Brandjack News

By Quentin Langley

The product description at Amazon says:

BIC Cristal For Her has an elegant design – just for Her! It features a thin barrel designed to fit a women's hand. It has a diamond engraved barrel for an elegant and unique feminine style.

The reviews are less flattering. Reviews rise to the top at Amazon through community votes and extracts are quoted and featured, again from those reviews with a large number of positive votes or where large numbers of people have made substantively similar points. The featured extracts include one woman ironically praising the product on the grounds that she has been using "cumbersome man's pens" and another saying that she had planned to buy one but been forbidden by her husband. 

The reviews are in similar vein, talking about how the pens are especially good for drawing pictures of ponies and kittens but, of course, don't work for maths. Another complains that it does not appear to be batttery powered and is not the "for her" product she had in mind at all.

The algorithm at Amazon is very powerful and reflects the views of community members. There are some products that just shouldn't be sold at a site like this, or which should be sold with rather less patronising blurb. This doesn't seem to be an abuse of the review process – as in flashmob reviews – just a reaction that reflects the views of Amazon users.