Ford, black Mustangs, and bloggers’ itchy trigger fingers

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As I have watched the facts unfold surrounding the Black Mustang Club, I have taken a nostalgic journey back to my brief stint in the newspaper business before I made the transition to corporate communications. I imagine myself on the news desk, my manual Royal typewriter before me, as the phone rings.

The source on the phone is breathless. “Have I got a story for you,” he says. “Ford Motor Company’s lawyers have stomped all over the biggeset fans of one of their brands. The members of the Black Mustang Club have collected pictures of their own black Mustangs and they created a calendar with those pictures on CafePress, right? And Ford’s overzealous lawyers have issued a cease and desist.”

Fan-freaking-tastic. My day just got brighter. I’ve got a hot lead to follow. Based on the education I received while earning my journalism degree and my experience covering other stories, I know just what to do first:

Pick up the damn phone and call Ford.

Which is exactly what none of the bloggers covering this story did.

The story gained major traction when it appeared on BoingBoing, one of the tip-top A-list blogs. According to the BoingBoing post, Ford’s lawyers contacted CafePress to inform them that the photos on the calendar infringed on Ford trademarks. Lots of people opined about Ford’s evident cluelessness, although the story subtly changed—you get the impression reading many of the posts that Ford’s lawyers contacted the Black Mustang Club directly. The headlines certainly are inflammatory:

• How to lose customers and influence people
• Is Ford Really This Stupid?
• Ford Claims Ownership Of Your Pictures
• Ford: Photos Of Your Car Are Copyright Infringement
• Ford Slaps Brand Enthusiasts, Returns Love With Legal Punch
• Ford Motor Co. - Trademark Bully
• The Unbearable Idiocy of Brands: Ford Runs Over Its Fansumers

Fortunately, Ford appears to be a lot more social-media savvy than they get credit for, because somebody there was monitoring the situation and set the record straight in comments to several posts. That somebody, Whitney Drake with Ford Communications, commented on the Boing Boing post:

Ford did not send the Black Mustang Club a “cease and desist” letter telling them that they could not use images of their own cars in their calendar. The decision not to allow the calendars to be printed was made by Cafe Press, because we had gotten in touch with them in the past about trademark infringements on products they sold.

The Black Mustang Club, and any other Ford enthusiast club, are free to take pictures of their own vehicles for use in calendars or other materials as long as they don’t use Ford trademarks in products that will be sold.

I think it is great that the Black Mustang Club, and any other enthusiast club, would take pictures of their own vehicles for use in calendars or other materials.

I’m looking forward to purchasing a copy to hang in the garage next to my Mustang (even if mine isn’t black).

There has been some confusion expressed over Drake’s statement (which Neville and I discussed on today’s episode #311 of FIR). Doesn’t the trademark appear on the car and, therefore, in the photos used in the calendar? My interpretation (and this is strictly supposition on my part) is that Ford objects to someone uploading the Ford or Mustang logo to CafePress and selling coffee mugs bearing those marks. As I noted on the show, it’s hardly an infringement if a Mustang appears in a shot during a movie, even though the theater is charging for tickets to see the film.

But the real issue here is the state of readiness in the blogosphere to pounce on a story without checking the facts. And I’m not pointing a finger at any of the bloggers who jumped on this story. If I were working for a newspaper today, I would still call Ford. If I had opted to blog about this over the past couple days, I would not have. I’m as guilty as anyone else. (And thank goodness I passed on this story.)

I also don’t see much follow-up by the bloggers who did post. Drake’s comments appear on several blogs, but comments show up in few RSS feeds and a lot of people don’t scroll through that many comments. (Drake’s is comment number 83 on BoingBoing.) Professional journalists fess up to their errors (just take a look at the blog, ”We Regret the Error,” if you need proof). There seems to be no similar obligation among many in the blogosphere.

Journalism is a dying profession thanks to citizen reporting in the blogosphere? Don’t make me laugh. Should organizations monitor what’s being said about them in the social media space? You bet your ass.

1. Shel:

   This is a great post and it shows that even some of the big name bloggers out there aren’t immune from mistakes.

   I think what often causes bloggers to NOT check their facts before posting is the fact that they are bloggers. Not in the sense that they don’t care, but I think that many of them probably assume that since they’re not calling as, “Joe Blogger from the New York Times,” they won’t be taken seriously.

   Incidentally, this story (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/01/17/traget-takes-sites-bloggers-doesnt-participate-non-traditional-m) is probably an example of how many bloggers assume they will be addressed, so they just prefer not to take the time.

   Now, I’m not saying this is the right way to do things, in fact I whole-heartedly agree with you. I think that accuracy may be the next era of blogging. Follow-up and accurate reporting will continue to separate the good blogs from all others.

   I can also understand why someone, who may blog for a hobby or for the sheer pleasure may not want to take the time necessary to reach someone at Ford willing to comment.

   Or, I could be completely wrong!

   Kevin

   Posted by Kevin Behringer  on  01/17  at  12:22 PM

2. Prostrating myself.

   Posted by Todd Defren  on  01/17  at  12:23 PM

3. I had a hunch there was more to this story.  In all my experiences working with Ford, they’ve always been great with dealing with consumer generated content and online enthusiast groups.  The the auto manufacturers get a bad rap for not getting it when they generally do but still need to be careful about their very fragile brands.

   Posted by Peter  on  01/17  at  12:44 PM

4. Hi Shel - the main concept that I find so appealing about this story is, indeed, that Ford had someone comment to correct the record. There are so many organizations who just don’t want to enter the fray—it’s so sloppy and undisciplined. They’d rather cite the lack of authoritative circulation figures and justify ignoring the discussion…

   Also, Kevin B. is right - the lack of credentials of most bloggers could be an impediment to getting the source on the phone.

   This could prove to be more fodder for the “cult of the amateur” adherents…

   Posted by Sean Williams  on  01/17  at  12:54 PM

5. I certainly hope this doesn’t give more ammo to the cult-of-the-amateur camp, Sean, but it probably will. I’m certainly no fan of that misguided (IMHO) point of view.

   I do think we bloggers need to be a bit more circumspect when we serve as a repeater station for something we heard or read elsewhere. I also think professional journalism has a firm place in the media environment.

   To yours and Kevin’s point, companies like Target need to find a balance. Should they field calls from every blogger who picks up a phone? Most companies don’t have PR staffs big enough. But some mechanism needs to be put in place to respond to queries. Target’s position (about which I read earlier) is deplorable, but it also speaks to the fact that the free-for-all we are witnessing now isn’t going away any time soon.

   Posted by Shel Holtz  on  01/17  at  01:01 PM

6. Shel,

   Thanks for disseminating this information, which the Black Mustang Club themselves are also disseminating.

   I have provided updated information on my blog posts that addressed the issue.

   Posted by Ontario Emperor  on  01/17  at  02:55 PM

7. Great post, Shel. I was especially struck by your point about whether blog posts get corrected with the same rigor as newspaper articles (although living in Vancouver’s media market, I’d hope we can aim for a higher standard than that).

   Which makes me think, on just a slight tangent, that maybe there’s a case for a more formal, structured way to correct or update a blog post than just the old strike-through method.

   Who knows? Your post just might be the seed of a yet-to-be-created hError microformat.

   Posted by Rob Cottingham  on  01/17  at  03:29 PM

8. I get just as angry at bloggers who spread misinformation as I do friends and family who forward me hoax emails about untrue virus attacks and “dying requests” from nonexistant cancer victims.

   In both cases, a little research could save everyone some time and aggravation.

   Like you, Shel, I’ve commented before about how my journalism degree and more than 25 years of publishing and writing experience help me to avoid the knee-jerk reaction of forwarding or posting emails and links to blog posts that are, at best, misinformed, and at worst, purposefully deceptive.

   Posted by Tom Keefe  on  01/18  at  06:51 AM

9. Thanks. It’s not only that blogger have itchy trigger fingers, but that as PR or marketing bloggers, I think we have a greater responsibility to verify - and that’s what I was trying to say with my post the other day.

   We are all in the same boat, and it only behooves us to help the industry as a whole, and not beat it down with others mistakes.

   Posted by Jeremy Pepper  on  01/18  at  09:43 AM

10. Hi

    Since my post about the BMC calendar happens to lead your list of links, let me pick a nit.

    You said, ‘I also don’t see much follow-up by the bloggers who did post.’

    On the contrary, someone from BMC left a comment to my post basically giving Ford’s correct position and I promoted that comment to an update to my original post.

    This was done within 24 hours. That’s pretty decent follow-up IMO.

    But you raise a good point: I could have made it clear that it was an open question whether this SNAFU was due to CafePress or due to FoMoCo.

    Thanks for the link -

    Posted by JdJ  on  01/18  at  04:34 PM

11. Thanks JdJ.
    I did say “much.”
    

    Posted by Shel Holtz  on  01/18  at  08:18 PM

12. Hello Shel,

    As a Mustang owner (a ‘66 convertible - red, not blakc), marketing strategist and blogger, this story hit me hard.

    Though I couldn’t believe Ford would be that dense, I began to draft a post for my Monday blog posting (The Responsible Marketing Blog - http://responsiblemarketing.com).

    I’m glad I read your blog first because the Ford response wasn’t evident.

    Perhaps my post should be on “Responsible Blogging” instead.

    Keep up the great work.

    Patrick Byers
    President + CEO
    Outsource Marketing
    http://outsourcemarketing.com

    Posted by Patrick Byers  on  01/20  at  12:42 AM

13. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Truth don’t exist any more, perceive truth is far greater than truth itself. The big media these days are being controlled by the head of the company and most reporters are limited to certain truths or else they’ll get fired.

    Bloggers on the other hand, can report anything they want. Though bloggers do make a lot of bad mistakes, they are simply working up the ladder to get known. If you tell a kid something, he will believe you as long as you’re the first to tell him.

    Posted by John Letter  on  03/05  at  01:32 AM

14. blogs are just blogs. It’s only the big ones that are more newspaper than blog that need to check their facts

    Posted by Mouse Pointers  on  03/19  at  04:06 PM

15. The net is now rich with FALSE information and I believe it’s about time we take the responsibility of posting worthwhile articles and posts that has more truth to it even if it is just “blogs”.

    Posted by car lease gal  on  03/24  at  09:50 PM

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    Posted by Brian  on  05/06  at  12:08 PM