Free drink for five stars? Singaporean slams shady, ‘unethical’ promo

SINGAPORE: A concerned Singaporean took to the r/singapore forum to highlight a rather unusual promotional tactic used by a local food establishment. 

In a now-viral post, she shared a photograph of the establishment’s poster, which promised a complimentary medium-sized fruit tea to any customer who left a five-star review on Google and presented the review as proof to the staff.

Notably, she deliberately blurred out both the logo and the name of the establishment in her image, presumably to avoid directly naming and shaming the business. 

However, she raised concerns about the ethics of such a practice. “Isn’t it unethical to solicit five-star reviews by offering free food?” she questioned, seemingly unsettled by this marketing approach.

In her post, she also sought opinions from fellow netizens, openly wondering whether she was overreacting or if her concerns were indeed valid. “IDK if I’m overreacting, but I felt like this was low-key bribery,” she wrote. “Is this common nowadays? What are your thoughts?”

Isn’t it unethical to solicit 5-star reviews by offering free food?
byu/Yejus insingapore

“If you gave a 5 star to get free items, you are the problem.”

Surprisingly, many users in the comments section revealed that more and more businesses are doing this to manipulate their online ratings and attract more customers.

One user admitted they’ve become suspicious of restaurants with an overwhelming number of five-star ratings, saying, “A lot of places actually do this. I get sceptical when a restaurant has thousands of five-star reviews, [so I] always check the lowest ratings. Sometimes I’ll still be a victim of this and when I go down to eat, the food is almost always subpar and see what you shared, hence the inflated five-star reviews. Nasty nasty. I always post an honest review after that.”

Another person shared their strategy for spottiung fake reviews: “I always look for three-star reviews. Five stars give me the impression of the good review being bought, while one-star reviews feel like a malicious bad review. Three stars tend to be people giving honest feedback.”

Meanwhile, a third commenter defended smaller, independent businesses using such promotions, saying, “If it’s new and it’s privately owned (not a franchise or group model), I don’t mind this kind of marketing. If it’s a big name, nah mah that’s stupid marketing they should do better.” 

A fourth user argued that the issue lies not only with businesses but also with customers who participate in review manipulation: “If you gave a 5 star to get free items, you are the problem.”

In other news, one Singaporean commuter recently asked on social media why “nobody ever takes photos and gives credit to SMRT and their staff” whenever the trains are running smoothly.

Posting on the r/askSingapore subreddit, the commuter said that he understood why people feel frustrated and vent on social media whenever there are glitches. Citing a recent example, he mentioned that when there were train disruptions in the past week, people were quick to complain about SMRT and post photos of the situation online. 

Read more: Singaporean commuter asks why SMRT doesn’t get credit when trains are working properly