I will come off as bitter in this post but it is my personal opinion that it's kinda *&%&ed up. If you got something for free, it has to
affect the way you review a product. You (the person receiving something for free) bypassed the part where you
had to work for the money to pay for said product. It just always seem to me in almost any situation that people who began something from an early point of a predicated boom (i.e. the boom in nail polish blogs) are usually the ones who get the most recognition and in turn, more demand for advertisement by nail polish companies.
I sometimes wonder what position I would be in if I were sent something for free and I genuinely liked it but never got to experience what it's like to work to be able to buy something. However, I have never had an opportunity where I would receive something for free so I don't have an experience with that. It definately can't be the same as receiving polish as a gift from a friend. But if I had that experience, how would I handle it? I think I would ask myself: Would I have bought this using my own money because I genuinely like this colour? and go from there.
Usually I wouldn't even care if you got it for free but it's been bothering me with the FTC rule changes that surfaced recently. Could you maybe share some insights and rebuttals? What is your opinion on free press samples? I'm sure you all are familiar with them.
TL;DR: consumerism sux
It's not as simple as it sounds - getting polish FREE. It's a form of marketing/advertising. A form of 'paying' bloggers to advertise.
ReplyDeleteI would assume, most bloggers blog for the passion of it - having companies trusting them enough to review their products, is just a bonus. If there's one who blogs to get free stuffs well, he/she is blogging for the wrong reason, at least in my opinion.
Yeah, it's different than getting a gift from friends/family. Different in sense that I get to be more honest about the product.
Anyway, getting products to review give a burden to honest bloggers especially to not break that blogger-readers trust relationship. Much like business.
Well, I was provided samples to review previously, and getting it FREE hasn't affected what I wanted to say about the product. I reviewed them in ways I would love to know about the product before deciding to buy or not.
Long story short, it all depends on the honesty of the person reviewing the products.
I completely agree with it being up to the person reviewing the products. From my observations, the most popular bloggers in the US/UK/Canada have established relationships with both large and small nail polish companies who constantly provide a supply of polish to bloggers at no cost to them (at least I'm assuming).
DeleteI risk being ignorant in this sense because I'm going into a controversial issue, i.e. money. It's not my intention at all to offend anyone. I hope that is not what you percieved :(
I do see where you're coming from and nah, I'm not at all offended. But just giving my opinion on this. As one who has received samples. :)
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