Bad web advertising ethics?
I noticed some banner ads around the web on a variety of sites such as facebook, digg, and other places, and became curious about how this campaign that became successful really quickly. The first banner I ever saw showed two different stomach pics, trying to show weight loss of some random gal. Along with the somewhat shocking images, and the word “Obey” prominently displayed, along with text such as, “as seen on Rachel Ray”.
I checked out the stats on jennysdietblog.com, and noted that the traffic shot up from no visitors in November to 250,000 in January. I started clicking on other ads, and found nichollesweightloss.com. Here’s a pic showing both sites:
I wonder if the person pictured actually used the products that they’re selling, and if she did it in the time period of 3 months like they claim. What concerns me about this campaign is that they are using credibility indicators such as certain TV shows (where they show the product in question, although it’s implied that this woman was on), pictures of some person’s change, and they attempt to create a feeling of a relationship with what seems like a fictitious person on these shell blogs that are really just a means of doing an affiliate offer. What do you think, is this woman real? Is this campaign ethical?
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:06 pm
I just clicked on yet another one of these ads, and there’s a third site I just found: melsdietblog.com
March 22nd, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Looks like people complained, see: http://www.juliesdietpost.com/
They put a warning up top “Advertisement”, which basically says the person is a total fiction.