What a total and utter crock of shit this motorcycle of the year stuff is.
I have always been of this opinion, and thus have never taken my publication down this road. This is despite the regular ‘Top Ten’ type drivel being a great way to elicit comments, clicks and interaction. If I ever get that desperate I will give the game away…
But in the world of publishing, both print and on-line, any products where marketing or advertising is involved, and there are advertising representatives who must try and curry favour to pry open marketing budgets from distributors, then this type of stuff is a winner.
Need to curry favour with a distributor? Come up with a category where you can give them a gong without shaming yourself too much in the process, and everyone wins.
Apart from the fact that the world just got a little bit dumber in the process…
Now, I normally roll my eyes at this stuff when it comes around this year. It happens about the same time as our tabloids start to trot out the fanciful Christmas is banned because of the Muslims type hyperbole that they will start peddling any time soon…
But this year I have been alerted to a few ‘winners’ in various minor categories, and this time they have taken the farce too far.
Some of the machines chosen are simply so not deserving that they are just taking the piss out of their readers. Or even worse, misleading those that simply don’t know any better.
This is not new, every year I just roll my eyes and move on with it, thankful that advertising managers don’t get to try and influence any editorial I pen. But the depths of the farce this year are simply so low that I could not let it pass without comment.
You see by coming up with various categories, that publications can then give ‘BOTY’ gongs willy nilly too, despite the winning machine’s questionable quality and or capability, advertising representatives from the publication can then hit up the winning manufacturers for money, in order for the rights to use that award in marketing material and advertising…
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The whole thing has grown into a monumental scam from start to finish.
I don’t need to name the outlets or the machines in question. I will let you work that out for yourselves…
NB: Since this was published I have been alerted that Aprilia Tuono won some sort of award today. That was not the machine being referred to in this editorial. As I stated above I was talking about ‘category’ award winners.
