Say you have bought yourself an awesome domain name and you want to provide new content. And say that this content is intended to be the newest, the hottest, the latest, the greatest stuff in the market. And then say you execute a rather expensive campaign that involves blanketing the e-mail boxes and then the actual mailboxes of journalists with elaborate invitations to a soiree celebrating your launch.
I must assume that that is what the great minds behind BestofVegas.Com had in mind. What they didn't expect was to become a laughingstock for it. But in a moment, they will be.
I got said e-mail notice and this was the image that was contained therein:
There was instantly something that didn't sit right with me with this image. I suspected it had to do with the blue and green lights to the left of the logo. I was always intrigued by the claim of "exclusive celebrity content." But I'll get back to that in a moment.
Last week, a black cylinder arrived at the house. It contained a small poster, perhaps 10-by-18-inch in size. And where the image above darkens at the SAVE THE DATE part, here is what the entire image on the invitation looked like:
Do you see it? It took guest host Amy Turner just a split second to see what's so very, very wrong with this image this week as we recorded "The Strip." Yes, believe it! That IS the Aladdin right there, front and center. If you click on the image and enlarge it, you might be able to see just below the words "Group Company" a billboard for...wait for it... Siegfried & Roy!
The best, the newest, the hottest, the coolest. That's what they were going for. And how much faith could we possibly have that this website, which is largely utterly redundant of the gazillion better Vegas travel sites out there, could be when they're using a photo showing the Strip from at least 2003? FIVE YEARS AGO. The Wynn hadn't even opened yet. WTF?
That's just unforgivable, but so is the false claims the invite makes. Since I keep close tabs on who the other celebrity journalists with great access are and what they do, I was curious about their promise of "exclusive celebrity content." Lots of sites claim "exclusives" that turn out to be little video bits from red carpets, along which it often seems that all you need to be invited is a homemade press pass and a pulse. It's a rather loose definition of "exclusive" since they declare anything at all that they have on camera that nobody else has as exclusive regardless of the journalistic relevance or the willingness of the celebrity to tell the exact same thing to anyone else who will listen.
But anyhow, I get to the website and I find out front these...
...and I think, "Whoa, I dunno who these folks are, but if they're getting Molly Sims and Chris Rock, they're a force I'll have to reckon with."
Then I clicked on the "interviews." Remember, we're expecting "exclusive celebrity content." And what do I find? The entire Molly Sims interview is made up of quotes -- appropriately attributed, I'll give them that -- she gave to OTHER JOURNALISTS. The piece recycles bits first reported (ages ago, by the by) by Robin Leach and Underground Online, whatever that is. The Chris Rock thing isn't an interview at all, it's a rewrite of his media bio. There are also "interviews" with Ben Affleck (sources: femail.com, lasplash.com), Bette Midler (Reuters, "public statement"), Cameron Diaz (W Magazine) and Andre Agassi (Larry King, dialaflight.com).
As I said, I give them credit for properly crediting the origin of their quotes. That's conscientious and I can't tell you how much more severe this post would be if they had just ripped other people off wholesale. But still, does this qualify to you as "exclusive celebrity content"? Would you listen to "The Strip" if all it was was quotes grabbed from various radio and TV shows?
BestofVegas.Com is fine as a travel site. The parent company, Entertainment Benefits Group, is apparently a travel wholesaler of some sort that claims -- as they all do -- to offer great deals based on some bulk purchase. I can't quite make heads or tails from their website of what they do, but apparently they do it in various Florida destinations as well. Boffo to them.
But it always does rankle me when these sorts of Web sites pop up and pretend to be doing journalism. It's hard enough to be taken seriously in this town. When folks like this come along and fake it, it cheapens the rest of us.
