{"id":145584,"date":"2019-10-30T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T09:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=145584"},"modified":"2019-10-30T09:21:06","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T09:21:06","slug":"opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Fake news campaigns are lazy and irresponsible"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Despite media criticism about the proliferation of 'fake news', some marketers see nothing wrong with using it to score flashy results for clients<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edit.co.uk\/searchleeds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SearchLeeds<\/a> always brings a raft of quality talks from British agencies offering their opinions on hot-button issues and advice on alternative approaches you can try out for everything from SEO to PPC, CRO, and other triple-initialled areas of digital marketing. However, one talk caught my eye for the wrong reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oliver Brett from Screaming Frog delivered a talk titled \u2018How to make fake news for links\u2019, the description of which asks:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTired of infographics? Got a bunch of clients nobody\u2019s ever heard of? Got no budget, but need top-level links? Why not orchestrate your own hilarious viral news stories for great exposure?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div class='postauthor si-guide-block'>\n                <div class='col-md-2 col-sm-12 si-icon-holder'>\n                    <a target='_blank' href=''>\n                  <img src='' alt=''>\n                    <\/a>\n                <\/div>\n                <div class='col-md-10 col-sm-12'>\n                    <p><strong>Download our Free Resource \u2013 Top 10 common content marketing mistakes<\/strong><\/p>\n                    <p>Our free content marketing mistakes guide reveals the most common mistakes, but more importantly, what to do about them.<\/p>\n                    <p>Access the <a target='_blank' href=''><\/a><\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everyone wants their content to go viral, but we shouldn\u2019t use \u2018viral\u2019 as a synonym for \u2018successful\u2019 and I strongly disagree with the idea that creating fake news is a means of delivering results.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s tackle these questions one at a time:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Tired of infographics?<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Many people are, and the demise of infographics as a quality link-generating piece of content has been <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketingdonut.co.uk\/blog\/18\/11\/content-marketing-are-infographics-dead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">discussed at great length<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Let\u2019s say yes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Got a bunch of clients nobody\u2019s ever heard of?<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Maybe. Agencies can\u2019t always work with blue-chip companies that are existing market leaders.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Got no budget, but need top-level links?<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Only if your sales team has completely mis-sold what the client needs and seduced a small company with promises of instant results and viral campaigns.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Why not orchestrate your own hilarious viral news stories for great exposure?<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> And herein lies my issue.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How a fake news campaign works<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you do not have experience with running fake news campaigns, you essentially create a story around a fake product, scenario or stunt to generate coverage from publications and responses from people who believe that it\u2019s real.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_145586\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-145586\" class=\"wp-image-145586 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news-700x495.jpeg\" alt=\"paddy power fake news\" width=\"640\" height=\"453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news-700x495.jpeg 700w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news-150x106.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news-550x389.jpeg 550w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news-768x543.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news-250x177.jpeg 250w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news.jpeg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-145586\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrum.com\/news\/2019\/02\/15\/13-paddy-powers-most-outrageous-marketing-stunts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paddy Power<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paddy Power has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrum.com\/news\/2019\/02\/15\/13-paddy-powers-most-outrageous-marketing-stunts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">built its reputation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on outrageous stunts and a few of them have been fake news campaigns. Ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, Paddy Power faked a set of images that suggested they had chopped down areas of the Amazon Rainforest to write a message for the England national team. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They generated millions of Twitter impressions and coverage from media around the world, but its unveiling that it was all a hoax wasn\u2019t just a laugh \u2013 it had a powerful message about the deterioration of nature coming second to interest in a football tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_145587\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-145587\" class=\"wp-image-145587 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/huddersfield-campaign-700x441.jpg\" alt=\"huddersfield fake news campaign\" width=\"640\" height=\"403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/huddersfield-campaign-700x441.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/huddersfield-campaign-150x94.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/huddersfield-campaign-550x346.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/huddersfield-campaign-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/huddersfield-campaign-250x157.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/huddersfield-campaign.jpg 991w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-145587\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrum.com\/news\/2019\/02\/15\/13-paddy-powers-most-outrageous-marketing-stunts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paddy Power<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More recently, Paddy Power pulled a similar stunt when \u2018sponsoring\u2019 the Huddersfield FC kit by hideously plastering their name across the front of it. Fans were naturally outraged, and when Paddy Power <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.paddypower.com\/football\/2019\/07\/19\/paddy-power-huddersfield-town-shirt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">revealed that the controversial kit was fake<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the real message of the campaign was revealed \u2013 that sponsors too often turn football shirts into billboards and the best thing to do was \u2018unsponsor\u2019 Huddersfield FC. In one fell swoop, Paddy Power captured the public\u2019s attention and put pressure on all the other companies occupying football kits across the UK.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the fake news campaigns that Brett discussed in his SearchLeeds talk have little to no social message behind them. When they do, they are used as insurance policies to disarm organizations who take the stunts seriously (such as the RSPCA tweeting Lyst about their \u2018Canine Collection\u2019 campaign, pretending they were selling dogs as accessories for outfits) rather than the \u2018moral of the story\u2019 that Paddy Power reveals at the end of their campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So long as the websites give you links and coverage, all is well, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/membership\/basic-letter\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/si_blog_banner.png\" alt=\"Sign up for Free membership\" onclick=\"ga('send', 'event', 'Blog link', 'Click free membership banner', 'goal setting and evaluation');\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>They are irresponsible<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Firstly, I think we\u2019re safe to assume that everyone knows that \u2018fake news\u2019 has many names and comes in many forms:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disinformation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Misinformation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hoaxes<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Propaganda<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alternative facts<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We shouldn\u2019t accept this in our media, so why should marketers actively create it, much less do so for a client that is entrusting its budget and brand image to them?<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>They won\u2019t get you quality traffic<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s say that you achieve something an SME thought was impossible \u2013 you get them covered by a national newspaper website and the article\u2019s got a link in it. Other sites are sharing and crediting your site so those links and impression numbers start climbing. This looks great, but what kind of people are going to actually click those links?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do they fit the demographics of your client\u2019s customers? Because if you targeted a national newspaper, you\u2019re going to get lots of attention but from a severely mixed audience. Unless you\u2019re targeting niche publications, you\u2019re going to send a lot of useless traffic through to your client\u2019s site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s assume you\u2019re marketing a fake product \u2013 readers react to a hilarious story and want to learn more about the product. They click through to your site and see that the product that got their attention is \u2018out of stock\u2019 or an outright joke. Do these sound like people who are going to come back to the website? Do you expect them to just stick around on your client\u2019s site and end up ordering something else? In all likelihood, they\u2019ll bounce right off the site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In reality, small companies with even smaller budgets should target niche interest sites and ensure the small amount of traffic they earn is highly relevant to their site.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_145588\" style=\"width: 612px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-145588\" class=\"wp-image-145588 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/social-shares.jpg\" alt=\"social shares\" width=\"602\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/social-shares.jpg 602w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/social-shares-150x78.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/social-shares-550x288.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/social-shares-250x131.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-145588\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/blogpros.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/counters-show-zero-shares\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blogpros<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you\u2019re working with a limited budget, you need your ideas to be malleable enough to be re-used if things don\u2019t go to plan. If you create an infographic and no-one wants to share it, you can try adding new information or visualizing things differently. Creating ranking content is a long-term strategy that means continually optimizing and improving your pages until they climb the SERPs. With a fake news campaign, there\u2019s no fall-back option.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can create a hilarious viral campaign in house and send it to your journo contacts, but if they don\u2019t get the joke, your collateral can\u2019t be repurposed into something else. You\u2019re left holding the bag and have to explain to your client which of your future campaigns is going to make up for the lack of results \u2013 and what are they not going to trust you with in the future? Another fake news campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>They are lazy<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t mean that fake news campaigns don\u2019t take a lot of time and energy to execute. What I mean is when you run a fake news campaign, you\u2019re admitting that you don\u2019t know how to make quality content for your sector or client. All you have is an idea, so you fashion a narrative where the idea IS the content and you construct an environment where the content is effective. Then you send it out to publications hoping that a journalist, desperate for a story people will react to, will either believe you or think their readers will believe you, so it gets coverage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The whole world knows how your agency operates: you\u2019re people-driven. You\u2019re innovative. You\u2019re big on career progression, an informal dress code, and free beer on a Friday. But if you can\u2019t understand a client\u2019s industry, conduct detailed research to improve your product knowledge, and create content that your client\u2019s customers will enjoy, you aren\u2019t being innovative \u2013 you\u2019re admitting your shortcomings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I understand why marketers like these campaigns. Small companies have limited resources so often need to see results quickly to justify their continued spend. Likewise, agencies want to keep their clients and deliver big numbers so that their relationship with the client will grow. These campaigns are often low in cost and high in results, but in a wider context they aren\u2019t the kind of campaigns that will help clients gain long-term footholds in their industries:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Low-authority news syndication websites that scrape articles and publish duplicate content inflate link numbers with domains that, sooner or later, should be disavowed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The traffic pushed through to the client\u2019s site has barely stepped into the buying cycle when they learn the one thing they know about your client isn\u2019t true.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019re an example of misinformation that further crowds online journalism and pushes it towards reacting because of something, rather than understanding it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Final thoughts<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If SEO is an activity that preaches quality over quantity, then fake news campaigns are risky attempts to have your cake and eat it too by trading on the emotions of people, rather than giving them something to improve themselves. You may be generating results that will help market your agency to others, but are you achieving meaningful results for the clients you already have?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then again, maybe we shouldn\u2019t expect anything better from an environment in which if you ask \u201cDo you want it done quickly or do you want it done right?\u201d, you\u2019ll often be told \u201cBoth\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite media criticism about the proliferation of &#8216;fake news&#8217;, some marketers see nothing wrong with using it to score flashy results for clients SearchLeeds always brings a raft of quality talks from British agencies offering their opinions on hot-button issues &hellip;..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":404028,"featured_media":145586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_glsr_average":0,"_glsr_ranking":0,"_glsr_reviews":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[359],"tags":[1561],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Opinion: Fake news campaigns are lazy and irresponsible | Smart Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite media criticism about the proliferation of &#039;fake news&#039;, some marketers see nothing wrong with using it to score flashy results for clients.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion: Fake news campaigns are lazy and irresponsible | Smart Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite media criticism about the proliferation of &#039;fake news&#039;, some marketers see nothing wrong with using it to score flashy results for clients.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Smart Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/smartinsights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-30T09:00:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-30T09:21:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1060\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Story\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@smartinsights\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@smartinsights\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Story\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/\",\"name\":\"Opinion: Fake news campaigns are lazy and irresponsible | Smart Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-30T09:00:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-30T09:21:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bf1c9155129da10469ad5194541a6339\"},\"description\":\"Despite media criticism about the proliferation of 'fake news', some marketers see nothing wrong with using it to score flashy results for clients.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news.jpeg\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":1060,\"caption\":\"paddy power fake news\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Opinion: Fake news campaigns are lazy and irresponsible\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/\",\"name\":\"Smart Insights\",\"description\":\"Digital Marketing &gt; The Marketing Strategy Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bf1c9155129da10469ad5194541a6339\",\"name\":\"James Story\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e68c530158473bf505c6f2e397aba202?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e68c530158473bf505c6f2e397aba202?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Story\"},\"description\":\"James Story has worked in the world of digital marketing since 2014 as a content and online PR executive. Specialising in content creation, he has been part of award-nominated projects and instrumental in the creation of content hubs. With a passion for the written word and an eye for detail, he is currently the Senior Content Manager for Lead Tech, a financial lead generation company providing high-quality leads for financial advisers and financial advice firms. You can connect with James on LinkedIn\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/author\/james-story\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Opinion: Fake news campaigns are lazy and irresponsible | Smart Insights","description":"Despite media criticism about the proliferation of 'fake news', some marketers see nothing wrong with using it to score flashy results for clients.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Opinion: Fake news campaigns are lazy and irresponsible | Smart Insights","og_description":"Despite media criticism about the proliferation of 'fake news', some marketers see nothing wrong with using it to score flashy results for clients.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/","og_site_name":"Smart Insights","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/smartinsights","article_published_time":"2019-10-30T09:00:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-10-30T09:21:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1500,"height":1060,"url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"James Story","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@smartinsights","twitter_site":"@smartinsights","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James Story","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/","url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/","name":"Opinion: Fake news campaigns are lazy and irresponsible | Smart Insights","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news.jpeg","datePublished":"2019-10-30T09:00:57+00:00","dateModified":"2019-10-30T09:21:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bf1c9155129da10469ad5194541a6339"},"description":"Despite media criticism about the proliferation of 'fake news', some marketers see nothing wrong with using it to score flashy results for clients.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paddy-power-fake-news.jpeg","width":1500,"height":1060,"caption":"paddy power fake news"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/online-pr\/online-pr-strategy\/opinion-fake-news-campaigns-are-lazy-and-irresponsible\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Opinion: Fake news campaigns are lazy and irresponsible"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/","name":"Smart Insights","description":"Digital Marketing &gt; The Marketing Strategy Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bf1c9155129da10469ad5194541a6339","name":"James Story","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e68c530158473bf505c6f2e397aba202?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e68c530158473bf505c6f2e397aba202?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James Story"},"description":"James Story has worked in the world of digital marketing since 2014 as a content and online PR executive. Specialising in content creation, he has been part of award-nominated projects and instrumental in the creation of content hubs. With a passion for the written word and an eye for detail, he is currently the Senior Content Manager for Lead Tech, a financial lead generation company providing high-quality leads for financial advisers and financial advice firms. You can connect with James on LinkedIn","url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/author\/james-story\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/404028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}