You may recall the former Sunday Mirror columnist Zoe Griffin, who resigned in March this year after working for The Sunday Mirror under the brand of “youngest, hottest columnist out there”, despite being older than the News of the World’s Dan Wootton, her main rival at the time. According to Journalisted she also contributed to MailOnline, The Mirror and The Sunday Mirror.
It appears as if the very same Zoe Griffin has been surrupticiously touting energy drinks products on her blog, without any form of disclosure.
In a post discussing the topic of a chance encounter with The Wire star Aidan Gillen, Griffin somehow manages to connect his svelte figure with a low calorie energy drink. Or how about this more recent post on a chance encounter with two of the former All Saints singers at a launch of a new hair care products line, which manages to link to the same energy drink again, because “they are made in the same factory”.
I’m speculating here, but it has all the hallmarks of a PayPerPost deal. That latter example might also suggest that Griffin has a personal connection with the Salon that hosted the party.
In a month which has seen the ASA rapping the Express for misrepresenting adverts as editorial, it’s not a great sign that former gossip columnists of national papers potentially think it’s ok to shill products on their blogs.
Props go to @Badjournalism for spotting these posts.
Smileycat | 07-Sep-09 at 7:22 am | Permalink
Voltz actually describes Zoe as its “celebrity ambassador” on its website.
They say:
Meet Zoe - Officially dubbed ‘The UK’s coolest party girl’ who we’ve teamed up with to help us spread the word on Voltz amongst the celebrity world.
Spalpeen :: ASA rules on Zoe Griffin blogging case | 20-Sep-09 at 5:43 pm | Permalink
[...] in the comments on my last post about Zoe Griffin, is a note that Voltz had Zoe marked on its website as a “celebrity ambassador”. So [...]