
The other day, we were talking about PR and whether or not mommybloggers should bother with going to these absurd events. I talked about how I had found myself suckered into wasting several hours of my own time on an event
recently and I couldn’t really understand how it had happened. In the course of the conversation, a story about a then-unnamed blogger who had done a sponsored post for Kenmore came up. What I had thought, originally, had happened was that this blogger had received a free washer/dryer set in exchange for writing a post. In my mind, this would have been a decent business trade, because that would work out to be like $2,500 for one post. In my book, that’s a good barter, and I’m not one of those people who throws stones about getting paid in gift cards or whatever. After discussing the matter with some other bloggers who had worked with Kenmore, I know that *at least in some cases*, washer/dryers have been given to bloggers in exchange for working with Kenmore. This doesn’t mean that this is the deal they have with every blogger, but I do know for a fact that it is a deal they offer to some bloggers, so it is not unreasonable to assume it was one that might have been the case here.

But then I realized that the original post has said that the washers had been a temporary “loan,” that it had been a “tryout,” for that blogger. So, this was an absurd situation in my mind because of the logistics of it all (did they come and take the old set out and store it in the backyard? did they take it off site? why would anyone agree to this? etc.). Why wouldn’t Kenmore just give the blogger the damn set? Why would they want to come off looking so cheap? I don’t know a lot about Kenmore as a brand, but I cannot imagine that they are working with so many bloggers that they cannot afford to give a blogger a washer/dryer set. But the post said it was a loaner, and then Jessica tweeted that she went out and bought the same set, in a different color, which also supported the idea that they hadn’t given her the set.
So, I thought I’d go to the source for three reasons: 1) to determine if the people at Kenmore are such fantastically smart marketing geniuses that they managed to get a Nielsen Power Mom to buy a set of washer/dryers based on a two month loaner period for which she wrote a long, otherwise uncompensated post on her blog; 2) to see if Jessica’s many claims of never working “for cheap or for free” are in fact true; and 3) because I know Jessica relishes hearing from me. So I wrote Jessica the following email:
Jessica,
I was hoping you could clear up some confusion regarding your relationship with Kenmore for a post I’m writing about compensation for working with brands. If you’d rather not, I of course understand. Here is what I’d like to know:
- Did you get a washer/dryer set from them in exchange for working with them?
- Was this a temporary loan situation, as is suggested by your post of March 11, 2010, or were you allowed to keep the washer/dryer set?
- If it was temporary, how were the logistics of this worked out? Did they move your previous washer/dryer set into your backyard in the interim, or off site? Were arrangements made to put the set back into your home at the end of the trial period?
- If the set was in fact a compensation for working with Kenmore, why did you suggest that it was a temporary loan? Also, why did you then purchase another of the same washer/dryer set model, and announce this on Twitter?
Thanks for all of your help on this matter.
Anna
Here’s her response:
Make something up.
You always do.
Typos?
Blame my iPhone or my collugewww.JessicaGottlieb.com
I made sure to confirm with her that it was OK to quote her on this, and she said sure. I also asked Kenmore to comment on the matter. After some back and forth about the actual content of my post, I finally just told the Kenmore representative that what I wanted to know was whether or not the washer/dryer set had been given to Gottlieb or not. (I don’t have clearance to post the email exchange here, or else I would). I did not get a comment one way or the other on that matter as of the time of this post; if one comes in, I will update the post to reflect it. I *would* like to note that whomever is running the @KenmoreConnect twitter account had an opportunity to correct any misconceptions when Gottlieb tweeted about it, but failed to do so.

Who Cares?
Here’s why I care about this: obviously there are many people who aren’t telling the truth here, which fine, not everybody has to disclose all of the details of the deals they make. But, practice what you preach. If you don’t want to be paid via barter, like you got on the Eleven Moms last year for doing with gift cards, then practice what you preach. If you want to be thought of as a good businessperson, then don’t work for free. Don’t just SAY that you don’t work for free — DON’T WORK FOR FREE. Do not, for example, write a long post about Lexus on your blog for which you are not being compensated (except being invited to go to a PR event). Do not let somebody put a washer/dryer set in your house for a few months and write a post about it and then go out buy the same set, and call yourself a good businesswoman. Because that’s a dumb deal. It’s a bad deal. That’s WORSE than working for free. That’s walking away from your relationship with a brand one blog post and $2,500 poorer.
Unless, of course, you DID get the set to keep, in which case — good for you. Just be honest about it.
If you DID get to keep the set, why on EARTH would you lie about it? And why on EARTH would Kenmore go along with it? Furthermore, why are you making your (god only knows who these people are) legions of followers read about Lexus if you’re not being paid by them? Are you trying to make them think that you are? And if you ARE being paid by Lexus, why are you not disclosing? Either you are working for free or you are breaking the law — you choose.
No more smoke and mirrors. The empress has no clothes. They’re still in her dryer. That she might have gotten for free. I’m still not sure.
UPDATE: This is in from Kenmore:
I can’t really refute information directly without knowing what the information is. But here are the facts:
- We loaned Jessica one of our new washer/dryer sets for two months to try out
- She donated her old top-load washer and dryer to http://www.achieveglendale.org/main.html (her friend @hardlynormal works there)
- She liked the washer/dryer and purchased a new set of the same model in a different color for herself (hence the tweet regarding purchasing a new set)
- Admittedly, the loan period did stretch longer than the planned two months, as Jessica didn’t have a chance to pick up her new machines and the plan was to pick up the test models when the new ones were delivered
For those of you playing at home, this means that all of Gottlieb’s claims about the washer relationship have (thankfully) been true. It also means that Kenmore is being truthful.
The claims about not working for “cheap or for free,” though, not so much. Because Kenmore lowballed her and she took the deal.
UPDATE: Here’s the You Tube video where Jessica shows us her laundry room that she’s having remodeled to accommodate her loaner set of washers from Kenmore:
FURTHER UPDATE: The receipt has now been posted by she who does not work for cheap or for free.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: I wrote this post without realizing that one of the many times Gottlieb had criticized bloggers working for free was with the Brand Ambassador Program for Sears (which owns Kenmore). Is that irony, or Alanis Irony? Or what? How many days have we been doing this now? Which way is up?
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