I'm not surprised with this story one bit. I had a similar experience with a large hosting company I'm a partner of. I did a very nice commercial for them evangelizing about their product, yet, when the PR team saw it they made me pull it down and told me I couldn't use it.
Why? Because they're scared. Scared of losing control of their brand. Scared that legal is going to have them fired for allowing a potential outside brand message. In my case, also, the marketing team of the hosting company HATED the fact I was marketing their product better than them. Ego. PR and marketing departments are scared you know what about user generated content. Jim From: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of J. Rhett Aultman Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 12:51 PM To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [videoblogging] Whole Foods TV I would say not to count on Whole Foods to do this. I like them, and regularly shop at the one a quarter mile from my home, but my perception of working with them on doing a video has told me that they're happy to carry a greenwashed product as long as you buy it. Here's my story. Back around September, Amy and I approached our local Whole Foods about doing a video with them as part of our Greentime videoblog. We wanted to do a piece on how we successfully use our Whole Foods to buy much of our regular groceries yet don't "break the bank" doing so. Much of this was going to focus on using the bulk foods bins to buy in bulk (a great way to reduce packaging and get only needed amounts of a product) as well as buying seasonally and being more mindful about food and food purchases. We received nothing but enthusiasm from the store manager on up to his regional manager and ultimately the manager of PR for the entire state. But, because this was going out on the Internet, it required national corporate approval. At this level, their PR department regularly failed to return calls and became sluggish on emails to the point of being unresponsive. They asked for a full prospectus of the video, which I gladly gave. The prospectus explained that we wanted to teach people how to shop sensibly at Whole Foods and to encourage people to think of Whole Foods as a place they could get many of their groceries, rather than treating it as a specialty store with heavy markups. The focus would be on using parts of the store people often overlook, and would in general be very positive about our experiences with Whole Foods. We had suggested that *only if it would further cast Whole Foods in a positive light* we would divulge price information and our grocery budget. We also promised to give them final editorial approval and explained that we'd be flexible to their needs. After weeks of phone tag and being ignored in general, I finally got a response-- "We don't do price comparisons." That was it. The *optional* part of a video that we'd do only if it were *positive* and which was *at their discretion* was too much for them. We basically agreed to find a middle ground between our experiences and observations and being a total out-and-out shill for them. And they wouldn't provide us a little bit of access to one store with a manager that was already welcoming us with open arms. When I sent an email back to the PR rep a day later asking if she'd overlooked our promise to use price comparisons only if Whole Foods desired, I got an automated email saying that she was no longer with the company and that email responses from her replacement would be a month or more delayed, and a sentence that basically said "Don't call us. We'll call you." So, our experience has told us that Whole Foods at the top level doesn't want you to see much behind the scenes. They want you to see only what's in a product's labeling and to accept their promises that they're doing the right thing. Amy and I are still working out how to do that video without access to the store, since it seems that some parts of it could be done without them. -- Rhett. http://www.weatherlight.com/greentime http://www.weatherlight.com/freetime > The US health supermarket, Whole Foods, has a videoblog now: > http://wholefoodsmarket.com/socialmedia/secretingredient > > Its just cooking segment, but the blog layout is nice. > Id like to see video showing where their food comes from. > like "here's a new product we are carrying. here's a trip to the place > where it was made." > I increasingly am skeptical of organic/fairtrade-claims on packaging. > Video would be a good way to bridge this gap. > > Jay > > > -- > http://jaydedman.com > 917 371 6790 > Professional: http://ryanishungry.com > Personal: http://momentshowing.net > Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/jaydedman/ > Twitter: http://twitter.com/jaydedman > RSS: http://tinyurl.com/yqgdt9 > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
