Beefin’ in the Blogosphere

I’m so interested in all the different ways people are voicing their beefs (pun intended) with Crispin Porter + Bogusky Co-Chair Alex Bogusky’s Nine Inch Diet. 

If I were less mature, I’d point out the double entendre.

For those of you out of the kerfluffle loop, go here or here to catch up.  Sample gripes from the blogosphere:  Blogusky is hypocritical to write a diet book condemning the “supersizing” of America when his agency represents Burger King and Dominos.  He should stick to advertising. Mainstream media (i.e. People and NY Post) covering the release of the book are not doing their jobs unless they fully disclose Bogusky’s ties to BK and Dominos. 

And so on. 

As a novice blogger,  I admire those who manage to successfully navigate the murky lines between professional and personal expression – be it online or in a controversy-spawning diet book.  Bogusky seems to have mastered this — but then again, he’s Bogusky, master of the advertising universe.  As for me, well,  I can call this my personal blog, but as the “PR” in “PR Mama” would suggest, I am blogging about professional stuff too. Work Me and Private Me thus merge, demanding I use good judgement before I go spouting off about this or that (something I haven’t always gotten right, unfortunately.)

Back to the Bogusky brouhaha.  So he’s a healthy eater whose agency happens to represent fast food clients.  Not ideal, but stranger things have happened.  Sometimes we put personal preferences or even beliefs aside to create campaigns for our clients (go ahead, judge us).  I don’t need to consume every product my clients produce in order to find something about their brands to love — which in turn fuels the work I do. 

But I don’t think that’s the sticky wicket.  Was it really a good idea to use BK arch-rival McDonalds as the book’s visual example of the dramatic expansion in portion sizes over the years?  C’mon now.  That’s where IMHO Bogusky teeters on (tips over?) the ethical precipice.  Wouldn’t a shot of a generic extra-large serving of fast-food fries made the “supersizing=bad” point sufficiently?

(BTW, it’s a good thing a Whopper fits on a nine-inch plate because I’ll tell you what, this topic makes me hungry.)