efzauner Posted February 4, 2018 Share Posted February 4, 2018 Ever get the feeling that a post on a forum or your favorite social media is paid for stealth marketing? Flowery words like "I am not one to try out new things but.." or "I never paid much attention to this but I recently ran across this product" or "has anyone tried this out?", "I am not being paid to promote this but just wanted to share my experience" "there is this company near me that makes..." Normal people contributing don't talk that way. I read this style of "stealth marketing" product endorsement all over, particularly in the health food, alternative medicine crystal energy world, and yes, in the snake oil audio business. You all do know that many of your social media friends are quietly being paid to market products, making money from you. That's how it works today. Social media is the marketing channel: FB, Google, Twitter etc. Maybe even members of this forum and you don't even know it. You used to know when you are being advertised to because the billboard, magazine article, TV commercial had the company that paid for the ad clearly indicated. That world of certainty is gone. Where do you stand on this? Should everyone being paid to post on social media and forums be forced to state so? Should companies be forced to publish a list of who they pay to do stealth marketing? the UK has a law to clarify this. including this section Section 22 is slightly broader in scope and prohibits falsely giving the impression that you're not motivated by business or falsely representing yourself as a consumer: (22) Falsely claiming or creating the impression that the business is not acting for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession, or falsely representing oneself as a consumer. Section 22, then, is designed to prevent sock puppetry and similar covert tactics. Most people assume this would outlaw techniques such as Wal-mart's fake blog, Sony's AllIwantforxmasisapsp.com gaffe, and anonymously seeding positive feedback about your company or product in blog comments. Further, authors can't create anonymous reviews praising their own books on Amazon. Similarly, hotel owners can't create fake reviews to boost rankings on TripAdvisor.com and similar websites. https://moz.com/blog/new-uk-law-criminalizes-stealth-marketing-techniques Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted February 4, 2018 Share Posted February 4, 2018 We do promote Klipsch speakers don't we? That's a violation legally speaking. JJK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efzauner Posted February 4, 2018 Author Share Posted February 4, 2018 Just now, JJkizak said: We do promote Klipsch speakers don't we? That's a violation legally speaking. JJK Nope because you are not being paid to do so, unless you are a Klipsch employee, in which case your profile would say so on this forum. I am clearly talking about being paid to post on social media but pretending just to be a regular non-affiliated contributor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted February 4, 2018 Share Posted February 4, 2018 This is from almost 10 years ago: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff. Posted February 4, 2018 Share Posted February 4, 2018 Caveat emptor. Salesmen have real jobs to do. Wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing, but a job nonetheless. Having said that, misrepresentation is despicable. Hanging is too good for them. (lol?) A law stating all reviews, must START with “PAID ENDORSEMENT” would be a good beginning. Strict penalties and fines would be another step in the right direction. Taxing the crap out of the endorsements would really be a bonus! The national debt could be paid off in no time. ...sorry about that last one, we all know a government that needs to increase taxes doesn’t know how to run it’s house... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted February 4, 2018 Share Posted February 4, 2018 It's done by bots now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted February 4, 2018 Share Posted February 4, 2018 Russians! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjimbo Posted February 4, 2018 Share Posted February 4, 2018 20 minutes ago, oldtimer said: It's done by bots now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efzauner Posted February 4, 2018 Author Share Posted February 4, 2018 3 hours ago, Jeff Matthews said: Russians! LOL I did not want to go there. But that is part of it. When you do not know who is paying for the message. Whether it is product or ideas or politics. We must know who is behind the message. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtr20 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 I promote klipsch all of the time, but I don't get paid. Worse yet, klipsch wants me to pay for new products. What's up with that?! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 On 2/4/2018 at 11:31 AM, geoff. said: Salesmen have real jobs to do. Wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing, but a job nonetheless. ouch. On 2/4/2018 at 11:31 AM, geoff. said: A law stating all reviews, must START with “PAID ENDORSEMENT” would be a good beginning. Anybody ever notice that content from attorneys always have "THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT" on it? We're basically talking about doing that with everything. At least with attorneys it's a very small sector of the population and the overlords at the bar association have enough resources to police it for the most part. So we want to do that on everything? We're going well beyond big government at that point, this would be insanely huge and hard to monitor and enforce. https://www.kybar.org/page/attorneyadvertising Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 8 hours ago, MetropolisLakeOutfitters said: this would be insanely huge and hard to monitor and enforce. Not really, but it would reduce such phrases to the meaningless drivel they pretty much already are. Does anybody take those disclaimers with more than a grain of salt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USNRET Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 15 minutes ago, Jeff Matthews said: Not really, but it would reduce such phrases to the meaningless drivel they pretty much already are. Does anybody take those disclaimers with more than a grain of salt? You mean after we capture them in HD, pause, hit the remote to zoom in, get the jeweler's loop........ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff. Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 Please forgive my indiscriminate grouping of all salesmen as wolves. I am a salesman as part of my current occupation. It troubles my conscience the lengths at which most competitors will go to in order to claw out a living. Understood, a person with money to spend WILL spend it. Don’t give them the chance to say “no.” Might as well be you instead of them. But we are talking about straight up deception. Misrepresentation. A valuable service and a quality product sells itself. With a little well spoken promotion, it sells better. A real job. If I were to enter into a bricks and mortar store, or peruse a specific website looking for a product, I would be expecting a sales pitch. Fair game. My guard is up and we are on a level playing field. Hustlers masquerading as newbies or “friends”, intentionally trying to catch you with your guard down, in your happy place. There outta be a law... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 31 minutes ago, geoff. said: There outta be a law... So you are in favor of governmental regulation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 Well, I am certainly not a shill for the audio industry! Which means, I'm available! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 11 hours ago, geoff. said: Hustlers masquerading as newbies or “friends”, intentionally trying to catch you with your guard down, in your happy place. There outta be a law... I can't really say much of anything about sales in social media, but, what drives me crazy personally is companies like Rodan Fields who encourage these amateur salespeople to spam their friends as if it's a perfectly normal and legit thing to do. All these anti-aging creams or whatever it is they sell is literally the modern age equivalent of snake oil as far as I'm concerned. At least snake oil salesmen had enough sense to move on very quickly. These folks just camp out and non-stop hit their friends with lame pitches. It's beyond weird. Just for an illustration, go to Rodan Fields FB page, find a post, scroll through it until you find something like "Rodan Fields helped my skin this winter!" then click on that profile. It's insane how easy it is to find these people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFR1 Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 Haven't we already proven more Government is never the solution. There are already truth in advertising laws but ......... Truth in advertising does not apply to Politics, Social Media or Love. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 6 hours ago, TFR1 said: Haven't we already proven more Government is never the solution. There are already truth in advertising laws but ......... Truth in advertising does not apply to Politics, Social Media or Love. I wonder if that applies to Chimps telling the truth. JJK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efzauner Posted February 9, 2018 Author Share Posted February 9, 2018 It is a matter of truth and trust. When "friends" on social media or on forums like this are paid to push product but are too dishonest to tell you. I realize that many of you don't like more regulation. Are you saying you are OK with this? What is your solution? Voluntary disclosure? Sure that will work! Why do we accept the existence of an entire advertising media that relies on hiding who is advertising to you? There is something basically wrong and dishonest with this. In the long run I believe it will back fire as no body will believe anything they see online anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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