Dumb PR move of the week

*COUGH*WHORE*cough* ....ahem. Sorry, something in my throat.

This isn't particularly out of the ordinary for focus group research. It's standard practice to offer an incentive for participants in usability testing, and $100 is about the norm, though it depends on how hard it is to recruit a specific group of people. I did a group with doctors once... I think the incentive was about $150.

Interesting that the reporter would automatically make the jump to "bribe."

I think $100 is pretty standard compensation for a focus group or usability test.

Maybe to avoid criticism they should have invited homeless people to try out their press centre. With luck, there would be some current or former journalists in their sample group. ;-)

Personally, I liked the "about 100 bucks in cash" bit. They weren't commiting to a specific number? Were they trying to do it Middle Eastern market style where they expected the journalists to haggle? This qualifies for not only stupid, but "PR News of the Weird."