Posts Tagged morally gray marketing
Microsoft sues over malicious online ads
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
This article, written by, Ina Fried, discusses lawsuits filed by Microsoft against companies that are downloading scareware and spyware through ads running on their network. This is a growing problem as premium publishers turn to networks and advertisers of dubious quality because Tier 1 advertisers are buying less of their display inventory. It may be time for publishers like MSN, and The New York Times, to create a set of criteria, (a code of ethics, if you will), that an advertiser or network must meet in order to run ads on their networks.
The damage to their brands is greater than the money earned, and the quotas met, by selling inventory to anyone.
You’ll find the full article here.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising, Ethics on September 18th, 2009
eBrand Media Research: Morally gray marketers and the hideous advertising pollution they create!
Continuity programs have been around for years. Videoactivereport.com defines continuity programs this way: “An infomercial/DRTV product purchasing program that encourages consumers to purchase the first in a series of products, often for a lower-than-normal price, then continue purchasing the entire series for a higher price. Extensively used for music and book series. Concept also employed successfully for beauty, diet and self-development products.”
Given the limited, vanilla, definition; they apparently don’t want to step on any toes.
We discussed one of the most reprehensible continuity programs on the internet, and other types of continuity programs, in an article written on May, 22nd, 2008.
Most continuity programs use the “make sick, make well” marketing approach. They identify a mass audience pain points; wrinkles, yellow teeth, weight, debt, or a need for money and the ability to make transactions with a debit/credit card, and run campaigns that bring the pain, real or imagined from the background to the foreground of the consciousness. Pharmaceutical companies are real experts at making large segments of our society sick; with messaging like this: “Are you feeling depressed, lethargic, or irritable? Then you may be suffering from…”
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Ethics, Marketing on September 14th, 2009