Discovery
12-08-2010, 12:17 PM
For years I have been trying to encourage Google and other ad platforms to take a stand against false and deceptive advertising.
Strategically I understand their position of not getting involved and pushing the responsibility off to the FTC. That aside, now that the TSR act has been put into place the FTC is actually cracking down on the companies who have been hurting so many honest advertisers with their false ads. And this is ultimately great news for all advertisers marketing the truth.
According to the FTC’s complaint, an operation that did business under the names 800 Credit Card Debt and Debt.com deceptively claimed they would eliminate or reduce consumers’ debts quickly and put an end to calls from debt collectors. In ads that ran nationally, they used statements such as, “We’re 800 Credit Card Debt, America’s leader in helping settle debt . . . [W]e have programs available to help you eliminate your debt by up to 60%.” The ads allegedly featured phony testimonials from people posing as the defendants’ customers.
The complaint also alleges that the defendants falsely claimed they provided the debt settlement services they advertised. In some cases, they also claimed their services were part of a public, non-commercial program, through statements such as, “The following is a public announcement . . . Americans who are behind on their credit card payments must take action immediately. If YOU have ten thousand dollars or more in credit card debt, a new relief program is now available.
See Full article:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/89633/20101207/telemarketing-robocalls.htm
These exact same ads ran on Google, Yahoo and Bing for years regardless of how many examples we and others sent to them stating this was false and misleading.
But what is the end result of all of this?
This company and others like them received the lions share of this business while our business and other honest marketers had to struggle through with honest ads.
We lost revenue.
Ultimately these liars at debt.com lost their money and business.
BUT
Google, Yahoo and Bing all earned tens of millions of dollars that they are not liable to pay back for running the false ads.
There are about 10 companies now being sued by the FTC for similar violations.
Strategically I understand their position of not getting involved and pushing the responsibility off to the FTC. That aside, now that the TSR act has been put into place the FTC is actually cracking down on the companies who have been hurting so many honest advertisers with their false ads. And this is ultimately great news for all advertisers marketing the truth.
According to the FTC’s complaint, an operation that did business under the names 800 Credit Card Debt and Debt.com deceptively claimed they would eliminate or reduce consumers’ debts quickly and put an end to calls from debt collectors. In ads that ran nationally, they used statements such as, “We’re 800 Credit Card Debt, America’s leader in helping settle debt . . . [W]e have programs available to help you eliminate your debt by up to 60%.” The ads allegedly featured phony testimonials from people posing as the defendants’ customers.
The complaint also alleges that the defendants falsely claimed they provided the debt settlement services they advertised. In some cases, they also claimed their services were part of a public, non-commercial program, through statements such as, “The following is a public announcement . . . Americans who are behind on their credit card payments must take action immediately. If YOU have ten thousand dollars or more in credit card debt, a new relief program is now available.
See Full article:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/89633/20101207/telemarketing-robocalls.htm
These exact same ads ran on Google, Yahoo and Bing for years regardless of how many examples we and others sent to them stating this was false and misleading.
But what is the end result of all of this?
This company and others like them received the lions share of this business while our business and other honest marketers had to struggle through with honest ads.
We lost revenue.
Ultimately these liars at debt.com lost their money and business.
BUT
Google, Yahoo and Bing all earned tens of millions of dollars that they are not liable to pay back for running the false ads.
There are about 10 companies now being sued by the FTC for similar violations.