Sorry, tech companies, no one owes you a positive review

Over the past 16 years, tech reviewer Marques Brownlee has built up over 18 million subscribers on YouTube, and each of his videos receives several million views. So he caused a bit of a stir recently when he reviewed Humane’s new Ai Pin product with a video titled “The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed... For Now.”

Tech investor Daniel Vassallo tweeted:

I find it distasteful, almost unethical, to say this when you have 18 million subscribers.

Hard to explain why, but with great reach comes great responsibility. Potentially killing someone else’s nascent project reeks of carelessness.

First, do no harm.

Vassallo wasn’t alone in pushing back against Brownlee.

Alex Kehr, CEO of Superlocal, said, “This is @MKBHD review is devastating for the future of Humane. The most trusted tech reviewer saying it’s the worst product he’s ever reviewed is going to eviscerate sales.”

Influencer Alex Finn tweeted, “MKBHD bankrupted a company in 41 seconds.”

But Brownlee wasn’t alone in trashing the Ai Pin. I have yet to read a positive review of the product. Brownlee tends to be fair and thoughtful, so I’m sure his review is his honest opinion.

Shifting attitudes over tech reviews

But even if his review was dishonest, that’s beside the point because I’m not here to talk about the Ai Pin or Marques Brownlee. I’m here to talk about expectations around tech reviews. I’ve been reviewing tech products for over a decade, and now I work in marketing, so I’ve been on both sides of the fence. Marketing departments don’t send out free products to journalists and influencers out of charity or love of a free press — they do it in the hopes that they get free (or cheap) advertising in the form of positive reviews.

Journalists, however, have different incentives, or at least they should. Historically, journalists understood that if they were untruthful to their readers, it would damage their reputation or even that of their publication. Marketers understood that sending out products was a bit of a dice roll, and if they got a negative review, they’d have to take their lumps and move on. And sometimes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Most companies have a healthy attitude about reviews. To Humane’s credit, the company’s head of new media, Sam Sheffer, said, “An honest, solid review marques — all fair and valid critiques, both the good and the bad feedback is a gift. we reflect and we listen and we learn and we continue building.” He added later, “I’ve also watched just about every single video he’s ever published. he’s very good at his job. and i encourage him to keep doing his thing, and to stay true to himself and the craft.”

This healthy attitude was much more common when I first started in the industry, but then a few things happened that changed the balance:

• Bloggers (like those at the now-defunct Gawker) realized that they could get more traffic by being snarky and trashing everyone and everything.
• Tech companies and journalists grew increasingly leery of one another.
• Marketers grew more demanding and precise, wanting to minimize negative reviews and maximize positive ones.

Most importantly, social media influencers have built larger audiences than traditional journalists. As a plus (to the marketers), they were utterly untrained in journalistic ethics and were easy to buy off. Most of the time, this didn’t even have to be explicit. Some random person who suddenly has a large following is thrilled to receive free products to review, and the reviews reflect that, especially if the implication is that positive reviews keep the product train rolling.

As a result, tech companies have become pretty spoiled and often expect positive reviews. One large tech company, in particular, was angry at me for not acting blown away in my review, despite me calling the product the best in its class. I don’t know how much better you could expect than that!

Will Brownlee doom Humane?

But here’s the thing: While Brownlee may or may not be well versed in journalistic ethics, he’s built up an empire based on his word. His livelihood — and probably more importantly to him, the livelihood of everyone on his team depends upon viewers trusting his reviews.

And while I can’t speak for anyone but myself, I never volunteer to review a product that seems like it sucks. That’s not my idea of fun. On a purely selfish level, spending a great deal of time with a lousy product is frustrating and unpleasant. And as I’ve matured, I’ve also realized the hard work people put into these things that don’t turn out as well as they would have hoped. Anyone with a bit of empathy doesn’t relish trashing other people’s hard work, even if it does suck.

Brownlee’s review won’t doom Humane. The flurry of negative reviews from multiple outlets might doom Humane, but what will ultimately doom Humane, or any company, is shipping a bad product and then running out of funding before the company can fix it or ship a better one.

And if you want your product to receive good reviews, there’s a pretty simple way to do that: Ship good products. And if you want your product to receive outstanding reviews, don’t expect reviewers to be blown away by last year’s product with an extra layer of clear coat applied.

Expecting influencers and journalists to smooth over a product’s failings out of some misplaced sense of capitalistic charity is the definition of entitlement. Here at Return, we're striving to showcase companies and products that use technology to make your life better. And we'll always do our best to present honest and fair reviews for the products we cover.