Networking World: Advertising arrogance or stupidity

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: GIBBS & BRADNER
07/05/05

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Net Insider columnist Scott Bradner ponders whether the use of
adware and spyware is advertising arrogance or stupidity?
* Links related to Gibbs & Bradner
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Advertising arrogance or stupidity

By Scott Bradner

I'm told that adware and spyware are the banes of your existence
if you happen to use a Windows computer anywhere near the
Internet. While that is not yet the case for Mac or Linux users,
I can feel your pain, anger and disgust - or at least imagine
it.

What I cannot imagine is how any anyone ostensibly working for a
brand-name company could think that using these mechanisms to
pitch the company would do anything but engender disgust that
would be transferred to the brand.

The Associated Press has caught quite a few major names being
advertised by adware or spyware. The list includes JCPenney,
Capital One, Vonage, Monster, Expedia, Orbitz, Sprint, Sony,
Circuit City, banks pushing Visa cards, Mercedes-Benz, Netflix
and Verizon. Some of these companies have apparently heard and
understood the feedback they got from deciding to travel this
particular low road but others, including Sprint, apparently
don't care if their image is damaged further by how they decide
to advertise. I guess Sprint figures that the disgust level with
phone companies is so high already that there is no additional
downside, and Vonage must be trying to go that last mile in
imitating what is bad about phone companies.

I can understand people advertising body part enlargers,
prescription male stamina pills without the need for a
prescription and "genuine" Rolex watches using adware and
spyware, because they can't get any lower in anyone's opinion.
But I do not understand what a company such as Capital One
expects to gain by using a mechanism as reviled as adware or
spyware other than fewer customers. (Maybe someone with a pile
of Bank of America stock made the decision to do this at Capital
One.)

Adware and spyware, almost always installed on the user's
computer without the user's understanding and generally without
the user's knowledge, has attracted the attention of lawmakers
everywhere ( <http://www.networkworld.com/nlgibrad2960> ) (also
see this article
<http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/147-06142005-502277.html>
). For example, The U.S. House of Representatives has OK'd two
bills that would put people distributing spyware in jail. (I
don't actually expect the U.S. Senate to go along with the House
because it would be too pro-consumer for that legislative body.)

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who too often has had
to fill in for sleeping federal regulators, has discovered
spyware and does not like what he sees. In April, Spitzer sued
Web marketer Intermix Media (
<http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2005/apr/apr28a_05.html> ) for
false advertising and deceptive business practices because it
installed spyware on the computers of unsuspecting Internet
users

Intermix recently agreed to stop and to pay a fine of $7.5
million.

Intermix has even joined a group trying to define best practices
for Internet advertisers (
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlgibrad2961> ) and hired a privacy
officer.

Spitzer does not want to stop with the software distributors; he
wants to take the companies that pay for the adware and spyware
to court. I expect that this is about the only thing that might
get through to those who supposedly are in charge of some of
these companies. Many of these leaders seem immune to shame and
other's revulsion, but we already knew this considering the
reaction to public disclosure of how much some of these
"leaders" are taking home.

Disclaimer: If any of those leaders are from Harvard I hope they
learned their gluttony and arrogance on the job. In any case, I
haven't seen a university opinion about jailing spyware
producers, so the above opinion must be mine.

RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

Harvard student's hobby keeps adware vendors on the ropes
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/062005widernet.html
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Scott Bradner

Bradner is a consultant with Harvard University's University
Information Systems. He can be reached at <mailto:sob@sobco.com>
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This newsletter is sponsored by Nokia
Empower Your Mobile Enterprise

Gibbs archive:
http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/gibbs.html

Bradner archive:
http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/bradner.html
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Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Advertising arrogance or stupidity

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