Tech Journalists Tweeted About a Fitness Tracker to Win a $5430 Vacation Voucher

Kate Knibbs, writing for Gizmodo:

Some journalists attending CES earlier this month received a pitch from TomTom offering vacation vouchers in exchange for social media coverage — and a disappointing if not entirely surprising number of reporters went for it.

Journalists who tweeted images of their step counts were eligible to receive vouchers worth 5000 Euros (approximately $5430 USD) in exchange for the coverage. TomTom asked them to tweet about how far they walked while using a complimentary Spark. The journalists who tweeted the highest numbers of steps would receive the vouchers, according to emails provided to Gizmodo.

I don’t think this is as cut-and-dried a case of improper behavior as some are making it out to be. They weren’t writing articles about TomTom — they were tweeting from their personal accounts. The tweets themselves made it kind of obvious that they were involved in some sort of contest, too.

That said, I certainly wouldn’t have done it. It’s undignified.

★ Wednesday, 13 January 2016