DeBragga Anonymously Takes it to LaFrieda, Bill’s & The Shack
This comment by “challahbackgirl” (cute!) was posted to yesterday’s news about the brand new Frites N Meats Truck (which uses meat from well known butcher DeBragga & Spitler). Notice anything odd about this supposedly unbiased comment from a totally random user?
Here’s a tip to all you businesses out there who think “guerilla marketing” should involve pretending to be a regular commenter on food blogs… if you’re going to insult the competition, you might not want to do it from a company computer. Especially if your company mail server has the company name in the URL. (It’s kind of a dead giveaway.) For those who aren’t technically inclined, here’s a layman’s explanation: I love your meat DeBragga, but you’re busted.
UPDATE: Somebody posted an interesting comment that I’d like to respond to…
From Lunch’er “Beast”:
“Zach, I expected better from you. This isn’t a “shill”, but you’ve spun it that way. Either that or you have very poor reading comprehension skills. She’s only lamenting that everyone in the five boroughs and beyond has been on their knees in front of Pat LaFreida lately. She didn’t “shill” for Debragga (never even mentions them) and she doesn’t even say the frites burgers are good. She only “bets” that they are better than Bill’s. I hardly think this is a shill, despite her place of employment.”
My response is after the jump…
Let me first say, DeBragga is a great meat purveyor, and this shouldn’t reflect negatively on their food, their business, or their management. I have no doubt they are good people and mean well.
But… to your point beast – both Bill’s & the Shake Shack use LaFrieda Beef. And while I don’t necessarily think that they were trying to directly sell people on DeBragga, I do think it is wrong when people log onto websites under fake names and praise a company they work for, while insulting competitors, without letting people know where they work. And companies will continue to do this (in increasingly more clever ways) unless they’re called out for it.
To say “I bet these street burgers are 10 times better than Bill’s Burger Bar” without letting people know that you work for the company that supplies the meat is disingenuous at best, and deceitful at worst. I’m not doubting the authenticity of their comments. They probably love In N Out Burger, and didn’t think much of Bill’s. But if they had simply added “I work at DeBragga so this is opinion is biased…” we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But whoever posted the comment didn’t do that. And they didn’t do that on purpose.
The more transparency there is, the better off we all are. I doubt DeBragga is going to suffer any from my stupid post. But maybe the next company will think twice before they shill on Midtown Lunch.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 2:30 pm, October 29th, 2009 under Shilling.
35 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
35 Comments
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I saw recently that a rival purveyor has posted comments to your site denigrating the meat we produce for the Shake Shack and Bill’s, and talking up the hamburgers at DBGB. While DBGB is undoubtedly a fine restaurant, the reason this person promotes it and other “in-house” blends is a simple one: their employer doesn’t produce any ground beef of their own, they out source it. “what makes each restaurant’s burgers stand out if the guy next door is using the same burger blend?” We make custom blends for over 50 different customers, created in close consultation with the chefs, and all are kept strictly proprietary. That is well known in our industry. In our business it’s always been the custom not to run down your rivals, either openly or, even worse, by means of secret anonymous comments. “Challahbackgirl” has done this several times on different websites, either to promote her employer’s customers or, as here, to put us or our customers like Danny Meyer and Steve Hanson, down. It’s not a good way to do business and it’s not accurate. -Pat LaFrieda III
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lafrieda 3 (sounds a terrorist group) it’s common knowledge you wank into the mincemeat.
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Zach, I’m impressed you have representatives/owners from two of the top meat purveyors in New York feeling compelled enough to write comments on your site. You’re influence is continuing to grow. It says a lot for what you’ve created.
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Why has no one commented on the HORRENDOUS name that is “challahbackgirl?” I think I threw up a little bit.
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Agreed with meyekull. I want Pat LaFrieda writing on my blog!!!
(even though it has nothing to do with Midtown Lunch hehe)
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Zach is right as rain. First, I thought that Challahback was, as village eater presumed, just a delusional Cali transplant who wanted to boost her company/employer. The post seemed to be along the lines of using personal social media accounts to promote your company’s clients (in itself a disturbing trend). But now, after reading lafrieda, it sure looks like guerilla marketing to me, and Zach is 100 percent right to call it out. We’ll probably be reading about this in the NY Times in a week or two.
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Cool.
But now I wonder why lafreida didn’t respond to my comment alleging that Shake Shack meat was delivered frozen, as witnessed and relayed to me by a kitchen employee?
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haha, you all take this shit waaaaaaay too seriously.
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Any chance ChallahBackGirl can be the Freak of the Week?
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Schmidt. It didnt even take a few hours to read about this on the NY Times……..
http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/what-were-reading-21/
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Zach: 3 points for working in the “disingenuous” comment!
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I think it’s more relevant where the cow is from, than which butcher grinds the cow.
The flavor of the meat comes from the animal, and how it was fed and raised, and not from the grinding machine.
Steve,Rolf is dead…..they say shakeshack….has gone to bollocks….im taking the tri state area(IE mrs and the kids) to manhattan for xmas shopping….im left with what? moody vegans or shillers.
even sarah wont talk to me now……don’t even ask about Mama: pingpong balls Waldorf $20 if you hit a cop.