we’ve all had that level of stellar service, I’d be horrified that she was treated like that. Just as I’m horrified when I’M treated like that. When I worked for Greyhound, I would bend over backwards to right the wrongs of my passengers, even though it wasn’t my job. I wasn’t customer service, but I wasn’t going to sit back and let a big company treat them unfairly. I was also open to the idea of being duped so I’m not totally gullible.

By: anna

anna — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:38:33 +0000

@Jessica, I agree, the action is no different from one that many of us (myself included) have taken. I think what we were questioning was whether or not the fact that she has a following–a very loyal, vehement following in some cases–if this required her to behave differently from us. Like, would you be OK with Oprah tweeting “Don’t buy Maytag”? Or Ashton Kutcher? What if you were a Maytag employee? Would that change your mind about whether it was the same thing?

I don’t really have an answer for these questions, by the way–just asking!

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:15:37 +0000

I have to say I’m with Team Armstrong. I found Sundry to be snarky snarky snarky. I have used Twitter to demand service from Snapfish when I was getting no where using other channels(and I only have 10 followers). I think companies are becoming aware of the use of twitter to spread the word. To me, what Dooce did is no different than me texting some friends from the cell phone store and going “OMG NEVER BUY A SAMSUNG PHONE” or whatever. I took it at face value, she was having problems and would share the details later. Just like i would to the friends I’d texted. The ONLY reason people are having issue is because she’s ‘famous’. If she was just joe schmo with a few hundred followers, no one would think twice. Regulating how we can use twitter, and what we can say is wrong IMO.

By: @marymac

@marymac — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:38:11 +0000

ah, the mysterious Croctomom. Who could forget her?!

By: anna

anna — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:14:47 +0000

@Kerry, I was kind of wondering if mainstream media would bother with this story, either. It seems noteworthy, but I’m sure my perception is totally colored by being in the middle of the mommyblogosphere. And I agree, it’s interesting that Dooce did this in a gossipy sense, but the really shocking part of it is the behavior of the mob, and how Twitter helps that spread so fast.

@Eliz, I think the premeditation makes it worse, yeah, and I didn’t really point that out in this post. And to be honest, the only reason it’s different is that money changed hands–she had already paid for a product, and that makes her more sympathetic. Also, people understand being pissed about a large appliance being defective, whereas begging for plastic shoes is kind of declasse. But yeah, it does come from the same impulse–that “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!” diva impulse that everyone hates in a celebrity. Particularly just an internet celebrity.