I was surfing the web the other day when a pop-up window appeared. Not sure how it got past my pop-up blocker, but that’s a whole other post. The site that displayed (on a full-sized screen) looked like a television news station website. It had an authoritative-looking banner at the top with a News 6 logo, video snippets and “As Seen On” with icons from CNN and other news sites on the Home page. It also listed stories about the day’s events, links to pages for Weather, Sports, etc.
Then, as the lead story, I noticed something fishy. While the headline wasn’t misleading (it simply stated something about 350 work-at-home positions available in [my city]) this was clearly an advertisement and not news. Clicking to the Home page of the site simply lead to a blank, white screen. Clicking to any of the Weather, Sports or other links lead to an advertisement for the work-at-home company.
Clearly the insertion of my city was done with a script that collected info from my IP address and put it into the copy. Having a friend click to the page from her computer caused the copy to change, listing her city in the headline and text.
As a copywriter, I fully understand the need to make your copy sound authoritative. It’s part of the art and science of writing good copy. So, my question is: How far is too far? This goes way beyond using quotes and stats to build credibility, in my opinion. I think this is deceptive advertising. It is my belief that this site has taken extraordinary measures to disguise itself as a news site when it is anything but.
Do you agree?
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I agree this is deceptive and people are very savvy to it unless you are a total noob! My feeling is that no matter what pops up at you, dont’ click on it. If you are truly interested, note the product or service, then google it separately to prevent enforcing this type of advertising!
This definitely crosses the line. I believe that a good (and ethical) business has to do its part by ACTUALLY PROVIDING the quality of services that we copywriters work hard to showcase.
There is a difference between playing up strengths and being deceptive.
Shelley — That’s the problem. They are targeting total noobs. You offer a good tip – that’s something I frequently do.
Cara — I agree. In this case, however, it wasn’t so much misrepresenting what they offered as they format in which they presented it. The total news thing just ticked me off because it made it appear like a news station had taken great interest in this work-at-home company and was highlighting them on TV. And the addition of the “As seen on…” with logos was just too much. You have to figure that if a company is going to such great lengths to deceptively build its credibility, something is very wrong.
So let me ask you this… would you write for this company? If they came to you with a very lucrative deal to write the copy for a site like this — paying twice your normal rate — would you do it?
The company(s) I would write to are the ones whos logos have been purloined by this unethical advertiser. I bet there is a cease and desist in there somewhere for copyright/trademark infringement.
Years ago the FCC (FTC?) ruled TV advertisers could not simulate a news broadcast as a commercial production technique. That’s how bad this is.
Fortunately, enough people will be put off by this to more han compensate for any noobs they recruit.
This is spam pure and simple.