It seems a reasonable request to me. How else were they going to suggest that you do it? There is a cut and paste here, but it isn't a demand, it is a "request".
Of course this is about to get downvoted because evil microphones.
Of course this is about to get downvoted because evil microphones.
compare Ryanair PR pieces on "paying for pee"
It is taken out of context, but as this is the only context supplied then it seems quite reasonable.
And when you do, they send their staff of high powered attorneys to shop for an amenable forum and file the SLAPP lawsuit that your org can't possibly afford to defend in a court you've never heard about with a nicely penned note of "Well, we tried to place nice! Now it's going to cost you." They then constructively work behind the scenes to freeze your org out of every future press event and make sure other companies they work with do the same - can't have any reporters not on a leash at these things, after all.
So you settle with changing the language and chilling your speech. America, land of the free.
Do you have an example of Amazon doing this?
Not exactly the same thing, but going after your VP of Marketing is pretty similar, if they do this to their best employees, what they won't do to a smaller 3rd party that they feel it's on their way to profit.
Amazon sues former AWS marketing VP Brian Hall after he takes Google Cloud job https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-sues-former-aws-marketi...
Amazon is a vast company with a PR department that is responsible for making sure that the image of the company accords with the aims of its management.
If that's the definition of 'control the narrative about itself', then yes, it is reasonable for a company to want to do that.
The insinuation that some ill-defined-but-terrifying future retribution against the publisher (Vice, a substantial owner of which is the Walt Disney Company; so not exactly a tiny defenseless organization) will occur as the result of ignoring a suggested correction from a PR flack is a bit ridiculous.
You're right. It's ridiculous to insinuate such things. Almost as ridiculous as ebay executives harassing a small mom and pop news website with bloody pigs masks, roaches, and other psychological torture.
Even if it's a request it is:
- inappropriate, it's a company trying to influence "independent" reporting/discussion about it
- pressuring, what guarantees that Amazon will not subtle penalize the author/book/publisher or other related parts by e.g. slight downvoting and hindering discovery on the Amazon store or other illegal but hard to prove actions
2. A smart speaker is much more than a microphone. Replacing "Amazon microphone" with "Amazon Echo" is objectively a better way to communicate what we're talking about. The original wording was used to be inflammatory, not for clarity.
"While it’s natural to be chiefly concerned about privacy when your apartment comes with an Amazon microphone pre-installed, we should also be critical about where the data extracted from us ends up."
In no way does replacing "microphone" with "Echo" make that sentence better or more accurate, only worse and less accurate.
It’s bully behavior and should be setting off alarms at the FTC. Stunts like this should scare Amazon middle managers.
A super notorious example of this is Apple insisting/asking that their devices are referred to without any determiner like 'the' or 'an' e.g. 'We think THE iPhone is really important' to 'We think iPhone is really important'
Companies like this hires tens of thousands and some people do dumb jobs. PR is mostly a pushing/prodding game with no guaranteed ROI, so they resort to weak attempts like this.
It sounds distasteful with a light shown on it but it really isn’t too different to how most of the meat is made in the blogging industry as a whole. With these high output blogs mostly just repurposing corporate press release kits.
I’m sure Vice only wrote the original blog post because some Amazon person emailed them a presser about this residential program, and Vice did their usual snarky article about it.
This sort of article, which shines this light, might make these companies think twice before "asking" to control the narrative.
It would be like Tesla taking issue with someone calling their car "an electric motor". Sure it has those things, but that's not what it is.
Totally reasonable change imo.
Amazon sells literal microphones in addition to the Echo. That sentence could be referring to literal microphones under the AmazonBasics brand for all I know.
"While it’s natural to be chiefly concerned about privacy when your apartment comes with an Amazon microphone pre-installed, we should also be critical about where the data extracted from us ends up."
In that one sentence, the actual one from the actual article, the word microphone is accurate and makes far more sense than anything else.
It's the second time they ask that you need to worry about.
The practice of corporations using carrots and sticks to manipulate media sources has a long history.
I hope the writer is also chucking his smartphone out the window and stops acting like a child on hipster Twitter because he can't get a job at a tech company.