The New Orleans Menu

How Can A Critic Do Ads For Restaurants?

I'm asked this good question now and then, and it deserves an answer. For over thirty years, I've done live commercials for restaurant on my radio shows. The main reason I do so is that live commercials are the stock in trade of talk radio, and if it were not for them a three-hour daily radio show about New Orleans food would not be possible.

I know that a certain number of people will doubt my credibility because of this practice, because in theory it doesn't work for them. I can't do anything about that. But I offer these points for those who are more concerned with results than appearances.

1. At this time, I'm the only writer in New Orleans giving ratings of restaurants. (That's absurd, but it's true.) Enough of the ratings rankle the owners of the restaurants that I always have quite a few mad at me. Some of these are, in fact, advertisers.

2. My policy regarding advertisers is (and has been for 30 years) that I only accept advertising from restaurants I am already recommending. And that I be allowed to say whatever I want about them in the spots. I do not accept prepared scripts. I know of no other person in local media who makes and enforces those rules. I turn down at least as many restaurants I accept as a sponsor.

3. If I were to make a list of New Orleans restaurants, sorted by rating, and check off the advertisers, there would be no concentration of advertisers near the top. Most of my advertisers are three-star places, and quite a few are two-star. Very few of the five-star places advertise with me. If a restaurant buys advertising with the expectation that they will get higher ratings, it's quite clear that I'm not coming through for them in that regard.

Along the same lines, if my reviews are swayed by advertising, it ought to be easy to point out examples of this. But even the severest critics rarely name a significant number of specific ratings or reviews that they believe are inaccurate, for that or any other reason. (A few of these is to be expected. No two people completely agree, or should agree, about matters of taste.)

Reality check? When Zagat first began putting out its survey results (a couple of decades after I started writing reviews), the ratings were in very close agreement with my own. How was that possible, if my reviews were distorted?

Finally, the radio show and the various forums in which I work keep me honest. If my reviews were wildly wrong, then I'd hear all about it on the show and elsewhere. I do get a few--I don't claim to get everything right all the time, and there are disagreements in taste.

Ultimately, however, it's the reader who has to decide whether a writer is credible, competent, or good. I'm always open to suggestions as to how I can improve my service. Thanks!

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