Manufacturer embargoes on car reviews

O

original guvnor

Elite
 Nottinghamshire
Interesting blog here from Steve Sutcliffe (Autocar) on some of the shenanigans they have with manufacturers on new car release reviews. Specifically it gives some information on La Ferrari and the new M3/4.

Car have a write-up of the M3 in this months magazine so not sure how they've managed that unless they've deliberately ignored the embargo.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/blogs/new-cars/joys-manufacturer-embargoes-car-reviews
 
Amazing, so just a few hand picked brown nosers actually get to drive the thing on an expenses paid jolly then flog their article to the rest of the motoring press who haven't been near the car! No wonder reviews are so cringy. And it a always grips me when an article rattles on about the glaring problems with the outgoing model which have all been answered with the new, you check back to the review of the old model and none of that was ever mentioned of course :-x

How do Ferrari impose fines on journos that break the embargo :?

I gave up buying magazines, are there any properly indi journos publishing honest reviews these days?
 
I presume that you enter into a contract with Ferrari, that is, would you like to be invited to drive this new car, but before you get all excited please sign this 30 page contract and thus if you break the contract, you pay the fine or we litigate :D
 
Generally an embargo is simply don't publish agreed details. If it's broken consequences can be as light as no more invitations to launches, to loss of commercial benefits, to complete blacklisting.

Speculating here, but for the motoring press, Fiat as Ferrari's parent company might decide to not only bar a journo/magazine from attending future events, but maybe pull their entire advertising budget for the whole group from an entire publishing chain. That kind of consequence would keep press in line.
 
We do this at work with computer games all the time, both with reviews and announcements, it's fairly standard in the industry.
 
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