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12 examples of marketers that have exploited 9/11

By on September 10, 2011 in advertising, ethics, hall of shame, socially responsible

Last year, we inducted Courrier International into the Responsible Marketing Hall of Shame for their insensitive exploitation of 9/11. This year, Euronews has listed a dozen more examples in Marketing and the exploitation of 9/11 that are every bit as disturbing.  Here are the images: The exploitation of 9/11 by marketers is disrespectful, irresponsible on every [...]

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KFC’s shameful attempt at Responsible Marketing

By on June 22, 2011 in cause marketing, hall of shame, promotion, socially responsible

A Utah KFC’s recent attempt at Responsible Marketing via this hair-brained cause marketing campaign has left us speechless: That’s right, buy a jug of high fructose corn syrup-powered soda pop—one of the primary causes of diabetes and childhood obesity—and we’ll donate a dollar to juvenile diabetes research. Our take: absolutely shameful and completely irresponsible. What’s [...]

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9-11 Courrier International ad

Hall of Shame: Courrier International exploits 9/11

By on September 7, 2010 in advertising, ethics, hall of shame, socially responsible

We’ve been pretty quiet on the blog lately, taking some of our own advice and trying to stay focused on some great client projects and our upcoming office move. But we simply couldn’t let this pass without saying something. French newspaper Courrier International‘s tagline is “learn to anticipate.” Really, this is a decent tagline that [...]

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Hall of Shame: Countrywide Home Loans

By on January 16, 2009 in advertising, deceptive marketing, ethics, hall of shame

Marketing is about persuasion, so occasionally marketers stretch the truth. But how bad is a company when it mocks it’s own advertising in a court of law? Pretty bad. Countrywide Home Loans is no stranger to litigation and is considered by some to be among those lenders most responsible for the mortgage crisis. Maybe it [...]

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Hall of Shame: Classmates.com

By on November 17, 2008 in deceptive marketing, ethics, false advertising, hall of shame, social networking

“Your former classmates are trying to contact you! Upgrade now to see their messages!” You’ve received Classmates.com spam and endured their irritating yearbook ads. While most consider the “classmates are trying to contact you” message a marketing trick, Anthony Michaels of San Diego, CA took Classmates.com at their word and paid $15 for an upgrade [...]

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Hall of Shame: Misleading mortgage marketers

By on November 6, 2008 in deceptive marketing, ethics, hall of shame

Every homeowner gets them: Misleading letters from mortgage lenders informing you that you are eligible for a lower payment. Here’s one I received a few months ago from Eagle Nationwide Mortgage: The letter above follows the typical template: Your mortgage lender’s name is at the top, along with your “account number” Contains the word “URGENT” [...]

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Bumvertising: Welcome to the Hall of Shame

By on September 16, 2008 in casting responsible, environmentally responsible, ethics, execution responsible, hall of shame, message responsible, roi responsible, signage, socially responsible, strategically responsible, videos, viral marketing

Bumvertising is exactly what it sounds like: Advertising on the homeless. It started in 2005 when 22-year-old University of Washington grad Ben Rogovy was looking for a cheap way to promote another company he started. Here’s a quick overview: View this video on YouTube The Bumvertising debate has attracted local, national and even international media [...]

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Deception is not Responsible Marketing

By on June 11, 2008 in deceptive marketing, hall of shame, message responsible

Liberty Names of America regularly sends us expiration notices for our domain name renewals. Problem is, they aren’t our domain registrar. Their notices are formatted like invoices in a ploy to get us to transfer our domains to them. Click on the image below to take a closer look: +Click to enlarge Of course, when [...]

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Marketing that makes you call for help

By on February 7, 2008 in hall of shame

My wife sent me an email the other day. It read: Help! We got another solicitation like before…it says to call 1-800-980-xxxx. We need to get off that list. They called over 6 times. I tried the number and you guessed it, I got the “We’re sorry. The number you have called is unavailable from [...]

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Blog spam. Welcome to the Responsible Marketing Hall of Shame.

By on January 16, 2008 in hall of shame

Spam of any kind sucks. It especially sucks when you respond to it accidentally. That almost happened to me recently when a pesky blog spammer commented on a posting with this: Very interesting thoughts regarding Ad Age Trends for 2008: My take. But would you like to submit comments and backlinks on millions of blogs [...]

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