More on that crappy wine…

Those crazy guys over at the Stormhoek blog (which I suspect is really just Hugh with a different hat on – well, he’s got to pay the bills somehow) are at it again.

In a recent post, they’ve decided to bring up the whole crappy wine thing again:

If you go back into the last 90 days of blogging, you’ll see that the blogosphere’s conversations about Stormhoek have ranged from our marketing model to the econometrics of Stormhoek vs. the 28 million spent by Sainsbury’s on their Jamie Oliver campaign to BBC blogger Metcalfe accusing Stormhoek of having an unfair advantage over our competitors by blogging (We were especially pleased with that conversation).

(emphasis mine)

My response (submitted as a comment but as-yet unpublished by the Sormhoek folk):

Wow, this blog post is a bit like a corked bottle of sparkling Stormhoek – a load of froth that somewhat leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Your post consists of the usual marketing spin, which you are totally at liberty to write. Why anyone would choose to read this drivel, I don’t know, but I really must pull you up on the line

BBC blogger Metcalfe accusing Stormhoek of having an unfair advantage over our competitors by blogging (We were especially pleased with that conversation).

For a start, I’m not a “BBC blogger”. I work for the BBC, yes, but such a statement implies I am writing some kind of BBC-endorsed journal – which I am not. Name-checking the BBC in the way that you have to strengthen the “outcry effect” is a bit of an old trick, in fact it’s practically vintage. For a company that is “proud of it’s freshness” it’s a shame you are resorting to such a stale tactic.

It’s also inaccurate to say that I have “accused Stormhoek of having an unfair advantage over your competitors by blogging”. I have never said that, this quote is either your own conclusion or a line from the ever-immoderate Mr MacLeod. Either way, I’d prefer it if you didn’t attribute it to me, thanks.

What I have said is that the kind of false blogging you are partaking in pollutes the blogosphere. It demonstrates either a lack of understanding of the difference between “marketing” and “blogging” – or sheer disdain for the medium itself. Eitherway, looks like someone just pissed in the wine bottle that the rest of us drink out of…