No need to go into too much detail on the recent Wal-Mart blog fiasco since Constantin does a great job recapping everything and giving advice. With Richard Edelman's recent apology post the issue will probably linger for a few more days. Of course what we'd all love to read is the backstory. How did it happen? Didn't somebody at some point internally say, "excuse me, I think we need to...." Perhaps one day that will come out.

For me the story was an interesting situation since I have a client that is considering a similar type of travel blog. From the start though we've always planned to disclose the relationship/sponsorship of the blog. In fact it's an integral part of the project. It would be hard to somebody to read the blog and not realize the relationship.

The question now is what would the blogosphere's reaction be in light of the recent Wal-Mart travel blog implosion? The other issue we might deal with post-Wal-Mart-blog-story is internal push-back.

From an external standpoint I think it all comes down to content and execution. An example I always point to is Vespaway. It's a blog that is sponsored by Vepsa, but the bloggers do a good job of not 'pitching' Vespa. Any corporate blog is going to be looked at very closely (and suspiciously) by the blogosphere, but if the content is good (and honest) it will work.

Internally it's about education. Showing and reassuring the client that this particular project will not be another 'Wal-Mart'.