Street Teams under fire

[Chuck Nessa]

:-)

[Guy Berger]

Thanks Chuck - that was interesting. In principle I'm sympathetic - I hate phony reviews - but I don't see how it is enforceable in practice. In the end you've got to hope that genuine reviewers drown out the phonies, and that's difficult with niche products.

Guy

[BeBop]

Okay, I'm coming clean: Chuck bought me a six-pack to say I liked Nonaah.

[Chuck Nessa]

That don't make you clean.

[marcello]

How cound anyone trust somebody with a name like Snitker?

[thedwork]

very interesting. like someone said above i also don't see how it will be enforcable. there's so many ways around it.

more than anything else though, the phony reviews that make me pissed off are the MOVIE reviews you see the pull quotes from for the most obviously shitty films: "Best feel good movie of he year!," says jo blo from the globglob post in east buckfuck minnesota. "Bring the whole family!," writes evalyn lyinass on channel 13 11pm news nowheresville. just nonsense...

Edited August 27, 2010 by thedwork

[sonnymax]

Enforcing "truth in advertising" for bloggers and Internet reviewers, but not for corporations spending millions on television commercials? Yes, I feel better now that we've got our priorities straight.

[Guy Berger]

Enforcing "truth in advertising" for bloggers and Internet reviewers, but not for corporations spending millions on television commercials? Yes, I feel better now that we've got our priorities straight.

Just to clarify - this is not a "truth in advertising issue", it's a "truth in identity" issue.

Guy

[sonnymax]

Enforcing "truth in advertising" for bloggers and Internet reviewers, but not for corporations spending millions on television commercials? Yes, I feel better now that we've got our priorities straight.

Just to clarify - this is not a "truth in advertising issue", it's a "truth in identity" issue.

Guy

From the article cited, "They [the new guidelines] are meant to impose on the Internet the same kind of truth-in-advertising principles that have long existed offline."

But we can have it your way, too. How about making it clear that it's the petroleum industry that's paying for all those commercials in which average Joes and Janes tell us we have to pursue all possible energy resources, including oil and gas, of course. Then let us know who funded the ads against healthcare reform (the insurance industry), climate change legislation (the oil industry, again), etc. If the FTC is going to flex its muscles in this manner, why not do it where it could make a difference? It's not like these corporations are spending millions of dollars to dissuade the FTC from doing it's job or...ah, umm... Oh rats.