I’m on a online discussion forum called YoungPRPRos. We recently had someone ask if anyone has had a hard time working with Wikipedia editors in getting a entry approved. In the email query to all of us, she described the editors as being “Nazis”. She did so because they had described the entry she wrote as being over promotional. She insisted this wasn’t the case…that it was neutral that the accusation was unfair.
So I suggested that she send us the links to the entry. She complied, I clicked through and found a very promotional piece. Not even close. Basically it was copy that you would see in an online bio from a company website or a bio written for a speaker program.
The entry is greeted with the following:
This article or section is written like an advertisement.Ha.
Now that I think about it, it kinda ticks me off. If does so not because she wrote promotional copy itself but because she then not only announced to a bunch of people that her entry was having trouble, but disparaged those that were trying to maintain some sense of purity on Wikipedia. She didn’t recognize that her blatantly promotional copy was blatantly promotional. She didn’t ask for advice on how to write entries for Wikipedia because she was having a hard time trying to be non-promotional. Nope – she has no clue.
This hurts those of us in the advertising/marketing/PR/social media fields. I’ve heard that Wikipedia will often monitor IP addresses that they’ve concluded come from PR firms because they’ve gotten a slew of overly promotional entries form these places.
The subject of the entry is an advertising music composer who specializes in “sonic branding”…those short lyricless jingles that are often heard introducing news segments. He’s created some very well known pieces and was an early pioneeer in the field. A likely worthy entry in Wikipedia as sonic branding has become more prominent over the past 25 years.
Here’s an example of an paragraphy in the entry that’s since been changed:
“Dedicated to providing the highest quality music productions, easy
and efficient access to syndicated production music libraries and
superior customer service, client name has a well-established reputation
for delivering the successful sounds that make a difference”
After many of this pointed out to her how blatantly promotional this was, she evidently edited to this:
Dedicated to providing quality music productions, easy and efficient access to syndicated production music libraries and superior customer service, client name has a well-established reputation for delivering the successful sounds that make a difference[12] and “stick in a viewer’s brain like chewing gum.”[13]
She still doesn’t get it. She’s writing promotional copy. She can’t prevent herself from doing so. I bet she’s determined to push this through HER way. Ain’t gonna happen. I’ll just say it: her ego is getting in the way of her accepting that she’s writing all of this in a promotional way. She’s going to try to blame Wikipedia editors (who can be a tough lot) by comparing them to Nazis…the murderers of 6,000,000 Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals during WWII.
Good thing Wikipedia allows for editing from others. I may be creating havoc for her, but if I and others don’t she’ll get that entry rejected. Guaranteed. Little does she know what I’m up to.
Ha.
