Saturday, July 19, 2014

My Schick review was graded



Apparently, my Schick review was excellent.

You may remember my review of the Schick Hydro a few weeks ago.  You may also remember that I did this as part of a BzzAgent campaign.  Essentially, they send me the free sample, ask me to write a review and post it on social media.  This not sponsored by the manufacturer (e.g. Schick) so there is no quid pro quo to write something positive.  But to keep my status as a reviewer, I need to write “high-quality” reviews.  BzzAgent has a staff that reads my reviews and rates them. 

So was my review helpful?  Several of you commented or Liked it, so that suggests it was.  I got my grade from the BzzAgent staff and they said my review was “excellent.” 

So what is the point?  I wanted to introspect a little and see if I could find any influence of this process on my opinions.  Was my review of the Schick influenced by the fact that I got it free?  By the fact that I wrote and posted a review?  Does the praise from BzzAgent rub off on my opinion of Schick? Did I unconsciously feel like I had to write a good review to get more free stuff? 

I don’t think any of these influences happened.  But of course, self-delusion is rarely conscious so it could have worked some magic under my skin.  Or perhaps I am just an old cynical curmudgeon and less susceptible to this kind of influence, whereas others might be.