Blogger busted for sponsorship claims

PopGoesTheNews.com A Toronto blogger with a record of stretching the truth has been busted for falsely claiming that his coverage of TIFF is sponsored by Acura.

In a Sept. 2 posting that included an Acura logo, Will Wong (who calls himself Mr. Will-W) boasted that Acura is "a proud partner" of his blog. "Earlier this week I received word that Acura was interested in sponsoring ... my TIFF 2011 Adventures," he wrote. "I'm proud to announce that Acura will be providing my mode of Transportation from Premiere to Celebrity Sighting to Party this year." Wong also announced the sponsorship deal on Twitter.

But the partnership came as news to Honda Canada, the company that makes Acura. According to Richard Jacobs, manager of public relations, "Acura is not partnering with Mr. Wong nor his blog, and Acura is not sponsoring him."

The company demanded that Wong remove its logo from his site and cease "all references that purport to partnership or sponsorship by Acura," said Jacobs. On Tuesday, he complied and revised the posting to explain that he — like several other bloggers — is test-driving an Acura during TIFF. Wong did not post a retraction.

This isn't the first time Wong has been caught fudging the facts. In March he claimed that his site went down due to the volume of traffic (it did not) and in July he boasted that his YouTube channel had reached 4 million views when, in fact, it had fewer than 20,000 views. (The 4 million figure was the total number of views of his more than 130 videos posted on YouTube since 2006.)

Wong did not respond to an email inquiry from PopGoesTheNews.com today seeking an explanation for his claims about an Acura sponsorship.

See also...
03/15 • Blogger busted for bogus boasts

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