Those of you readers that have been with us for a while might remember our revealing post about Ford Motor Company’s shady marketing tactics (via its media agency) to attract attention and web traffic to the brand by asking bloggers to participate in a Ford website-linking contest and win a place in the company’s 2010 Model Year Drive event.

That said, we are no strangers to the mommy-blogger-type approach from marketing companies representing major automotive brands, but we never cease to be amazed. This time we were approached by a social media agency called Knallgrau on behalf of GM’s European Opel unit. When we received the first email, we believed it was a media / press invitation but upon our request for additional information, we discovered that wasn’t the case.

In a similar fashion to the Ford incident, the agency asked if we wanted to write about the new Astra GTC and participate in a type of contest, the winners of which will be invited to the official unveiling of the three-door hatchback at Opel’s headquarters in Rüsselsheim, Germany.

Here’s what the email read:

“We would appreciate you writing about the Astra GTC, out of the best blog entries, we will select 10 bloggers and invite them to Rüsselsheim, Frankfurt for a special preview of Opel’s new “baby“. Together with other selected Opel Facebook fans, you will be among the first ones to take a look at it.”

And here’s our response:

“We do not participate in any sort of written competition through our website, paid or not, and whatever the “prize” may be, as it goes against our journalism ethics and standards. We will write about the Astra GTC only when something newsworthy comes along and not because we are seeking to win a contest or a trip.”

Conveniently, the email we received doesn’t mention anything about the participating websites / bloggers informing their readers about the purpose of their post(s) if they were to accept. Makes you wonder how many (and which) of the upcoming stories on the Astra GTC around the web will be posted in order to take part in Opel’s event…

Understandably, it is one thing inviting journalists and bloggers to a presentation without preconditions to report and inform readers on a new product or the company itself, and a very different story when you try to make a competition out of it.

At least that is Carscoop’s (firm) stance on the matter, you of course can agree, disagree or simply have your say in the comments section below.

By John Halas

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