I was the intrigued recipient of this Direct Message on Twitter today.

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All this talk about mommy bloggers and authenticity initially seemed like a continuation of the conversation we’ve been having about advertising and trust. The discussion was primarily about disclosure of paid posts and sponsored give-aways. 

Then I came across the following as part of an “advertise with me” page on a moderately popular blog: 

The first two seem entirely normal. Some bloggers go so far as to say “ad” above even the obvious Google ads. Rotating them is a nice gesture. 

It’s the last two that get me. 

Do you think this blogger is going to let those “12,000+” followers know that specific tweets are sponsored? 

I checked. There’s no mention of any sponsorship.

Is there a separate blogroll for “sponsored links”? 

No, the links were just thrown in with the rest. 

Why won’t some bloggers simply declare sponsored posts, reviews, and paid advertising for what it is? 

I jumped into my trusty Twitter Direct Message machine and began asking questions. 

I got mostly-blurred answers that ranged from, “If I tell my readers they’re clicking ‘read more’ into a paid post they won’t want to read it and I won’t make any money” to, “If I used an #ad hashtag on Twitter to declare paid tweets, I’d have no followers by the end of the week!”

I have a very general answer to those and other stated concerns about the feasibility of disclosure:

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Consumers are beginning to taste the sweetness of customized knowledge products and real-time interactions. As better tools increase the ability of media producers to connect to, interact with, and react to consumers on a seemingly personal basis; the middlemen will be cut away. 

A glass of milk poured from a mass-produced carton purchased at a grocery chain will no longer satisfy tomorrow’s consumer.

He wants to reach out and touch the producer. To feel the warmth of the creature.

He wants to fill his own glass with fresh milk from a cow he knows by name. 

The middleman is dying. 

Where do you stand?

photo credit: wwworks

Scroll down to the video if you just can’t wait to see me sputtering cold water out of my flooded nasal cavity and mouth.

When it comes to discussions of interrogation and the nature of torture, “waterboarding” is the media darling of the hour. 

The CIA describes waterboarding as follows: 

“In this technique, the detainee is lying on a gurney that is inclined at an angle of 10 to 15 degrees to the horizontal, with the detainee on his back and his head toward the lower end of the gurney. A cloth is placed over the detainee’s face and cold water is poured on the cloth from a height of approximately 6 to 8 inches. The wet cloth creates a barrier through which it is difficult – or in some cases not possible – to breathe.” -Stephen G Bradbury

The goal of waterboarding is to inspire terror in victims by forcing them to experience every part of drowning except the actual filling of the lungs with water. When the subject is terrified and has endured so much pain that only relief from the water matters, the questioning begins. 

I was intrigued by the idea of waterboarding when I first heard about it because it doesn’t make sense as an effective way to get reliable information out of somebody. 

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