Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for Yelp and voicing one’s opinions. However, I’m not too sure about this new “ReviewerCard” that allows online food critics to score preferential treatment with a flash of plastic. Made to emanate the exclusivity of a Black Amex, the ReviewerCard acts as a sort of badge influential reviewers show customer service, in hopes of gaining perks.

Brad Newman, the creator of this Manhattan Beach company, thought up the idea when he was treated rudely by a waiter. “If that French waiter had known at the beginning that I write a lot of reviews, he’d have treated me like Brad Pitt,” Newman told the LA Times.

If you think this is a shameless attempt to gain preferential treatment, well, here’s Newman’s reasoning: “I’m going to review them anyway . . . [So] why not let them know in advance? It’s not hurting anyone.”

Newman, a “lifelong” entrepreneur, boasts about using the card to get him a 50 percent discount at a hotel in Geneva in return for writing a positive review on TripAdvisor. It’s sketch, yes, but lawyers informed the LA Times that the ReviewerCards are legal as long as no “explicit threats” are made.

So far, he’s sold about 100 and handed out another 400 “to travelers, bloggers, marketers and journalists who he thinks merit ReviewerCard status.”

As the ReviewerCard promo video explains, it’s “One little black card. A whole lot of reviewer protection.” So legalized mooching, basically.

H/T LA Times + PicThx FB

Charisma MadarangTwitterFacebook

Charisma has an undying love for gritty literature and drinks coffee like water. She also hails from Toronto, Canada and is a die-hard Maple Leafs fan, sigh.