PR Bloggers Get Knickers in Twist Over FedEx Protecting its Mark

Update: The more I investigate this episode, the more repulsive it becomes.

Jose Avila registered the domain "fedexfurniture.com" on 22 June 2005. Four days later, Brian Oberkirch, a web consultant, who is Avila's web designer and PR representative , posts that he's been inspired by a Steve Rubel post and NPR interview that suggests FedEx should get on the blogging bandwagon.

Oberkirch (or his employee or whatever) kept up the drumbeat throughout July, practically begging FedEx to sue Avila. And they hooked Rubel, who was enticed to comment to this post within hours of it being put up.

I can smell the Fulton Fish Market from here.

Let any corporation take on the little guy and tout le blogosphere (at least the please-let-me-be a PR pundit, Manhattan section) gnashes its teeth. I'm starting to see why some PR practitioners seem to have no large clients.

This week's case is FedEx vs. Jose the Penniless Programmer. Jose used lots and lots of FedEx packing boxes, acquired free from FedEx, to furnish his crib.

No harm there, not really. Most students and new graduates have had at least one "packing case" coffee table; I know my Navy and college bookshelves were milk crates from the Bi-Lo.

But Avila couldn't stop there. He bought a domain (in June, so this was calculated in advance), bought a hosting service (apparently with the money saved through DIY furniture making), and set up a website replete with photos, donation requests and -- a design that used as much FedEx livery as one could dare to do.

FedEx asked him to take down the site. Now, note, they didn't ask him to get rid of the furniture. Or ask for their boxes back. Or ask for damages. Just take down the commercial website that uses their name, their livery and many, many photos of their stuff.

But to hear tout le blogosphere (p.l.m.b.pr.p (ms)) tell it, Jose's civil liberties are being ravaged and savaged by the mean corporate beast.

Here's an FAQ, if this comes up at cocktail parties this weekend:

1. Why, by the way, is Jose this month's darling? Why, because he's a blogger -- at least, since last month when this started happening. Bloggers are the new holy people -- They can do no wrong, no matter how wrong they are.

2. Is Jose a blogger in the meaningful sense of the word? No.

3. When did he start blogging? Last month, weeks after he registered the domain.

4. But B.L. says he's FedEx's biggest fan! Steve says Jose is "expressing his love!" Really? Utter bullshit. Doesn't say so on his website. Anywhere. I can't find a word that says he likes FedEx.

5. Why is FedEx the big bad wolf? Well, for New Yorkers, a Southern-based, non-unionized company makes a useful target. Of course, they still use FedEx; otherwise, they couldn't stay in business.

6. If FedEx had been really a beast, wouldn't they have flown him to HQ to have lunch with the CEO, and hold a press conference, and then send Jose back to stay penniless? Yes.

7. It's pretty ugly furniture. God, yes.

8. I guess tout le blogosphere won't be talking about this next week. Now you got it!

Posted by Allan Jenkins on August 17, 2005 at 10:47 AM in Blogging for Benjamins, Public Relations, Rapacious Vegetation | Permalink

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Comments

Hi Allan. I sense that you're sort of fuming about all this and perhaps not reading as carefully as you might. So, a few revisions to the post above:

* First, I have to give props to my pal Alex Muse, who tracked this story and kept people updated from the beginning. I really didn't get it right off the bat. On the same day MAKE posted their images of the DIY furniture 'hack', Alex blogged it.

* I am a marketing and blog consultant. I am not Jose Avila's Web designer (again, props, he has other folks helping him -- check his site), nor his PR guy.

* After Alex's post went up, we saw huge interest in the story. When Jose's site went down, we put up a blog for Jose to tell his side of the story. That's our involvement, aside from keeping tabs on the story and highlighting the fact that it keeps spreading and getting more coverage, as FedEx fumbles the response.

* You call it protecting the mark. I call it acting clueless in a highly network DIY media world. Do I think everyone should run out and use FedEx materials to build furniture? Of course not. Do I think FedEx could have handled this in a way that wouldn't have encouraged the story to live for two months? Absolutely.

* And where is IKEA? I contacted them last week to say, hey, how about throwing this guy some furniture? Have UPS ship to his front door and take away the FedEx Furniture.

* Not everyone is going to agree. Jeremy Pepper, whose opinions I follow everyday, is already weighing in along the same lines you are. That's kind of the point. That's why we all read each other and write. However, I do think you should read carefully before you post. People are listening.

Posted by: Brian Oberkirch | Aug 17, 2005 1:50:27 PM

Nice fisking. You did more digging and research than the rest of us, but that's probably the biggest issue with blogging: no fact checking, no responsibility, no ownership.

But, that's a horse to beat another day.

Posted by: Jeremy Pepper | Aug 17, 2005 5:30:22 PM

Allan, a great job giving the story depth. Thank you for showing that research is still valuable.

Brian, you make some interesting points. Still, your involvement re: IKEA and UPS is even more interesting. If you aren't involved, then why do that? Who do you work for? Trying to generate a lil' viral meme to promote your belief in blogs? Help me understand.

Is this a stunt? Are we playing on astro turf? This all seems a bit artificial, to me.

Could FedEx have handled it differently? I don't know. Allan has done a good thing. He's researched. Since you seem to have inside knowledge, please tell us more. What are the relationships between all of the involved parties and what are the incentives for propagating this meme further?

I'm wondering if this is a phishing expedition and some people (that the mass audience of readers would think of as knowledgable) actually took the bait. It happens.

Posted by: Robert French | Aug 17, 2005 7:17:32 PM

The idea that it's a phishing expedition is pretty off the wall to me. As for insider knowledge, you see it posted above in my comment. My pal blogged the site. People came looking for the photos. We offered him a blog when his site went down. We've continued to comment on it.

Why comment? How are we involved? We're in the peanut gallery, same as you. Same reason we're commenting on the Dell incident. We have no dog in the Jeff Jarvis/Dell thing. But, we think the FedEx Furniture/Dell posts raise interesting questions about how best to deal with an emerging medium. We merely suggested that using a lawsuit as your only piece of communication probably wasn't prudent. I think that's Seth Godin's position as well. You might check his site to see if I'm misrepresenting it.

Why give IKEA and UPS ideas? Cause I think it could be an interesting opportunity for them. I'm perfectly willing to hear that those are silly ideas. Less willing to hear that there's anything fishy or phishy about all this. That, to me, is silly.

BTW, Robert, if you're interested, I've asked several PR types who have commented on this to take part in a virtual roundtable to talk about they think such things should be handled. I'm going to pose questions to Jose, the furniture guy. I've also contacted FedEx PR to see if they'd like to participate. let me know if you'd like to contribute as well. The more, the merrier.

Posted by: Brian Oberkirch | Aug 17, 2005 9:05:13 PM

This is great! I am finally part of a global conspiracy! The truth is always less interesting than the conspiracy theory. Here is the truth (these are dates from my blog):

June 26th: I found the FedEx furniture guy's website on Makezine's blog. Thinking that it was funny I quickly realized that FedEx would likely force him to take down the site. I decided to reblog the post and tracked back to the original post on Make. (I have no idea how Make found Jose) I made the point that FedEx should consider 'using' the stunt to help their brand instead of squashing the FedEx Furniture guy. I even emailed the PR department of FedEx as soon as I posted the original post.

June 29th: FedEx used DMCA to force the FedEx Furniture guy's host to pull down the site.

July 1st: Jacqueline@oddpost.com emailed me and gave me the 'backstory' on Jose.

July 14th: I was contacted by the FedExaminer Administration http://www.fedexaminer.com/ to see if I could put them in contact with Jose. I told them I didn't know him.

July 16th: Jose IM'd me and we started chatting. Jose was not a blogger, but he was shocked how fast news spread via the blogosphere (I hate that word). I told him he should blog. He told me he was working with Jennifer at the Standford Law Center. He would need her permission.

July 19th: Jennifer from Standord was blogging about the case: http://www.granick.com/blog/ and here http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/ - I had our tech set up a blog for Jose called http://furniture.weblogswork.com

August 9-16: Various IM conversations about his appearances on TV.

Again, I wish I had been smart enough to come up with this story in order to demonstrate how 'NOT' to respond to an issue in 2005, but alas I am simply someone who saw a blog post and commented on it. Nothing more... I am sorry the truth is so boring...

Posted by: Alexander Muse | Aug 17, 2005 9:48:52 PM

Just to set the record straight. Up until fedexfurniture.com got shut offline I had no idea how massive blogs were. Friends kept on asking me who this Weblogswork guy was that kept on writing about me. So I used the wonderful google search engine, and found out that it was Alex Muse, a name I had never heard before. Interested on why he was so onto my story I googled some more and was able to track down his instant messanger screen name. On July 15th at about 22:50 I IM'd Alex for the first time. I Heard back from Alex the next day and we then started talking. Maybe you should have done some research before making false statements? You could have sent me an email asking questions about the facts but you failed to do so.

Posted by: Jose Avila III | Aug 17, 2005 11:27:52 PM

Ironically, a major retailer just contacted me to see if we could pull off a FedEx Furniture-style stunt for their business too. Allan, you have really started something.

Maybe the next story will be: Alex actually knows Allen Jenkins and suggested that he post a blog entry claiming the FedEx Furniture stunt was actually started by Weblogs Work (a blog consultancy). The motive being that major retailers would contact us to do more cool marketing/pr stunts. We are VERY devious!

Posted by: Alexander Muse | Aug 17, 2005 11:57:42 PM

Brian/Alexander/Jose - et.al., you will note (I hope) that I was asking questions, too. I think there may be a little bit of exploitation of this stunt happening here. Sorry if that seems like a harsh term.

But, your answers pretty much say to me that you have been capitalizing on the story by giving the guy a blog with weblogswork.com on it. Could you be trying to drain all the juice you can get from it?

The fact that all this background info is just now getting out is kinda funny, isn't it? If this were mainstream journalism, I'd hope that more would have come out sooner. Thus, the problem with blogs. It took over a month for this backstory to surface? All the more reason to be skeptical of blogs. No editors.

Jose, I don't see any false statements. I see questions. You'll note that I wrote, "Help me understand." You may see questions and speculation as to the possible reasons for this ballyhoo as being contrary to your involvement, but is seeking background info a bad thing? I don't think so.

Remember, my final statement was, "I'm wondering if this is a phishing expedition and some people (that the mass audience of readers would think of as knowledgable) actually took the bait. It happens."

Now, you've provided some background. That's a good thing and I thank you for it. I reserve the right to be skeptical, though.

Finally, Allan is a known and trusted commodity. A past officer in IABC, etc. Those of you involved in this meme are unknowns to me. Of course, I'm an unknown to you, too.

It appears, according to your statements here, that you were all unknown to each other until just recently. I take your word on that. Still, there is that possibility of milking the goat.

Posted by: Robert French | Aug 18, 2005 6:45:33 AM

I guess if things don't happen in New York City, they just don't happen. I picked up on the Wired story not long after it hit, and don't know any of the people in this whole affair.

Allen, with all due respect, you're missing a big point here. From a practical standpoint, no one cares how this situation evolved. The fact remains that FedEx had an opportunity to spin a discovery into something positive, memorable, and fun. They didn't. (I wrote that a visionary executive could have turned this into their version of Subway's Jared.)

I don't write for FedEx's benefit, and they don't come to my blog for answers. I write for my friends and clients, pointing out cautionary tales of what not to do.

If you're right, and this whole thing is a big sting, then my clients still learn the same lesson about opportunities lost. The rant about the role of blogging here is a straw man, a red herring.

That's what this really boils down to. The timeline you've built to make your case hinges on a premise that may well be false: that this was all about blog promoters trying to flex their muscle, or worse, snag corporate clients in a stunt.

Since I didn't and I don't, where does that leave people like me? (Other than outside of NYC, where nothing obviously counts.)

Posted by: Ike | Aug 18, 2005 8:02:41 AM

I don't believe that Allen gets the point. First off, who wouldn't take the opportunity to capitalize
on this? (if this is the case). You tell me that he has never tried to promote his blog in any fashion? I wouldn't believe you. This sort of topic is discussed in the media often. Someone defining what blogs are or what they should be. I hear it all of the time. The fact is that many people are just trying to take advantage of this relatively new media outlet.. professional journalists and amateurs.

I don't think that this is such a big deal that warrants claims of "phishing" and "exploitation"

The copyright and legal issues are another story.

Posted by: Howard the Stupid Coward | Aug 18, 2005 9:46:35 AM

Ike - Jared was buying Subway sandwiches for their intended purposes: to eat them.

Posted by: Jeremy Pepper | Aug 18, 2005 7:41:20 PM

I'd buy that, Jeremy, if FedEx went after him for stealing packing materials. Going after him for DMCA violations is a different matter.

The analogy here is that Jared was a loyal Subway customer who engaged in a set of behaviors that were *not* intended to land him a role as a mascot. Same goes for Jose.

Mr. Avila's self-professed reasons for using FedEx materials came from his experience in shipping. He found FedEx boxes to be sturdier. Great selling point, and a largely ignored one.

Posted by: Ike | Aug 18, 2005 8:27:42 PM

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