Voting Improprieties, Ethics, and Plain Old Stupidity

Who would have thought that there would be an attempt to stuff The Drammies ballot box?

Not me. But it happened.

A mass of emails flooded the ballot box. All selecting the same products. All coming from either the domain of a very large producer of alcohol or from the domain of a small marketing firm - that does work for a large producer of alcohol.

Now, while I can believe that all these folks read The Scotch Blog, it was interesting that none of these emails came to the address provided in the story. They ALL were sent to the same, but wrong email address.

I'm guessing this was the result of some memo that went out - these guys didn't even have the courtesy to come to the site to commit the voting fraud!

Here are are my "Voting for Dummies" tips (with handy analogies):

• When you want to cheat on a test - don't all fill out the same answers
  • (Mix your submissions up a little)
• When you want to rob a bank, don't wear a name tag.
  • (Next time use personal emails and not your corporate ones)
• When you all want to forge a check, change the name on the check once in a while.
  • (Don't all submit from the same memo)
• Most importantly, hire an inside man.
  • If you really want to rig the contest, then try to bribe me - it has a better chance of working.

Nice try, but if this happens again, all of your nominees will be removed from consideration.

Comments

[MaltManMike]

Sheesh. That's just plain lame. I know why you're refraining from revealing the suspected parties, but there's nothing like a little big business shame to cheer your readers up on a Monday!

Cheers.

[sku]

Shame, shame, shame...what do they think this is, an American presidential election.

Come on Kevin, name names...your reading public wants to know.

[smsmmns]

Oooh... Hilarious. I suppose it is to be expected. Dollars and cents, dullards and sense. February 1st you have GOT to tell us who is was!

[lawschooldrunk]

yeah, it was probably bruichladdich. you know how desperate they are these days. ;)

[Kevin Erskine]

I'm assuming that was a joke, LSD. But to clarify, it was most definitely NOT Bruichladdich, who are NOT (by any definition) a "very large producer of alcohol".

[Ryan]

or brinbe the readers, I can think of one thing a large producer of alcohol has that all your readers may be interested in...

[lawschooldrunk]

it most certainly was a joke. laddie is the last distillery I can think of that would do that. hence the wink.

maybe april first is a more appropriate date to reveal the culprit.

[Ian Buxton]

Oh, fearless Kevin, please name and shame! Your public needs to know....if only "allegedly" this happened!

[Kevin Erskine]

No names.
It's a CLASSIC move - who would possibly ...DHU something like this?

[James Campbel Andrew]

So it was Distributed Highland Usquebae, eh?

The wee divils.

Are they the same ones who only distribute via car?

[Kevin Erskine]

Jim: you're a clever one.

[Kevin Erskine]

What is very funny to me is that these bogus votes CONTINUE to roll in...proving that these folks don't come to the site - or they would have seen this story - and perhaps stopped.

I actually had a call from a Scottish Press Agency looking to write a story on this!

[James Campbell Andrew]

Heck, go for it. Let's face it, receiving a lump of emails from the same place on a Friday afternoon as a one off is one thing, but this is just email carpet bombing. It's unethical and should be exposed.

[Alex Nicol]

I would tell Paul Walsh when you see him that ought to sort it out!

[Kevin Erskine]

Yikes.
This story was picked up by a number of Scottish papers!
And I'm getting more calls this morning.

Never meant to make such a big deal out of this.

Also, the one story that I did see wasn't completely accurate, nor did they quote me correctly.

I also was told I was quoted in another paper as saying "Their marketing is abysmal" .

I don't believe I have ever said Diageo's marketing is abysmal - but I have said their marketing ETHICS are abysmal.

If *I* were Diageo, I'd just continue to ignore me :)

[James Campbell Andrew]

Just out of interest, which papers?

[Kevin Erskine]

The ones I've seen or heard about:
The Daily Express
The Daily Record
The Guardian

And online Just-Drinks and Drinks International.

[James Campbel Andrew]

Thanks Kevin.

Heard you on WhiskyCast - very good :-)