Don't be too creative!

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

This case is a good example of how you can really end up in major problems if you do not watch the way you create your AdWords - or how you have other people create them. This one is going to hunt and hurt McAfee for a mlong time, is my guess:

http://www.bitdefender.com/bd/site/presscenter.php?menu_id=26&n_id=115

Basically, McAfee has been running AdWords on a large competitor in the market: Bitdefender, targeting their brand name. But not only that. It looks like been using the dynamic keyword functions and ended up with an add text saying: "Remove Bitdefender virus. Clean your PC if already infected".

I agree with Bitdefender that this may have hurt their brand name very much. I am not sure how much that could end up costing McAfee in a US court but I am pretty sure it's going to be pay back time ...

[I, Brian]

Wowsers - that's pretty incredible coming from a large corp like McAffee. I figure they must have amazing faith in their legal team.

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

My best guess is that its a combination of bad judgement, bad management and very bad excecution. I am not sure they deliberately wanted it to appear like this but the results - whatever the reason is - are pretty obvious now.

I don't really care so much about why it ended up like this - it is a major attack on another brand and personally I really hope Bitdefender go after McAfee big time! They should not get away with this and others should be warned not to follow in their fotsteps.