Bloggers are the new advertising

Warren Buffet is pretty awesome for an old dude. He’s worth thousands of millions and yet his most extravagant purchase ever was buying Dairy Queen because he liked it and didn’t want it to change. Always a shrewd businessman, he made Ted Koppel interview him in a DQ and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s got a hand in the chain’s latest promotional gambit.

To help sales, DQ, like KFC, has recently turned to a permanent value menu it calls Sweet Deals. Unlike KFC, McDonald’s, Wendys and others, DQ’s value package isn’t based on a dollar but on a food matrix. From the nine items on the menu, pick any two for three dollars, three for four dollars and four for five dollars.

When Sweet Deals was announced at the beginning of the month, blogs quickly pounced on the fact that the deals weren’t always so sweet. In some cases, customers were getting charged more than the normal price.

Having faced bloggers’ scorn, DQ is now trying to win them over with gift certificates to people who blog about Sweet Deals. If there ever was a narcissistic, chatty bunch that loves free stuff it’s bloggers (as one of them, I say that in the kindest sense), which is what makes this promotional so brilliant, if not exactly ethical.