Wearing 1-Star Yelp Reviews Proudly

In a humorous display of the interplay between the digital realms and real life, Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco has started outfitting its staff with t-shirts bearing quotes from some of their “best” 1-Star Yelp reviews. The move is interesting for a number of reasons, but in particular because it points to a real understanding of how much these reviews mean to businesses nowadays. Social media platforms that provide peer-to-peer reviews have at least caught up with, if not surpassed, the once powerful sway held almost exclusively by the classic expert reviewer. And while this new methodology may offer a broader range of opinions to the casual observer, there also needs to be a recognition that not all reviews are created equal. Which is to say, if you’re only following the stars then you might not be getting the whole picture. To Pizzeria Delfina’s credit, by choosing to highlight the worst of the worst and showcase them publicly, they’re simultaneously able to poke fun at themselves, express a desire to improve and most importantly, deflect some of the power of the bad write-up by depicting the reviewers themselves as unreasonable. To wit, one tee simply reads “This Place Sucks.” How’s that for taking words out of context?

[via Consumerist]