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Positive PR, where you pay someone to go around convincing reporters how great you are, is normal business and I'm not sure it could ever be otherwise. Negative

Positive PR, where you pay someone to go around convincing reporters how great you are, is normal business and I'm not sure it could ever be otherwise. Negative campaigns that function solely to tear down your opponents, as the article says (and my experience matches), are relatively uncommon outside of politics.

Jcowell 5y ago
I disagree, the PC vs Mac is arguably not positive PR towards the PC industry but was very popular back when it aired. Even now Samsung sometimes poke fun at Apple mistakes. I would argue micro aggressive advertising is negative PR just with lipstick on it.
- afavour 5y ago
  There’s a pretty large difference though. PC vs Mac were explicitly adverts, you knew Apple made them. This article describes the firm placing op-eds from “concerned parents” that they drafted themselves with no indication of their or Meta’s involvement. Whole different level.
- Loughla 5y ago
  There's a pretty big difference between comparing the cool Justin Long and nerdy John Hodgman (I would argue those character roles are backwards from what they should be) and a massively cynical scare theater campaign about how a Chinese company is stealing your children's data, negatively impacting their mental health, and causing destruction of property from a company that makes money using your children's data and negatively impacting everyone's mental health.
- rsynnott 5y ago
  I mean, to some extent, those ads were popular/notorious precisely _because_ they were such an unusual tactic. Also, that was open advertising, not a covert disinformation campaign; it's a bit different.
_jal 5y ago
Tell me you've never run a business without telling me you've never run a business. > Negative campaigns that function solely to tear down your opponents, as the article says (and my experience matches), are relatively uncommon outside of politics. If you have competitors, they will try to trash your name, I promise you. It doesn't matter what scale you're operating at. Trash talk is universal.

Jcowell 5y ago

I disagree, the PC vs Mac is arguably not positive PR towards the PC industry but was very popular back when it aired. Even now Samsung sometimes poke fun at Apple mistakes. I would argue micro aggressive advertising is negative PR just with lipstick on it.

afavour 5y ago
There’s a pretty large difference though. PC vs Mac were explicitly adverts, you knew Apple made them. This article describes the firm placing op-eds from “concerned parents” that they drafted themselves with no indication of their or Meta’s involvement. Whole different level.
Loughla 5y ago
There's a pretty big difference between comparing the cool Justin Long and nerdy John Hodgman (I would argue those character roles are backwards from what they should be) and a massively cynical scare theater campaign about how a Chinese company is stealing your children's data, negatively impacting their mental health, and causing destruction of property from a company that makes money using your children's data and negatively impacting everyone's mental health.
rsynnott 5y ago
I mean, to some extent, those ads were popular/notorious precisely _because_ they were such an unusual tactic. Also, that was open advertising, not a covert disinformation campaign; it's a bit different.

_jal 5y ago

Tell me you've never run a business without telling me you've never run a business. > Negative campaigns that function solely to tear down your opponents, as the article says (and my experience matches), are relatively uncommon outside of politics. If you have competitors, they will try to trash your name, I promise you. It doesn't matter what scale you're operating at. Trash talk is universal.