Get off the soapbox already

I have a ton of respect for bloggers like Steve Rubel over at Micro Persuasion and Hugh Macleod at Gaping Void, but I'm getting a little annoyed at the soapbox that so many bloggers seem to be on right now. It seems that they've taken Captain Morgan's new blog as an offense to the blogging community. Now let's get real here. A brand blog like this is meant to be a promotion. It is not meant to be a conversation with customers any more than a TV ad is. These "blogs" are promotional webpages that are designed in a template that allows for a more conversational and lighhearted tone than traditional brand websites. I can't even begin to count the number of bloggers that say "marketing people just don't get it." Well guess what...we do. We know that there are two types of blogs: those that are meant to be conversational (like Channel 9 for Microsoft) and those that are meant to be fun (like Captain Morgan). These promotional websites are just like the Anchorman profiles on Friendster or RecipeBuddie (or SecretSparkle to plug my own thing) on AOL IM...they are innocent and not meant to be serious. Certain members of the blogging community need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid and not take themselves and their "art" so damn serious all the time.