Clearly my comment is now buried in the comments section, but I wanted to let you know our history as i can read that both you and your readers are confused by the origin of the party and why McDonald’s was a sponsor.

The party started as a small hotel room party back at BlogHer 07 and has increased in size and popularity each year. We have always eaten McDonald’s cheeseburgers and thus were THRILLED when McD’s embraced our authentic and viral party efforts.

FYI- The party started when a few mom bloggers were snubbed at a fancy invite-only party at BlogHer 07 (sponsored by a popular women’s magazine) and picked up some McDonald’s to take back to their hotel room. Hilarity ensued and a tradition was born.

Rather than write a long post, I’ll just point you to last year post that details the party history. http://suburbanturmoil.blogspot.com/2008/07/cheeseburgher-08.html

Hope to see you and your friends again next year.

Best,
Isabel

P.S. Sorry to read that the cookies didn’t match your expectations (2 pictures of them above), but they were brought in by our friends from the Shutter Sisters Suite in a gesture of kindness, at the height of the party, and there really was no time to lay out the cookies on our platters. And we didn’t want to insult our guests by turning them down. But happy to read you liked the wine label; it is so pretty.

As for product reviews in general, there are definitely products that have been reviewed around the blog world that I’ve tried and thought were disgusting , or at least not the best thing ever. I don’t like how everything is fabulous and the best on some blogs and I think people should be more honest, but on the other hand I know what it’s like to get a product to review that you don’t love. As a blogger who receives things in the mail I know it’s not all as wonderful as it seems. There is pressure to eat and review something quickly, but honestly. My favorite part about product reviews is introducing people to something they might not know about that really is great and I would hate for that beneficial part of reviews to be lost. I personally try to do both good and bad parts of a product and identify it as free at least the first time I review it and then link back to my review in future posts.

Also, McDonald’s. Really?

For me, blog-reading is all about voice and personal expression. I think Pearl (# 155 above) said it well when she said that it’s really hard to escape from ads; we are utterly saturated with them! I often find ads on blogs to be a big turn-off, but I’ll still give a new blog, regardless of ads, a chance with me. I feel very rewarded when I discover a wonderful new voice with whom to talk about food and cooking. I have no ads on my blog; I just can’t stomach the idea of making my own little cooking and writing haven an advertisement. That said, I have accepted a few items that were offered to me through my blog. Am I a hypocrite? Maybe, but maybe what’s more important is the balance between free stuff and your voice. If you’ve got the voice, a few free items doesn’t detract much from it.

I am perhaps not your main target reader since I don’t read KERF every day and I’m happy to pop in and out as my mood dictates. I think you have a very strong voice and strong opinions about taste. I like strong opinions about food! Even if I disagree with them, I still enjoy and admire a person who knows what they like. Case in point: one of my favorite men is practically a carnivore and hates nuts in dessert. I’m a vegetarian and like to put nuts in practically everything. (Can you believe him? No nuts in desserts? He’s just crazy!) But we get along well because we have found an intersection between our tastes (lots of cheese!).

I give this long-winded example because this is how I approach KERF: I don’t eat a lot of packaged foods and the odds of winning a giveaway are very low, but there’s enough other fun stuff on this blog that I just skip lightly over the stuff that isn’t for me. However, I would enjoy a more systematic “Would I buy this?” assessment! Or you could even mention in future posts that a new pantry staple was at first a free sample but now you buy it regularly because it’s amazing. I think that’s how new products work with a lot of us, right?

There are definitely times when I have been dismayed by how one-sided your appraisal of a product/ company has been. The best example of this was all your positive talk about Lipton during/ after your trip to Africa. I’m not sure if you realize that you were shown one part of an enormous corporate operation. Lipton, like almost every company, is about profit!

That said, I really do enjoy your blog. Please don’t take these comments in a negative light. I’d just like to see more of YOU on the blog, and less of the advertisers

I like product reviews, and you have addressed my only issue, which was grocery budgeting. You haven’t been holier-than-thou, just matter-of-fact, reporting what was spent. I do find that I have to remind myself that I probably can’t afford the things you’re reviewing, and I’ll need to find alternatives, but that is a personal problem.