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A Look At Free Reviewer Swag

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the something-to-think-about dept.

chicl3t writes "It used to be that the lagniappes that came along with hardware for review were things like USB drives — makes sense, one 128MB drive for a 100MB presentation. But...iPod nanos? As in more than one? That's another story entirely. It's damn nice swag, of course, but at what point is it too much? A DailyTech writer talks about his experiences with swag."

7 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. I heartily agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    As I write this on my beautiful Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo Santa Rosa 2.4ghz with an ultrafast 4 GB of Corsair Memory and my always trustworthy Western Digital MyBook Pro 1TB World Edition backup. This marketing madness must stop.

  2. Does anyone bother with those reviews? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does anyone actually bother reading those reviews? I sure don't. They usually tend to say nothing but positives about the products being reviewed, especially when the reviewer got them from the manufacturer free-of-charge. Of course, that's to be expected, since they want to get more such free products (which I don't doubt they use for themselves afterwards, until they fall apart a week or so later).

    The only reputable source I've found for reviews is Consumer Reports. Other than that, the pickings are slim.

  3. For us non-english speakers by ojs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First I hear of the terms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagniappe and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swag.

    On another note, isn't this comparable to the free gifts that pharmacutical companies give doctors on their conferences. It is just that this doesn't have the obvious connection to peoples health and well being and perhaps is a bit smaller in scope. A bit far fetched perhaps but the same principle or what?

    1. Re:For us non-english speakers by NIckGorton · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Um... fuck research. They wouldn't spend it if it didn't work. So I refuse entirely to take any swag except for samples. I feel like the samples is a deal with the devil, but if I can circumvent the intent of the drug rep some, its not so bad(E.G. give all the advair diskus inhalers to supply my single patient without insurance and with severe asthma rather than the 'free starter' for multiple people that leads to further rxs for the drug companies.)

      Its still a big risk... now I know how much easier it is to get an asthmatic to take advair than cheaper albuterol plus QVAR. So I am probably more likely to rx in the future because of that knowledge. But that is a moral choice I pay for my patient.

      Other than that, I don't eat a cookie, take a plastic pancreas, or write with a Viagra pen. I don't even like to look at the time on a Tequin clock.
      Nick

  4. Re:Swag removal for free by blowdart · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would like to provide an independent review of your service. Please send me some items so I might send some of them back.

  5. "Swag" is a euphemism for "bribe" by John+Hasler · · Score: 5, Interesting

    > It's damn nice swag, of course, but at what point is it too much? A DailyTech writer
    > talks about his experiences with swag.

    If you are a reviewer nothing is too much. If you are a consumer anything at all is a bribe.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  6. I'm a reviewer... by darien · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm a reviewer for a UK-based PC magazine, and I have to say, though companies do tend to give out freebies at press events, I've never been given anything remotely as interesting as an iPod. Normally it's a USB thumb-drive and a branded pen or two. For major launches you might get a rucksack.

    But be that as it may, surely giving out gifts of any size is only a problem if it actually influences reviewers. And on that count I see no grounds for concern at all. I think anyone who works in this industry quickly develops a healthily cynical regard for manufacturers, and if we feel like a company's being unusually nice to us our immediate instinct is to wonder why, and to look at their product with extra suspicion. The magazine market's just too competitive for reviewers to get away with endorsing lousy products: readers aren't stupid, and I think most of us love our jobs far too much to sell out our reputations for a few hundred pounds' worth of free stuff.

    (That's how it seems to be with print journalism, anyway. Web reviewers... well, I can't speak for them.)