Toyota Not Paying Mommy Bloggers With $10 Gift Cards for Good PR
Despite original reports to the contrary, Toyota is not paying mommy bloggers to promote a recent NASA study that exonerates the company in the highly publicized ‘unintended acceleration’ fiasco.
Earlier today DearCrissy.com broke a story that MommyNetworks.org had approached her site, as well as numerous other mommy bloggers, to cover the NASA study story and create a little positive PR for Toyota. In an email, Tiffany Lewis of MommyNetworks even offered a $10 Amazon gift card for those who cooperated.
The note also asked bloggers to promote several articles favorable to Toyota, with 32 links to articles listed.
The story got out of hand when DearCrissy assumed Toyota was sponsoring the offer and therefore trying to buy good PR. While assumptions should never be made, Crissy Page of DearCrissy didn’t exactly jump to a wild conclusion in stating that Toyota was funding the scheme. Why else would MommyNetworks be paying people to generate news?
MommyNetworks has since come clean in stating that it is in now way associated with Toyota and that the automaker isn’t funding the project. Likewise, Toyota has denied any affiliation, stating in a Tweet that, “Have found no contracted affiliation w/ mommynetworks. We don’t support this type of outreach. Getting to the bottom of this.”
The question remains, why was MommyNetworks trying to buy good PR for Toyota?
[Source: LeftLane via DearCrissy]
With AutoGuide from its launch, Colum previously acted as Editor-in-Chief of Modified Luxury & Exotics magazine where he became a certifiable car snob driving supercars like the Koenigsegg CCX and racing down the autobahn in anything over 500 hp. He has won numerous automotive journalism awards including the Best Video Journalism Award in 2014 and 2015 from the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Colum founded Geared Content Studios, VerticalScope's in-house branded content division and works to find ways to integrate brands organically into content.
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