Get thee behind me, Napa Valley!
People are constantly sending me offers for free stuff; it comes with the job description. Sometimes, it's small stuff that would be a hassle to return--what we call swag (which a DJ once told me stands for "So What, Another Gift")--and I'll keep it or distribute it around the office. Sometimes, it's something I can actually use for review purposes. Most of the time, though, it's made in the form of offers, and these I almost always turn down, because ethically, we shouldn't accept gifts from anyone; you do that, and you run the risk of being seen as up for sale. (There are occasional exceptions, but these are maybe two times a year and it's made very obvious that there's no quid pro quo going on--in other words, you can send us a sample of your product so that we are aware of its existence, but we very well may choose not to write about it even so.)
This isn't a problem for me. I didn't take this job for freebies or power or anything; I took it because it's pretty much what I like to do, and about the only thing I'm any good at. I'm very good at declining such invitations without hurting anyone's feelings. And I'm far too fond of my self-righteousness to ever jeapordize it by accepting a questionable free meal or trip or bottle of $150 whiskey.
But on a day that began with snow, a day when you're feeling broke and stir-crazy, on that day, when a PR rep for a bunch of Napa Valley wineries offers to fly you out to sunny California to stay, free of charge, in a local winery guest house and take you on a tour of vineyards--no obligation, you understand, just wants you to get to see her clients' work up close--on that day, having ethics truly sucks.
Sigh. I'm going to see if wrapping my cloak of smug superiority around myself a little more tightly will make me feel any warmer. Stupid snow.
This isn't a problem for me. I didn't take this job for freebies or power or anything; I took it because it's pretty much what I like to do, and about the only thing I'm any good at. I'm very good at declining such invitations without hurting anyone's feelings. And I'm far too fond of my self-righteousness to ever jeapordize it by accepting a questionable free meal or trip or bottle of $150 whiskey.
But on a day that began with snow, a day when you're feeling broke and stir-crazy, on that day, when a PR rep for a bunch of Napa Valley wineries offers to fly you out to sunny California to stay, free of charge, in a local winery guest house and take you on a tour of vineyards--no obligation, you understand, just wants you to get to see her clients' work up close--on that day, having ethics truly sucks.
Sigh. I'm going to see if wrapping my cloak of smug superiority around myself a little more tightly will make me feel any warmer. Stupid snow.