They did it again—ruined my scoop.  I pride myself on what I consider a natural ability to read between the lines and then find information and facts to fill in that void. Like the void created when companies wax verbose about some altruistic subject like “trust,” but keep mum on their motivation for publicly broaching the subject in the first place. So what am I to think when they just won’t be sneaky?

Last year Ford Motor Co. invited me to attend its 2012 trend conference. I thought I’d figured out its true motivation for inviting so many “social media types” as a covert attempt to exploit the expanding reach of the social media platform. I was crushed when Scott Monty, Ford’s head of social media, openly confirmed that motivation and went on to explain to me the virtues and effectiveness of this tactic as a service to readers. You can read about my ensuing meal of crow here.

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