Hello! Guess what? Pikelet and Pie has been featured in the February edition of Cleo!
Click image to read full article
Media mentions and press are great for bloggers, especially food bloggers. We get a little limelight, increased traffic and hopefully appear less strange when we take photos in restaurants. We get a whole different audience for a second, and hopefully we can keep them interested, keep them returning week after week. But sometimes it backfires.
When I filled in the survey to be part of this article (that’s right, no fancy interviews here) I was excited to see my words and picture in a glossy magazine, who wouldn’t be? I had been featured on blogs before, but nothing physical with high production value and written and fact checked by a staff of experienced journalists. I gladly answered the seven questions in detail, supplied photos and clarifications and giddily awaited publication date… to be somewhat less than pleasantly surprised.
Now Cleo, I have some questions for you:
- Do you really think that Julia Child is French?
- Was it your intention to tell the world that there is something mentally wrong with Food Bloggers’? (such as, we are obsessed and addicted and need some strategies to help us deal with our issues?)
- Were you trying to make a comment about Food Blogging by implying that we represent another issue on the continuum of eating disorders?
- This article implies that deriving pleasure from food is wrong and unhealthy. Is this really the message you want to send to the young women who read Cleo?
Food for thought, indeed.
21 Comments
Totally agree especially with your last point! Was the article implying that women should be ashamed at enjoying their food?!
chocolatesuze´s last blog ..Chocolatesuze Featured in Cleo
Congrats on the interview but I agree, the article seemed to paint food bloggers as some kind of bizarre freakshow. Tactics “to curb blog-related food cravings”? Confused.
Helen (grabyourfork)´s last blog ..Ten Ren Cha for Tea, Haymarket Sydney
Mostly I was confused with how the opening paragraph related to the article. Talking about ‘foodgasms’ and the love of food then basically labelling bloggers as unhealthy, obsessive food addicts. i’d be interested to know what this ‘journalist’ was really trying to get at – was she trying to be bitchy or was it that she just can’t write?
And omg the lack of fact-checking and Lisa’s photo and misquotes! Lazy journalism never fails to piss me right off.
Bad journalism aside… it’s very exciting to see you girls featured in a magazine!
Karen´s last blog ..Summer Verrine of White Peach and Honey Mousse
Congrats on the article… but getting Julia wrong doesn’t speak very well for the magazine or the “journalist”
The snark level was a little high … I’m figuring this person eats protein bars for lunch and thinks Mickey D’s makes for a good dinner… too bad since there were great blogs for her to work with!
deana@lostpastrememb´s last blog ..Amazing Grace
I haven’t had a chance to read the full article yet and it’s sounding mightily worrying =\
mlle délicieuse´s last blog ..Epicure Recipe Card #22: Sardine & Tomato Tart
My reaction can be summed up with this picture: http://www.marriedtothesea.com/031706/what.jpg
I don’t know anyone who has been to Malaysia and not have had food hangovers ffs. Also, I like how the article made the hours Lorraine spends on her blog is purely because she’s “obsessed” with food. Uh no, it’s a full time job – I know people who spend exactly those hours doing other things. OMG ISSUES AMIRITE
I do agree that the tone of the article seems a bit off, and that situating the food bloggers here spotlighted alongside addiction specialists sends the wrong message. Of course you culd find blogs out there where food is portrayed/used in a negative or unhealthy light, but the same could be said of anything in life!
The upside is that if new people do come to your blog through this article, they’ll quickly see that food CAN be a happy, healthy part of living!
Hannah´s last blog ..Drum Roll Please…
Awww, don’t take it too personally gals. You know what CLEO is like, they can’t write about anything without having to turn it into some kind of shock-horror piece.
Guessing the CLEO journo spends more time thinking about that guy from Twilight than about eating interesting food, so each to their own
Eating Melbourne´s last blog ..Dinner at Rae’s Restaurant at Balgownie Estate, Yarra Valley
Congrats on the mention, props for the critique! You’re absolutely right.
Thank you for pointing out everything that irritated me about this article! I agree it’s great for food bloggers to get any media mentions, but this article was so confused and lacking focus. It was lazy.
Steph´s last blog ..Flying Fajita Sistas
What I love is that food blogging has just recently come to Cleo’s attention. I don’t think they were having a go at all food bloggers, only female food bloggers. Or was it just me who got that feeling, with the article showcasing a full cast of female food bloggers?
But seriously though, Cleo is probably having anxiety issues from the demise of Gourmet, seeing its inevitable end shining through from the success of blogging and the digital world.
SydneyCider´s last blog ..Eating Dandelions – Hindbeh Recipe
the article was a tad too crazy. i mean seriously, include an addiction specialist in the article and talk about what’s wrong about food bloggers. it’s ridiculous that they portray food bloggers as crack dealers or something, ugh. i don’t see them saying perez hilton’s obsession with gossip as an addiction. i bet the writer of that article (if we can even call her that) goes to all these gossip websites and read about that twilight dude without even thinking that the people who brought those pictures into the internet were deranged paparazzis who doesn’t really care about those celebs.
Xai´s last blog ..sour cream pancakes
I shared the same reaction as you. Strange angle of a story. But as they say, no publicity is bad publicity, right?
Julia @ Mélanger ´s last blog ..{ Vanilla panna cotta with pineapple champagne granita }
Congrats on making it into CLEO.
I was excited to have my first mention in the press, although I was hoping there would be more focus on the ways food blogs inspire others to cook healthy, interesting and/or fun foods at home – and enjoy it. Food should be enjoyed with friends and family and in a society where we eat so much bad junk food – making and eating home made wonders should be praised.
Anita´s last blog ..In the Press – CLEO Magazine February 2010
Hahhaha congratts girls ^^! Yeah totally agree with ur points, but ah well whheee
FFichiban´s last blog ..Makoto – Chatswood, Sydney (2)
Would this be a fair example from CLEO about what they have to offer as a publication? Poor fact checking & a bait-and-swtich article that leads you to believe that the article is about some insight into food bloggers, but changes tack towards the end of the article about negative views of obsession and eating disorders, which seems like the real agenda for the article. I can only presume that they didn’t inform you that this was the intended purpose of the artcile when you received your interview questions.
I really feel sorry for the people featured in the article, especially Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella who was setup in a big way for a very embarrassing fall.
Lili, I’m not sure if I could be congratulating you for the feature in this article. Just doesn’t feel right. I know that if I was involved with such an article, I’d be furious and be sending letters to CLEO, onbudsmen or other media officials regarding what I consider to be a travesty of an article.
chocolatesuze: I think it was! Don’t know for sure though as my questions are yet to be answered.
Helen (grabyourfork): Agree. It was not only lazy journalism but bad writing. Offensive.
Karen: I think it was a bit of both – bitchy and inability to form a coherent thesis. Agree with you about leaving out Lisa’s photo, lame.
deana@lostpastrememb: I know, right? The writer certainly isn’t interested in food and has totally missed the point.
mlle délicieuse: It is very worrying, thats for sure.
Rose: Bwahahah! That is awesome. You are totally right!
Hannah: Very true. I hadn’t yet thought of the up side, but you have a very good point there.
Eating Melbourne: I’m not taking it seriously, I am just upset that young women are being told that enjoying food is wrong. I’m not too upset about how it relates to me.
Ella: Thanks
Steph: Confused, lacking focus and lazy is such a great way to describe it! I’m glad others felt like me, I sort of went out on a limb with this rant.
SydneyCider: Hahaha yep, the female food bloggers are obsessed food addicts, but they men, hey they’re alright! All females, and all pictures of desserts. Good points!
Xai: Too true. How about bringing in a nutritionist and mentioning some healthy recipes, talking about how it is good when people know what they are eating and take an interest in cooking it. That addiction crap was unnecessary and offensive.
Julia @ Mélanger: True, but what a whack story!
Anita: And to you too. Well put. Unfortunately your website won’t load for me, and you don’t publish complete feeds so I can’t read what you’ve said about the article.
FFichiban: Thanks!
Simon: I guess, I have never read CLEO, but you better believe it was sold to us as a story about food blogging. I feel sorry for Lorraine too, that is intense. I agree with you on the congratulations and I am pretty angry. The writer hasn’t answered any of my queries, so I have just emailed the editor of CLEO to get a response.
Oh Lili I’m sorry to read all of that. It’s an odd little article and I agree it’s sending out some strange messages. In my opinion what you are all doing is a positive thing and a different message could have been promoted. People are making businesses out of their blogging and their love of food; getting books published; finding like-minded people; making friends; discovering new information and ideas. And it’s all self-generated work.
I think you’re right to contact Cleo and get some answers from them. But it’s a cautionary tale about future interactions with magazines and other media isn’t it?
kathryn´s last blog ..Quicklinks
Typical mag beat up to make story more sensational, you didn’t expect the journo to actually do research on this did you? The fact they didn’t even bother to have a face to face interview should have alerted everyone! You can’t pick up nuance, subtlety and wit from a survey. Congrats on getting some publicity (mostly welcome for food bloggers, hehe) but pity a better job was not done by the writer.
Moya´s last blog ..Holiday Hoopla
If it makes you feel any better, I have just discovered your blog because of reading the “article” in question, so it can’t have been entirely negative publicity!
I think anyone with any sense who reads CLEO (or is that an oxymoron in itself?!) automatically filters out the sensationalist stuff. Those magazines just can’t stop themselves from putting self-help and advice into every article – and it’s nearly always either terribly obvious or terribly incorrect. Wouldn’t worry too much about it if I were you! Hopefully it just makes more people discover the blogs they mentioned.
kathryn: I know. They could have done something with a nutritionist as well. Thanks for the support, and yes, definitely a cautionary tale.
Moya: Agreed!
Kathryn: How lovely! Thank you for your kind words, to be honest I’ve never really read CLEO, but I’m glad something positive has come out of all this.