Reunion.com is using a deceptive marketing strategy where they pretend to be someone you know who is inviting you to Reunion. If you go to Reunion.com to see who it is, sign up, and make the horrible gross mistake of giving them your e-mail address password, they will automatically send out false e-mails to all the people in your contact list.
Two things are going horribly wrong here. One is that Reunion.com is using false and deceptive practices and is doing nothing less than what a virus or hacker would do. I hope the hammer of law hits them hard and fast
The second thing is that people somehow believe it's ok to give up their e-mail address password which is a huge no no.
A depressing report from a few California universities shows that most people have no idea to what extent their online activities are tracked and used against them. This report doesn't offer any solutions other than to try to opt-out of tracking (if it's even possible to do so) though they also state that many companies find clever ways of circumventing promises not to track and do it anyway.
Have you ever bought a hard drive that didn't seem as large as was advertised? Why is my 80 gigabyte hard drive showing less than 75 actual gigabytes?
The reason is that companies like Seagate define their gigabytes by a standard that no one but hard drive manufacturers use which is this:
Hard drive manufacturers - 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes
The rest of the world - 1 GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes
The first, while semantically correct, has no bearing on computing terms at all and is highly misleading. Though the term "giga" technically means 1 billion, in computing terms 1 gigabyte is 1024 megabytes which translates to the second number you see there. For a hard drive manufacturer to play with numbers like that, I say they deserve some retribution.
In this case, they've settled on a class action lawsuit (without admitting any fault of course). Customers of Seagate will be able to get a 5% refund on Hard drives they've purchased… assuming they find out about the settlement of course.
That said, to see the settlement information, go to this site.
"All kinds of products are cropping up and it's hard to tell which ones are actually making solid claims and which ones are throwing 'natural' on the label or some similar term," Collins said. "The most frustrating thing is when you spend more money on something that you think is green or environmentally friendly and then when you get home you realize that it's pretty similar to all the other items. I still get duped."
It's interesting how knowing the basic purpose behind the ad can help you prevent any manipulative attempts they make. It's a lot like watching a horror movie with the sound off. You completely destroy the maker's ability to control your response.
Be sure to check the link for the commentary and sample ads, but here's the abbreviated version:
The "Demo" - The only purpose of this ad is to show you how a product is used.
The "Demonstrate the problem" - Shows you a problem or need and the solution (their product of course).
The "Problem Analogy" - An exagerated demonstration of the problem. Example: someone who has turned into a giant nose (alergies) who then becomes normal after taking medication.
The "Comparison" - Explaining why their product is better than a competitor's.
The "Benefit Causes Story" - Because of a product feature, a funny or interesting story happens. Usually, the event happens and the product benefit is the punchline. Example: street is crowded, riot police show up, national guard comes in, but it's just because everyone is checking out the new Lexus parked there.
The "Testimonial" - A "friend" or demonstrator says why they use/recommend this product.
The "Ongoing Character/Celebrity" - Think Mr. Clean, The Kool Aid Man, and the author's favorite (one of mine too), the Geico Cavemen
The "Benefit Analogy" - Like the problem analogy, but the exaggerated picture or situation is related to the benefit this time. Example, mosquito repellant demonstrated by laser guided turrets protecting your lawn area by shooting down incoming insects.
The "Associated User Imagry" - Show people that you want to be like with your product. Sports sponsors generally fit this profile. "Be like Mike, just do it! Nike."
The "Unique Personality Property" - Demonstrates something unique about THIS particular product that makes it stand out from competitors. Now this one makes perfect sense. Entire marketing campaigns have been launched on a single feature that makes something stand out.
The "Parody or Borrowed Format" - Making fun of another ad, situation, TV or Movie.
I would add one to the list though:
The "Doesn't mean anything" - There's no point to this commercial other than to be comical and make you have positive feelings about the brand. Think, Taco Bell Chihuahua.
Feel free to read the article itself, but this is bad, bad news. What they're going to do is scan the content of your files, e-mail, music, and system status alerts to profile you and target you with ads. Penny Arcade covered this concept in one of their comics titled "Advertising in the Future". That was last October.
(For non-gamers, the comic describes a situation where two guys are playing a game, but see different in-game advertising based on the contents of their Internet browser history).
The fact is that you are no more likely to see a real technician at a Geek Squad today than you would be to see a real 5'10" mouse, wearing red suspenders at Disneyland. It is all an act… a show to provide what the customer assumes they need to see. The shoes, the ties, the badges, the pants, the socks, and the shirts do not increase the persons ability to fix your computer, they merely fulfill the customer's subconscious expectation of what a competent computer technician looks like.
He talks of the time he opened a "new" computer only to find that it was in reality, used. His manager told him to clean it off and give it to the customers like nothing had happened of which he said "On this day, I would favor the respect of my superior, rather than that of my integrity".
Wow.
Then there's the time that they were backlogged on computers to repair so management decided that things like crashes and viruses could be fixed easily by wiping all data on every computer. They don't have to worry about legal rammifications because customers are forced to sign a disclaimer that says they've backed up all their data.
And don't forget that Geeks are lonely. If you have (or had) any porn on your machine, they'll find it and save a copy:
If there were a competition between a Playboy editor, a photo lab technician, and a voyeur for the person who has seen the most random pictures of naked people… the only way any of them would win is if the Geek Squad agent was late to the contest.
This is useful. A short write-up on how to tell when someone can get away with not giving you what was advertised vs when you can force them to honor a deal to their detriment.
Here's the interesting part:
Employs compensation methods that discourage or penalize sales people for selling the bait.
So that means that any kind of negative reinforcement used to make sales people not want to sell the advertised "junker" is bait and switch too. Employees take note.
A while ago, I subscribed to the Sixwise newsletter based mostly on this description of themselves:
SixWise.com's mission is to help you and your loved ones be safe, live longer and prosper in all aspects of life by providing you the key insights, top recommendations and most practical solutions culled from the world's leading experts and specialists to:
* Best protect yourself, your children and other loved ones from environmental toxins, crime and violence, natural disasters, and life's other dangers.
* Most effectively build your financial security with proven strategies while avoiding serious risks, scams and other pitfalls.
* Keep your home and valuable assets safe and secure from theft, costly damages, and other threats.
* Avoid getting taken advantage of by anyone — identity thieves online and offline, scam artists, unscrupulous businesses, and more.
This is a very special announcement, so please read on.
I need to tell you about something that has been concerning me of late … if you've watched the news, read the newspaper or visited your local mall, you'll know exactly what I am about talk to you about.
He goes on to list statistics and facts about the obesity problem in America, but don't worry, there is a solution. It's a secret that no one is telling you about and it's only available to the FIRST 1000 takers! [Oh NOES! I better sign up right away!!!!11!].
So I clicked the link to see what was up and found myself on a site extolling the virtures of "Ultrametabolism" thereby confirming that it was nothing but an cheesy, manipulative infomercial in web form. They ask for your name and e-mail address to give you "access to over $171 worth of companion tools for free". I used 10 Minute Mail - Throw Away E-mail Service to see what kind of e-mail I would get and it's just what you'd expect.
Use of my first name as if talking to a friend, sensationalist speech, appeal to emotion, quoting of statistics that have little to do with you personally, and liberal use of the words "free" and "bonus" (do a Google search for the words "guarantee free bonus" and see what kinds of pages come up. Looks just like Ultrametabolism to me).
I realize there may be some legitimacy to all of this, but it's the sensationalism and manipulation I have a problem with. For example, Sixwise says these are things "you aren't told about", but all of the stuff I read about Ultrametabolism (fully posted on CBS's website for your instant viewing pleasure) is not new information, just a compilation of stuff most people already know or could learn with minimal effort (don't eat refined sugars… Woo! What a revelation!).
The point is that Sixwise is supposed to help you fight off marketing and manipulation. What difference does it make if the product has legitimacy if it's packaged and wrapped in deception?
The overall conclusion is that there does appear to be a connection between violent games and violent thoughts in a laboratory setting. But the connections between such thoughts and violent behavior in the lab or elsewhere are tenuous at best. The studies that try to address those questions currently suffer from a lack of a standardized measure of violent behavior and a lack of sufficient background on other potential influences on the test subjects' tendencies towards violence, such as family environment.
Here's one for you. People who are violent already are drawn to violent video games. Duh.
Found on Slashdot, this article explains how writing fake reviews about your own book or hotel to boost its rating will become illegal in the UK and perhaps all of Europe.
This practice is very similar to the fake blogs that marketers made in the United States recently.
I don't really know why they had to specifically illegalize this… Wasn't it already fraud? Well, at least they're paying attention.
Slashdot points to an article about companies who have figured out a way to send commercials to nearby bluetooth devices. So now if you're walking near a fast food spot, you get a instant message on your phone offering a lunchtime special.
According to the article, the Netherlands (where the practice is widespread) has refused to classify it as Spam giving advertisers the legal green light to start jumping unsuspecting bluetooth phone users. Coming soon to America.
In an amusing example of the kind of thing I wrote about on the 14th, Sony created a fake website called "alliwantforchristmasisapsp" where two employees of their marketing firm pretended to be young, hip gamers who blogged about wanting a PSP.
The tide began to turn against Sony's initiative after popular webcomic Penny-Arcade publicly outed the chicanery in a deliberate move to force a little transparency up ins. The Internet was quick to kick the horrid thing to death after that point in a classic example of pile-on. For a brief moment, the blog existed in a state of apology with the following classic phrase resplendent:
The Washington Post reports that the FTC has begun to crack down on false word-of-mouth advertising. This is where a company pays people to tell friends about their products. From the article:
As the practice has taken hold over the past several years, however, some advocacy groups have questioned whether marketers are using such tactics to dupe consumers into believing they are getting unbiased information.
Obligation Inc. is documenting the exploits of BusRadio, a company that is producing programming intended for play on school busses. From the Obligation.org page on the issue:
These men realize that once on a school bus, children are a captive audience. Any captive audience can be exploited by forcing them to hear advertising. So Steven Shulman and Michael Yanoff developed BusRadio and were greatly aided by the venture capital moneyman Robert Davoli of Sigma Partners. As far as I can tell, this is the first time Sigma has chosen to financially back a very controversial company.
