Sarah Morgan
Edith Meyer is a specialty baker in San Francisco. She makes wedding cakes.
So what, you ask? I don’t live in San Francisco and I’m not getting married. Why do I care? Is this going to be another of your weird tie-ins to some social media thought?
…You know me so well.
So okay. Edith has a blog about her cake-baking. And she decided to harness the power of the blogosphere (what an awful metaphor, and even dumber in the context of baking, but you get the point) – and she offered to send a dozen cookies (ginger molasses or chocolate chip, your choice) to everyone who registered and voted for her in a city-wide contest, and emailed her to tell her that they’d done so.
A very popular blogger, LA comedy writer Pam Ribon of Pamie.com, picked it up, because she had bought her own wedding cake from Edith a couple of years back. And Pamie’s post seems to have been the tipping point. That post about it is gone now, although you can still see the link if you Google “pamie edith meyer”. But Edith is ahead. And if you look on the voting site you see some complaints saying she’s not playing fair.
I don’t know if Edith asked Pamie to take it down because she realized she now had thousands of dozens of cookies to mail out. Or if Pamie found out that Edith wasn’t going to send anybody any cookies. Or if the contest owners told Edith to stop it. Or if Pamie thought it was cheating. Or for another reason entirely. No idea. But it’s interesting. Shows the power of individuals asking help of other individuals. (Also shows the power of cookies. Which, in my experience, is not to be underestimated.)
So what do you think? It’s bribery, yes. (Fair disclosure – yes, I did enter. Because one, I checked it out and she really does gorgeous work. And because two – free cookies!) But do you think it was cheating?
Of course it is a form of bribery and/or cheating. I would have thought that she would have been disqualified when this was first discovered. Doesn’t say much for her integrity if she would resort to sending free cookies to get people to vote for her cakes. That is actually kind of sad.
I went to check out the cake designer site because the son of a friend of mine is getting married and is looking for a cake designer. After hearing about “Best of the Bay” contest – I figured what better place to check out anything related to weddings than to see what people had to say about the people they had come in contact with when planning their wedding – good or bad… First I had to say it was kind of overwhelming to see it all – Every night I would check out a few more cake designers and to see who was getting votes as a way to narrow down the field – Interestingly enough, one designer seemed to be leading in votes and reviews until Edith suddenly seemed to surge ahead.
So, I began to check out her reviews and was surprised to see voters/ reviewers were making references to the free cookies and saying that was the only reason they were voting! Now, ASKING people you made cakes for, who have seen your work or have sampled your cakes to vote for you is one thing. To offer cookies in exchange for a vote is just as you put it – Bribery and Yes, Cheating – I don’t have any opinion of those who voted only to get the cookies, that’s their business, but the fact she only got those votes because of the cookie offer is entirely another. I’m still checking out the site, but am wondering if the people running the contest are doing any thing about this – I do have to say Edith isn’t on the list anymore –
I don’t want to work with someone who would resort to that sort of behavior to get votes to win a contest.