Love For Hire

Update: I received a little surprise in my inbox... a response from Faran! Check out what she had to say in the comments section, so Thanks for the response Faranista, and taking a minute to break things down and clear it up... You rock!

I really enjoy reading fashion blogs, because they offer unbiased opinion/ commentary on fashion with out having to pay for getting my fashion fix. These blogs often spotlight little known designers and models and don't hesitate on dishing and giving honest commentary... but what about big blogs who run like magazines, with multiple daily posts, have several writers AND paid advertising?

I ran across this post on one of my daily must reads, fashionista.com

I love fashionista, and this post is by no means knocking it's main writer Faranista, but perhaps this comes with plenty of naivety on my part (sort of like the time when I "discovered" that Santa Claus didn't exist by recognizing my mother's handwriting on a note from this so called "Santa", or when I discovered that one of my fashion crushes, Marc Jacobs was gay) I have to admit that I felt cheated that this mention was in fact, an advertisement in semi disguise... and guessing by Faran's confession, she felt a little guilty herself.

Sure I get press releases in my inbox, and push from pr people to endorse and or mention their product, but I rarely do it, and I'm never paid to do so. I do it only if I feel that I'd personally buy the product myself and because it's so awesome, how I could I not share it with my readers?!

So what's a blogger to do? should all advertisements (paid mentions) be labeled as advertisements? or is it okay to subliminally throw it in there and without letting you darlings in on the little secret?

PS. I'm still having the bloggers (and readers!) brunch on 7/7/07 so if any of you want to come, shoot a little email my way.