There has been quite the commotion going on lately in the blogosphere with regards to ethics and automotive journalism. The problem seems to be that many people feel that many auto writers end up writing advertorials rather than quality reviews thanks to free trips and swag given to them by auto manufacturers.
The discussion of ethics is nothing new in regards to the auto industry. From cheesy used car salesmen like our friend above, to old school manufacturing payoffs this industry has quite the reputation that for the most part is well earned. It makes sense then that the scribes who cover the industry and the products it peddles should come under the same scrutiny.
Many industries hold press events to showcase their products to the media and on big ticket items it is pretty common for them to fly in media from other markets for the event. At the same time, the guests are often given some sort of swag aimed at glorifying the product. The bigger the sticker price, the more expensive the swag tends to be.
Perhaps the auto industry sticks out more than other industries, because our products are among the bigger ticket items that every day consumers purchase. Writers are routinely flown to exotic locales where they consume food and beverages and stay in swanky hotels that they would likely never get to visit otherwise. Sometimes they receive a fancy parting gift of some sort as a final hook. After the hangover has subsided, these same writers then put fingertips to keyboard and bang out a review of the car they flogged on some far away windy road. Admittedly, it must be hard for some journos to remain objective in the face of all the good stuff they’ve just sampled at the expense of the manufacturer.
So the question is: Should automotive reviewers accept trips and gifts from auto makers in return for a few kind words about their vehicle?
I’m sorry to be indecisive, but I’m sitting on the fence on this one. For me, the answer lies in transparency and honesty. Here in The Garage, what you see is what you get. I lay myself bare in my words for all my readers to see (if you’ve seen me, that’s a scary thought) and the other members of the writing team do pretty much the same. That means that when I’m holed up in an expensive hotel at the expense of a manufacturer, the reader knows. On the honesty side, if there is something I don’t like about a vehicle I tell the reader. Of course I express my views in a tactful manner and have yet to hear a negative word from a press office. All of my events have been local so far, so I can’t comment on the long distance stuff. I can say that The Garage does not earn enough for me to fly to Europe to a product launch if I was invited, but had to pay for it myself.
A good many other writers are also either independents or freelancers, who also likely couldn’t afford to attend these launches out of their own pocket.
Does this mean that it is possible to write a review that gives the consumer an honest opinion regarding the second most expensive purchase he’ll ever make? I believe so, but what do others think?
Toronto writer Joe Clark stirred up the latest buzz on the topic by ripping the Toronto Star’s Wheels section a new one.
Over at The Truth About Cars, Edward Niedermeyer is spewing the TTAC kool aid to whoever will listen saying “We’re here to change the rules”. Since the Flying V incident, I doubt Farago’s crew have received too many invites.
Long time Canadian auto writer Jil McIntosh agrees that it is not a fair game, but tries to keep things real when providing reports to readers. I have to point out that Jil is perhaps one of the most consumer oriented writers out there. Her reviews speak clearly to the real world car buyer and she always manages to tell the truth. Given her professionalism, I’ll bet she’s never been chastised for it by a manufacturer.
Yet another Canuck, Michael Banovsky believes that perks should not be allowed. The question is then: who forces manufacturers to conform? AJAC isn’t interested, but they also have no leverage outside of Canada. What about the States?
Banovsky says:
Automotive journalists, when doing their jobs properly, protect consumers from making what is generally the second-biggest purchase of their adult lives.
He is right on the money. The problem is, that journalists offerings are no different from any other product. Some are better than others and not many will satisfy the needs of each and every consumer. Just like buying a used car, when looking to the media for advice on a new car there is a certain element of buyer beware. I’ve said before that to become an educated consumer, one must read and evaluate many information sources and choose the ones that seem like a good fit for them. Just because someone has written about cars for 30 years doesn’t mean that their perception of a vehicle’s qualities is relevant to a 21 year old buying their first car. A 22 year old reviewer probably has no concept of what matters to a 40 year old mother of 3. Spend some time reviewing the reviewers and you’ll find a writer or and outlet who suits you. Chances are that you’ll figure out which reviewers are honest and I’ll bet they’ve been up front about that trip they took to get those pretty pictures.
As much as I’d love to jump on the negativity bandwagon, I feel there are a number of factors at play that cannot be ignored.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you hit the nail on the head with, “the answer lies in transparency and honesty.” The advertorials are easy to spot because they all read the same. Editorials with actual value stand out even more because the have a unique take, strong opinion, and can talk about pro’s and con’s with some authority.
Great blog, keep it up!
dc
Thanks!
Thanks for mentioning my post, Gary. I’m relatively new at this, but *seriously* manufacturers have offered laptops, bought/paid for shipping on cases of wine, and asked if a lady of the night would be a welcome companion.
Those things are thankfully quickly going the way of the do-do. But what about the air miles? Or the senseless accepting of any Toyota-branded laptop sleeve that’s thrown our way?
I remember Jeremy Clarkson, of all people, had something to say about this very issue.
“Here’s the problem. Most young car journalists are paid less than £15,000 a year, which means they have barely enough money left at the end of the week to buy food. And yet, each week, a brand new car is delivered to their house, full of fuel and insured.
What’s more, twice a week they will be flown, first class or on a private jet, to Florence or Tokyo or wherever. Here they will stay in a 38-star hotel where they will be showered with tasty morsels and refreshing wines.
The next day, after driving the new car through some lovely scenery, they will have a £150-a-head lunch and then board the jet for home clutching a nice freebie. A laptop computer, perhaps, or some expensive luggage.
So, are they going to give up being Elton John by saying something awkward about the car they’ve been driving? Would you? Or would you bend over backwards, or forwards even, to ensure you were on the guest list for the next big global freebie? The car industry PR people know this. They know they have the power. They also know they have the budget to make sure that every single new car, no matter how dull, is guaranteed to get full-page coverage in all the magazines and all the newspapers.
This, then, is one of the best jobs in the world. You farm out the tiresome business of writing press releases to some poor hack who’s down on his luck and then you spend all day eating grapes while telling journalists that if they want some new car for a photo-shoot ahead of the launch there’d better be a lot of sucking up.”
The no-gift thing goes both ways. They shouldn’t be offered, and journalists shouldn’t accept. If AJAC had the balls to mandate that, I’d have no problem plunking down nearly $300 for a membership.
M!
Lady of the night? Geez…the last event I went to, the only companionship I got was Crash!
Seriously though, while I’m a newcomer to writing, I’ve been in the auto industry for 2 decades. I still love free stuff! Perhaps the difference is that I’ve been blessed with some concept of professionalism. While I may not like everything about a car, I certainly won’t be calling it a turd. I would more likely say that this particular form of fecal matter isn’t my cup of tea, but it might suit you just fine.
As I said, I’m not sure if I’m just lucky or if I’m being tolerated, but I have yet to receive any negative feedback when I’ve criticized a tester constructively.
“While I may not like everything about a car, I certainly won’t be calling it a turd. I would more likely say that this particular form of fecal matter isn’t my cup of tea, but it might suit you just fine.”
Not to pick at you specifically, but I’m sure people said the same thing about the Edsel…and Ladas…and Daewoos…and…
“As I said, I’m not sure if I’m just lucky or if I’m being tolerated, but I have yet to receive any negative feedback when I’ve criticized a tester constructively.”
The manufacturers are usually great. The agencies have, in my experience, been less great.
M!
Oh, so I’m not the type of companion you wanted eh! Nice, thanks mate, I love you too Gary!
Seriously though, I have been doing this for about 3-4 years now and although I wholeheartedly agree with a lot of things that are being said, I have to wonder about some of them.
Let me give you my version…
Yes, we do get flown to events, typically it’s economy class unless the trip is over 3-4 hours long, then, if we are lucky and the car company involved can afford it (some of them can’t nowadays) we get elevated to business class. Now think about that for a moment, we are basically going there for work, albeit nice work like driving around in new cars, but still, we are there to work, not on a bloody holiday. We typically arrive just in time to check into our hotel, and yes, it’s usually a nice one. I then run up stairs (actually I take the elevator because I’m basically a lazy git), dump my bags and then it’s off to some nice restaurant. This is where I start to take issue, because being a typical Brit raised on meat and potatoes and basically plain food, I would just as soon have a McDonald’s hamburger (or Rotten Ronnie’s as I call them) then some fancy overpriced foreign muck, but I don’t get much say in the matter. In fact, sometimes I decline the evening meal and go out looking for the local fish and chip shop at my own expense! Anyway, I can see some benefit in all this because it gives us the chance to sit down with the manufacturers PR people, find out what we are going to be doing the next day, and maybe pick up a few points of interest from them.
The next morning, usually at some god-forsaken hour like 7am we meet for breakfast (nice if you were given the last flight in at 9-10pm the night before and missed out on the dinner). Basically they offer of bacon and eggs because it’s the only way that the companies can get our sleepy backsides out of bed, especially if we have been up half the night finishing off the review on the car we tested that week, or the previous local event that we attended (yeah, they’re not all at far flung exotic locations).
Whilst we’re on that subject, some folk seem to believe that we do this type of thing every other day of the week. Now I don’t know about the rest of the gang, maybe guys like Jim Kenzie and Lawrence Yap (who by the way, are both really nice guys), maybe they travel more than I do, but I can honestly count the number of out of town trips over the past year on my hands. In fact, if you take out the quick jaunts (and I mean quick, down one day and back the next) to Detroit, then it would come down to one hand.
We then listen to the company suits whilst they give us the lowdown on the vehicle, and we do a walk around the vehicles.They then team us up in pairs (like me and my mate Gary) to drive a given route (sometimes for hours, by the way, he never stops talking about cars!). Lunch is usually served somewhere along the way, sometimes it’s good, sometimes well?, then it’s back to the hotel, often to check out and rush off to airport for the trip home, usually trying to compile the story on the plane.
I tell you, it’s not exactly the lifestyle of the rich and famous as some would have you believe. In fact, sometimes it can become downright tiring.
Yes, I have taken advantage of certain things, in fact, on a trip to California last year (my first trip there), I took a extra 3 days off and did a little sightseeing. I paid my own hotel bill, my own car rental (I didn’t even get the loan of a car for the 3 days), but they did however change my return date on the plane ticket for me (now I don’t know if it cost them anything, but it was nice of them to arrange it for me).
We then come down to gifts? Now I don’t know if the car companies don’t like me or something, but the nicest gift I’ve ever received in my whole time doing this was a jacket from Dodge. I’d estimate that buying them in bulk, they probably cost the company about $30-40 a piece. It’s a nice waterproof jacket with the word Journey (that was the vehicle being launched) and the Dodge logo on the front. I wear it quite often because it’s very comfortable, but it’s certainly not an expensive leather job.
I also get lots of pens for some reason. Maybe that’s because they think that if they supply us pens we will write something nice about their cars, or possibly it’s because if they don’t make sure that we have one then we can’t write anything at all? Anyway, I have lots of them, some nice, some not so, but believe me, there’s not a Cross pen in sight.
It is my understanding that things used to be a lot different, and I’ve also heard rumors of “nighttime company supplied”, but I think that you’ll find that was many many years ago. I’m sure that some of the big shots like Jeremy Clarkson get a little more than I do (hey, Jeremy I’m not suggesting that you partake in that kind of behavior, in fact, you being the same age as me, I think it would cost the companies far too much to find some lady willing to sleep with the likes of us, no matter what we wrote about their dam cars!). No, if you want my opinion, I think that kind of stuff is ancient history.
Now, I have a little insight into the medical/pharmaceutical industry (my wife used to manage a pharmaceutical meeting planning company) and believe me, if the car companies were dishing out perks like the drug companies do, then people would really have something to balk about. I’m not paid thousands of dollars for my opinions on anything! To give you an idea, our annual AJAC meeting takes place in Niagara on the Lake, not on the island of Mystique (wherever the hell that is)!
Now I’m not saying that my job is not a wonderful business to be in. I do get to drive some very cool cars, and go to some nice places. I also agree that it is easy, especially for the new guys, to get influenced by the car companies, but that only lasts for a little while, eventually, we all grow teeth.
It’s like this, I spent over 25 years in the industry, doing everything from cleaning cars, selling them, and turning bloody wrenches (I’ve only just got the oil out from under my fingernails). I think that I’ve earned the right to be able to say what I want about the car industry. I think that I know what is a good car and what is a piece of junk, and I also believe that I’m a decent judge of people, and that most auto journalists who I’ve met are basically honest men and women. Their just car enthusiasts who lucked out and got into a business that they love. Yeah, some people will always be jealous of us auto scribes, after all, we are doing what many of them would love to do, but don’t go thinking that we’re all brought and paid for by the car companies, because it’s just not true. Perks are in every business, whether its being able to drive the company truck home at night, or being sent to some convention at the companies expense. That’s just life! I think that everyone should just calm down a little on this subject. If you’re looking to purchase a new vehicle, read lots of journalists work, then go out and “make your bloody own minds up”! I can’t do that for you, I can only tell you what I think, plain and simple!
Oh, and by the way Grant, next time that we team up at an event “can we chat about the dam weather or something, talk about bloody motormouth”!!
Only joking mate, I think the world of you, and you’ve got a great site going here!
Crash Corrigan
Motormouth? Me?
I never talk cars do I?
Aw come on MB – Ladas were tons of fun to slide around on a snow covered road!
There must be some ring of truth to the proffered companion rumour, because… I’ve been paired up with Crash as well!
It was a most memorable trip, mostly due to our being two hours late for lunch at a rural resort… less than fifteen minutes from Crash’s own home. And lest your minds start to wonder why, it was because we were hopelessly lost. Crash – you’re the most lively conversationalist, and delightful driving companion, but completely hopeless as a navigator.
Back to the topic at hand.
As someone who isn’t, and most likely, will never be in Clarkson’s realm, I’ve never experienced having a car delivered to my home full of “petrol”. Rather, my routine test car experience involves several hours travel to pick up the car, before my day job at the local paper. I then work late to make up my time. All expenses incurred are paid by me: gas, cleaning supplies, car washes during the week spent with the car.
As far as press trip swag goes – I admit to having received gifts from car companies. These were usually t-shirts, jackets, vests, pens and such. Nothing lavish. When I was new at this, I donated most of them to my newspaper’s annual United Way Auction. One, such as a nice leather Roots bag from a Mazda launch, I kept as a gym bag.
To think that these gifts are going to sway my opinion of a vehicle is laughable – in order to attend a press launch, I’ve got to use three of my vacation days, drive two hours to the airport on my own gas, and pay to pick up my car on my return. A review will generally earn a writer from $100-$250. Anyone who doesn’t genuinely love cars and writing about them, won’t last in this business.
In many cases, I’ve actually lost money driving a car – particularly if it’s a large truck or gas guzzling sports car.
Thanks for kind words! I’m sorry my post came across as “kool aid,” but TTAC does take a strong position on this issue. Compare the stringent ethical standards typically applied to “real journalists” with the way the “auto journalism” world works, and you can see why there’s some room for criticism on this issue.
Anyway, I wasn’t trying to attack anyone personally. I’m sure that many auto journos take their jobs very seriously, and the fact that y’all are posting and discussing this topic here proves that you do too. Thanks for the insights.
Edward, I don’t disagree that on some level, with some players there is room for criticism.
That said, from what I’ve seen over the past couple of years, most of the auto journos I’ve met are freelancers who are working hard to build themselves a career in a fun but competitive niche.
Thanks for joining in!
Hey Lesley, I might be a lot of things but I’m not stupid! When I get teamed up on a test drive with a delightful young lady I try to make the most of it! Now that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Hopeless navigator indeed!
Gary, do I really have to explain why I spent more time with Lesley than with you
Anyway, back to the topic… I totally agree with Lesley, there are a lot of us out there working our butts off for a paltry paycheck every few weeks which hardly covers the gas that we burn.
Obviously there are some who do rather well out of the business. The name Jeremy Clarkson tends to spring instantly to mind. However, we have to remember that the world of auto journalism not only deals with people who are interested in purchasing cars, it also involves a certain amount of reader entertainment. There are a lot of people out there who are simply passionate about all things automotive and like to spend their time finding out more about cars and the auto world in general. That’s why we have the likes of Jeremy.
Actually, that’s not strictly correct, after all, Mr. Clarkson’s is a class of his own nowadays. He’s a worldwide celebrity, and why not I say? After all, we pay our tv and film stars ridicules amounts of money to entertain us, and then they get paid handsomely on top of that to sell us everything from dishwasher liquid to toilet rolls. Blimey, even David Suzuki does that nowadays. Does that make him any less of an environmentalist?
I guess what I’m trying to say here, is that I sometimes wonder what my job is all about!
I see it this way…If someone wants to purchase a new vehicle then they should do some homework themselves. Trust me, I wouldn’t spend thousands of dollars on a new car simply because some old hack like me told me it was worth buying. I’d read several reviews to get the general feel of the vehicle, then I’d ask any friends I knew who owned them, and finally, I’d pop into the local dealership and drive the vehicle for myself. After doing all that, I’d decide if I actually wanted one. it’s as simple as that!
Think about it for a moment. we all write for publications which come out daily, weekly or monthly. Out of all those readers do you honestly believe that every one of them is scanning the pages eagerly waiting to run out and purchase a brand new vehicle. Of course not! Most are there for purely entertainment reasons. They either want to keep up to date with what’s happening in the auto world, maybe they’re daydreaming about a future purchase, or possibly they’re just killing time before going into the dentists chair. Who knows, but whatever the reason, it is our job, or at least as I see it, to try and keep them entertained, and thereby encouraging them to re-purchase our publications, or to regularly visit our websites. In my eyes, that’s our main job.
Unless we are covering a particular automotive news story where people truly want the full story, we are not like the guys that you see on BBC news night. Now they’re Journalists!
In my mind, there is far to much emphasis put on technical specifications in a lot of stories nowadays. After all, that stuff is fed to us by the manufacturer, then we regurgitate it and plop it back out there. In my opinion, if readers want to know every little specification about a vehicle, then walk into a dealership or go onto the manufacturers website and read it there.
I know that there are a lot of writers out there who won’t agree with me on that, which is basically good, because then we’ll enjoy a good balance of tech stories and entertainment. Or as one of my colleagues termed my stuff “Fluff”!
I see it this way… An auto journalist can either take the technical track, appealing to the true gear heads, or they can try and entertain the mases. It’s kind of hard to do both. Now, I write for both automotive websites and lifestyle magazines. Because of that, I have to run the entertainment route. After all, a lot of my readers wouldn’t recognize a limited slip differential if it came out dancing across the floor in a hat with its name on embroidered on it!
As far as car sales go, if somebody reads one of my stories and it inspires them to go out and take a closer look at that particular vehicle, great awesome! I’ll even chat to people in the street and point them in the direction of the dealership if I like the car. However, that’s not my real job.
I’ll admit that I try not to trash products unless I truly need to. After all, I wouldn’t want somebody coming into my house and pointing out my bad taste in wallpaper, and a lot of writing is down to personal taste. How I handle that is simple…if I’ve heard a few bad things about a certain vehicle, then I won’t jump over fences to review it. That’s not a problem for me because I know that a lot of other journalists will.
When writing stories, I try to put myself in the mind of the type of person who would actually go out and purchase the vehicle. What bugs me is when writers take a little base car, or a minivan say, then complain about its quarter mile times. That’s just bloody ridicules and makes us all look like utter morons.
Another thing which really gets me is the writers who read the manufacturers literature, then shake it up a down a little, and then spit it back out again. Come on now, you’re either a writer, or a copying machine, your choice, make it! I also don’t think that this does the car companies any favors, because anybody with half a brain can see straight through it!
The funny thing about that is that some of the major newspapers often carry that kind of stuff, and the car companies absolutely adore them.
I believe that there are a few problems in our industry, but nothing which couldn’t be sorted out.
Anyway, I could go on forever about this industry, perhaps that why I’m in, because I’m so passionate about it, However, to me, it’s all about one thing at the end of the day, and that’s getting the readers to read down to the bottom of the page, and hopefully you just done that!
That means I’m a success, so where’s my big fat paycheck like Jeremy’s!!
Thanks for the kind words, Gary. As others have mentioned here, it certainly isn’t quite as Clarkson says. I pay my gas, my car washes, and I go pick the car up and take it back. I spent three hours doing that this morning for a car on the other side of the city.
And yes, on a big SUV, I sometimes end up with $50 in my pocket for a week, after I’ve spent for the gas and car wash.
In any business, there will be people who take advantage of a situation; the big problem here is that we’re supposed to be above that, and I wish we all were. But we aren’t. There are journalists who only write advertorials, and I get tarred with that brush. I was on a press trip with one who loudly described the vehicle in question to the rest of the journalists there as “undriveable”, and spent most of the day outlining everything that made this the worst car he’d ever been inside.
I read the resulting article a couple of weeks later. It was one of the best vehicles that automaker had ever produced. There wasn’t an unkind word about it anywhere in the story.
I wish I could say I made that up, but I didn’t.
I heard a little rumor the other day that I’m not very well-liked at one automaker because I don’t praise every vehicle I drive from them. I think that’s the best compliment I’ve ever been paid.
If Canadian auto journalists would address the lack of transparency that is exercised by the “Canadian Auto Establishment” usually constraining the flow of information.
The level of information that is available in the US relating to the automotive industry at large, compared to the information that is disseminated in Canada.
Its no wonder that the average Canadian consumer is skeptical about the automotive industry in Canada.
One example JD Power in the US makes the US PIN information readely available on their site, the Canadian PIN information was available for a time, now its no longer available.
Righteous post, Gary. “The Truth” goes on the march from time to time and tramples upon its own in the process.
The discussion of fuel costs etc amuses me somewhat. I drive to my “other job” daily and my personal vehicle is an 8 year old xterra. I figure I’m paying for gas anyway, so that expense doesn’t factor in.
Also, sometimes I save money with a smaller car. Other times I spend more, like the Aspen & F-150 that both cost me $150 a week in gas. I figure it evens out in the long run.