Advertising arrogance or stupidity

By Scott Bradner, Network World, 07/04/05

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I'm told that adware and spyware are the banes of your existence if you happen to use a Windows computer anywhere near the Internet. While that is not yet the case for Mac or Linux users, I can feel your pain, anger and disgust - or at least imagine it.

What I cannot imagine is how any anyone ostensibly working for a brand-name company could think that using these mechanisms to pitch the company would do anything but engender disgust that would be transferred to the brand.

The Associated Press has caught quite a few major names being advertised by adware or spyware. The list includes JCPenney, Capital One, Vonage, Monster, Expedia, Orbitz, Sprint, Sony, Circuit City, banks pushing Visa cards, Mercedes-Benz, Netflix and Verizon. Some of these companies have apparently heard and understood the feedback they got from deciding to travel this particular low road but others, including Sprint, apparently don't care if their image is damaged further by how they decide to advertise. I guess Sprint figures that the disgust level with phone companies is so high already that there is no additional downside, and Vonage must be trying to go that last mile in imitating what is bad about phone companies.

I can understand people advertising body part enlargers, prescription male stamina pills without the need for a prescription and "genuine" Rolex watches using adware and spyware, because they can't get any lower in anyone's opinion. But I do not understand what a company such as Capital One expects to gain by using a mechanism as reviled as adware or spyware other than fewer customers. (Maybe someone with a pile of Bank of America stock made the decision to do this at Capital One.)

Adware and spyware, almost always installed on the user's computer without the user's understanding and generally without the user's knowledge, has attracted the attention of lawmakers everywhere (also see this article). For example, The U.S. House of Representatives has OK'd two bills that would put people distributing spyware in jail. (I don't actually expect the U.S. Senate to go along with the House because it would be too pro-consumer for that legislative body.)

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