Ok, so this is quite interesting to me. I had a comment today on a post that I wrote in 2008 as you’ll see below about Rodial. The commentor suggests that while I enthused about the brand back in 2008, my subsequent posts haven’t been so effusive. And, for very good reason I feel – this is the brand that has brought us most recently Crash Diet Sticks – meal supplements, £48, Crash Diet Smoothies, £48 and Crash Diet Gel, £75, promising to get you to drop a dress size in 10 days. My view on this, and I won’t be alone with it, is that promoting anything with the title ‘Crash Diet’, is not a good way to ‘sell’ weight loss. I’ve really no idea whether it works, but I do know that if you ask any doctor whether a great way to lose weight is to go on a crash diet, he or she will say absolutely not. Crash diets are notorious for their shock to the system and also for almost immediate weight gain once you start eating normally again. Back in the day, Rodial was an innovative brand. Glamotox really does work and make your skin glowy and dewy, but there isn’t much that I’ve seen subsequently that makes me feel comfortable about Rodial’s claims, particularly their foray into weight reduction (Skinny Sticks, anyone?) and the way these are promoted. And, what worries me even more is that their newest, more purse friendly brand, Nip + Fab, promises more in some cases than it’s three times the price sister, Rodial, which makes me wonder at the pricing system of Rodial.
And, for the record, I’ve never ever (in over ten years of working in beauty) had lunch with anyone from Chanel, Dior or YSL, but I had a very nice dinner recently with Lauder, thank you. If you’re worried that bloggers are being demanding, it isn’t compulsory to work with bloggers – it’s a choice. And, if you’re working with bloggers who are threatening bad reviews if you won’t send them product, name them. Because most bloggers wouldn’t even dream of such a thing. It would be fair to say, however, given that blogs are self-edited with no official channel of recourse it can be a leap of faith and if you have had the misfortune to come across a weight-thrower, you can trust me on this that within the blog community it will have been duly noted.
Anyway, here’s the post and comment:
Friday, 17 October 2008
Was delighted to see that Maria Hatzistefanis, founder of Rodial, picked up an Achiever’s award at the recent CEW do. Rodial is just a very, very cleverly formulated brand that delivers on it’s promises – a rare find in beauty. I don’t make any bones about the fact that Glam Balm is easily a favourite find and I use it almost every day.
‘hilarious…! what a difference in two years. How can anyone trust blogs these days. 2 years ago your applauding this brand and the owner and now, in 2010, tearing it apart. i have been following this whole rodial, dr nield story with interest and noticed that no-one (except the evening standard) has garnered rodial opinion. turns out its a nutty professor BOOB JOB doctor that is chasing publicity for her clinic. nicely researched. What happened, did the British Beauty Blogger not get enough attention from this brands PR so took a turn? I am in the industry and am sickened by bloggers demands for exclusives and tonnes of free products or they are going to “write a bad review”. High time this was exposed (bet you have had some “wonderful” lunches with Chanel, Dior, YSL and Estee Lauder PR execs…. This is the reality. Better beleiveing what is written in the Daily Mail….you all did.’
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All products are sent to me as samples from brands and agencies unless otherwise stated. Affiliate links may be used. Posts are not affiliate driven.
23 comments
Wow, this was vicious. I don’t think it contradictory to like one product from a particular brand and dislike another – in fact, I’m yet to discover a brand without any duds. Interesting how quick people are to criticize bloggers for virtually anything.
I agree with Rocaille. Sounds like that commenter is a sauerkraut! Guess the wrong side of the bed was todays side…
Maybe if they looked at it from a customers point of view, they’d get it! Just stupid to make such remarks about your opinion. Its YOUR opinion!!
xxx
I honestly can’t think of one blogger I know (and as bloggers, we know lots of them) who would ever blackmail a PR by saying if they don’t get product they will ‘write a bad review’. The fact that this person put this in quotation marks implies she’s actually been told this, which, erm, I genuinely don’t think is true at all. Name the person if it is. I’m dying to know. It sounds like to me someone is clearly frustrated/jealous that times have moved on and you can’t buy peoples’ (magazines) opinions anymore. I think it makes them feel a little out of their depth as a PR and they’re blaming US for their failings..
Unbelievably rude … vicious, frankly it seems way too personal; one never has to agree with all opinions on the gazillions of blogs out there but this is almost beyond comprehension. The hatred and absolute nastiness oozed through my monitor.
I’ve just discovered your blog and apart from Latisse and any skin care remedy, I don’t even do cosmetics and I can’t wait for every word you do.
I’m sorry this happened and good that you aired this.
Dreadful.
Not only was this vicious rant without substance, but it was only semi-literate! And, for being someone who professes to be in “the industry”, the respondent was woefully ignorant.
Time marches on. Brands, marketing strategies, products, formulations, etc. all change. We are fickle consumers and our loyalty to a brand is only as good as its next product.
Sorry someone was so vindictive to you, no brand gets every product right, for example there are some amazing products from Barry M (in my opinion) and some duds too, but thats just me.
Dont listen to the comment, your blog is great, keep up the good work.
http://miss-lv.blogspot.com/
Ouch! There was a lot of malice in that comment huh? I always wonder where such venom comes from.
My opinions have changed on Rodial too. I was really shocked to hear about the crash diet range and asked the brand on twitter if they thought that it was responsible to promote crash dieting. Their response?
“the crash diet is simply the name of the new line of diet aid products. In no way are we encouraging crash dieting”
Erm, what? It’s a product to help you lose weight quickly. It’s a diet aid. It’s called crash diet. I felt like I was being treated like a gullible moron and it infuriated me. BUT, I still love their Glam Balm and used to adore the old night serum.
Badly written comment and I’m not sure I even get the final point!
Woo, someone needs to pull the thorn out of their paw. Talk about cranky.
I’ve had brands I’ve raved about and then they go awry and I don’t much like them anymore. Things change. Yeesh.
Its beyond ridiculous to suggest that someone can’t like a brand once upon a time but go off them. Lord knows I do this with products! Rave about it but two months later I’ve replaced it with somehing I love even more.
Also am totally sick of bloggers being tarred by the same brush, yes there are a handful of demanding divas out there (but I’d be surprised if even they were threatening bad reviews if they don’t get a sample) but the vast majority of us are polite and gracious in our dealings.
As an aside. I would like to suggest to the commentor that a little bit of adult education in literacy might be a more effective use of their time rather than wasting evenings writing nonsensical bile filled comments.
I cannot believe what I just read. The person who wrote that is clearly ignorant, as well as not being very good at her job if she’s ‘in the industry’ – grammar or spelling anyone?! You’re never going to get a brand that makes every single product amazing and two years in the beauty industry is a long time. It’s perfectly feasible for everything to change in that period, from concepts to ingredients, packaging and claims… why has this person got such a bad taste in her mouth?
I agree with the points above – I don’t know a single blogger that would demand product or threaten a bad review. And as for those ‘wonderful lunches’… I know for a fact that the magazines are often bribed by luxury holidays, designer bags and jewelery just to write a good review, so surely this is ‘the norm’ for her anyway? Eugh.
Why why why can people leaving ranting remarks never spell. I admit I make mistakes myself but if i am going to post a great long comment criticising someone I try and remember to spell check. 2 years seems to be a reasonable length of time to change your mind about something, and how much research does a blogger have to do on every company they review?
Wait a minute… so if I like a few products from one particular brand, Im supposed to like every single product they do and have no opinions whatsoever on certain individual products?
What a bloody stupid and pointless comment. People should think before they type, to avoid looking like they don’t have two brain cells to rub together.
I am a PR and I work with many, many bloggers every day for my clients and I can honestly say I have never had anyone threaten to write a bad review if I don’t give them an ‘exclusive’ or ‘tonnes of free products’.
What brands/PRs need to remember is that bloggers are providing their products with essential promotion – for free. If bloggers weren’t hugely influential, why would brands bother to send them products, invite them to launches etc?
If you ask a blogger to review a product and they want to do it as an exclusive – that’s fine; you can make the decision as to whether or not you offer it as an exclusive – the blogger isn’t forcing you to.
As for the “wonderful” lunches (what a strange thing to put in quote marks) The Beauty Pages got it spot on – journalists have been doing this for years. If bloggers aren’t getting paid for promoting your products, what’s wrong with having a nice lunch instead, while building relations with the companies they are writing about?
The one thing I have noticed about blogging is the huge increase in blogs being set up purely to receive free products – It always astounds me when I get an email saying ‘Hi, I have a blog, please can you send me a product to review’ – and they don’t reference what the product is or even say what their blog is. But in these cases it is up to the PR to decide whether or not to send product – again, no-one is forcing you to.
With the freedom of blogging and the wonderful communities we (mostly) get to build with our readers, comes the inevitabilty that we’ll get a saddo commentator amongst the mix. But we must not get too obsessed with them.
Our ability to create blogs about stuff we feel passionate about is a joy. To be able to put our heart and souls into them, lovingly wasting a good part of our lives creating content and chatting to readers is a freedom we need to cherish. The democratic wonderfulness of the web means we have to put up with snarky, ill informed I-clearly-hate-my-own-job-in-PR tossers like your commentator, that’s just part of the deal.
And how stupid do they look in the cold light of day? By highlighting the comment to everyone, you have brilliantly turned the tables on their bullying behaviour ( every mum whose kid has ever been bullied in the playground will cheer you for it) and it’s pretty clear we have a silly, self obsessed bully who hates her/his own job and is undoubtably envious of your success. Honestly BBB, I think we should feel a bit sorry for them, they are clearly a miserable human being. Ax
Erugh…talk about tarnishing everyone with the same brush.
A really nasty little comment that’s laced in venom.
I don’t think there is ANY brand out there where I have liked every single product they have ever ever released. It’s just not realistic.
Brands change, products change, formulas change…and marketing changes. We are not going to like everything, period.
Wonder if they work for Rodial?
Tsk tsk.. Such distastefulness.. Vile and totally IGNORANT.. No brand I’ve ever heard of gets ALL of their products right. Even the giants get it wrong sometimes.
This person must be a HUGE fan of Rodial, or maybe an employee? Because from his / her remarks, I can only sense blinded faith. A reality check is required for this person.
Apparently you’re never allowed to change your mind about something. Ever.
Can’t change your mind in 2 years – hell, Scarlet Johansson decided she didn’t fancy Ryan Reynolds any more in 2 years of marriage!
Now that’s what you call a major change of heart.
As for that stupid comment – pah, spell your words correctly if you want to try and sound clever, that always helps!
HOW RUDE! Jeez. Bitterness is so not attractive and whoever left that comment is not a very nice person. Spiteful little idiot, no doubt employed by Rodial.
Anyway, that snide bugger aside, who DOESN’T change their mind about some things over a period of 2 years?! For them to have dug up a 2 year old post really shows what a sad sack they are.
I’m sorry that you and the rest of us bloggers aren’t allowed to change our minds. Or that we are forced to like everything that a line makes.
Someone is very bitter and jealous it appears.
Don’t take it seriously – the person’s comment was ridiculous.
Now where can I sign up for some wonderful lunches???
I came to your blog to read something else, and stumbled upon this. I agree entirely with your views on Rodial. Recently I was sent the diet sachets. I’ve tried them and have been unsure what to post. I also pitched a feature (am a journalist) to a national daily about various ‘get slim quickly’ ideas and she was not happy to include Rodial at all. I think the creams were great. But this is a step too far.
Oh I see… clearly this was written by someone associated to the dodge ‘boob job’ PR Story.
1. How utterly ridiculous to cite something that was written over FOUR years ago as proof of BBB being a bitter turn-coat. FOUR YEARS! Crikey.. if we all had to blindly ‘stick by’ our opinions of even a few weeks previous where the hell would we be?! It’s simply a ridic assertion.
2. This all sounds incredibly ‘personal’ I’m afraid. Not wanting to be totes clichéd but how very sad in an industry dominated by women… who should really be empowering and supporting each other, this one finds it appropriate to make bitchy comments about ‘lunches’. (Hope you have been on lots of lovely lunches – good for you!!).
I’m sure you’re much too sensible and thick skinned to have paid this playground nastiness any heed. And rightly so.