Consumers Union has purchased the popular blog, The Consumerist. Read about the acquisition here, and be sure to check out the latest Consumers Union publication.

Posted by Jorgen Wouters at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently purchased a pair of tickets to see Ray Davies at the Bardavon Opera house, who put on a memorable show at a wonderful old venue.

But since I'm not a Bardavon member, I had to use Ticketmaster to purchase them online. And doing so required the establishment of a Ticketmaster account, whether I wanted one or not (I didn’t).

Soon after purchasing the tickets, I started receiving e-mails from Ticketmaster, and as I do with all unsolicited e-mail, I looked for the “unsubscribe” link, which took me to a page on the Ticketmaster site that read as follows:

You are subscribed to the e-mails listed below. To unsubscribe, please check the corresponding box(es).
-TicketAlert
-Ray Davies PerformerAlert
-Special Event-Related Offers
-Unsubscribe From ALL

Although I never signed up for any of these alerts, I knew it was the price I had to pay for the convenience of using their site (along with the exhorbitant service fees). And although I appreciate the fact they put the "unsubscribe" in bold type, the disclaimer that followed left my jaw dropping in disbelief:

“Regardless of your selections above, if you purchase a ticket, or if you complete a registration form in order to be able to purchase a ticket to an event or to receive a TicketAlert®, then parties associated with that event or Alert may still be provided with your information and may still contact you. Please see our privacy policy to learn how we use and disclose information you submit.”

Any disclaimer that begins with the phrase “regardless of your selection” certainly doesn’t bode well, but this one takes the cake for chutzpah. And while there’s nothing I can do about it, at least they’re open about it—now that it’s too late.

So next time you use Ticketmaster, be prepared to surrender some personal information along with all those service fees.

Posted by Jorgen Wouters at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You may have seen the TV ads talking about high fructose corn syrup that send you to a Web site called SweetSurprise.com. What you may not notice in the fine, transparent print in the TV ad are the three words, "Corn Refiners Association." Typing in SweetSurprise.com actually will redirect you from the sweetsurprise.com domain, purchased by PR giant Omnicom, to the Web site of the Corn Refiners Association. The Web site promises "the truth about high fructose corn syrup." Whether it contains that or not, we'll leave up to the health experts on the other side of the building here in Yonkers.

But for Web literacy's sake, remember to consider the source. The Corn Refiners Association's Web site doesn't exactly hide its ownership of "SweetSurprise.com," though despite the tasty packaging, the site could be more upfront about who exactly their association is made up of -- the world's largest agribusiness companies, like Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill.
By the way, for entertainment purposes only, you can find spoof videos of the Corn Refiners' TV commercials here.

Posted by Beau Brendler at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Animal Planet's Web site has done some appropriate editorial distancing of itself from Clorox's frog-saving PR campaign, at least evidenced by this page. The Isthmohyla Rivularis thanks you.

Posted by Beau Brendler at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We recently took a look at Save The Frog.com, a new Web site by the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet and Clorox, probably best known for making bleach, but
also manufacturer of Liquid-Plumr, Pine-Sol, Glad bags, Formula 409, Armor All, and even KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce.
The site, which has tie-ins to Animal Planet TV programming, is set up to educate people about the planetwide disappearance of frogs, a major environmental concern with causes that remain difficult to fully understand. They include habitat destruction, pollution, a virulent fungus, global warming and other factors.
What the Web site doesn't detail is the Clorox company's environmental record over the last couple of decades. It has been less than stellar, according to a number of sources, including EPA data and SEC filings. In 2004, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group named Clorox one of what it calls the "Dangerous Dozen" companies in the United States, based on an analysis of manufacturing plants' emergency response programs and the nature of chemicals stored and produced in them. USPIRG has not updated the report since 2004.
In addition, the domain for savethefrog.com is not registered to Discovery Communications, Animal Planet's parent company. It's registered to Fleishman Hillard, one of the world's largest PR firms, whose clients include Circuit City, Marriott Hotels, and Egypt -- and, it would appear, Clorox.

The Animal Planet-Clorox mini-site devotes a full page to "How Clorox Helps," which indicates that frog rescue workers use Clorox bleach to kill off the aforementioned fungus, devastating to frogs and amphibians, in a project to preserve some of the most endangered frogs. The page also promotes the use of bleach as a cleaning agent in hospitals and other environments where sterile conditions are required.
Clorox also paid the lobbying firm Hogan & Hartson $90,000 in 2008 to promote the health and safety benefits of anti-microbial products. They've also created a site called Facts About Bleach.com, the domain for which is registered to Ketchum, Inc., one of the world's largest PR firms. Its association with Clorox goes back to 1991, when a leaked memo from Ketchum detailed a number of tactics Clorox could employ should an environmental group or journalist call the safety of bleach use into question. Among the recommended tactics was the launch of a "Stop Environmental Terrorism" public relations campaign.
The Animal Planet/Clorox site also notes frogs are "particularly sensitive to pollution," making them important sentinels to potential human threats.
We know Clorox is trying to position itself as a "health and wellness" brand, and that their new green image campaign prompted the Sierra Club's Florida chapter to complain about a deal the parent organization did with Clorox.
Corporations do this kind of thing. But what's a little troubling is the way Animal Planet, part of an organization that's a well-known and respected producer and broadcaster of documentary films on, among other subjects, the environment, has treated the Clorox frog site. Animal Planet's site can't seem to make up its mind whether SaveTheFrogs.com is an advertisement or editorial content. To be fair, it has produced its own frog content and displays banner and box ads for the frog site labeled "advertisement." However, in its own table of contents, it includes the frog site without calling it an ad, and then further down, the link, "How Clorox Helps Frogs." Further down its own list of contents are two headlines with text:

HOW CLOROX HELPS
Curious about how Clorox Regular Bleach helps frogs? Find out!

VISIT SAVETHEFROG.COM
Visit The Clorox Company's "Year of the Frog" website for more!

And with all those big pictures of Jeff Corwin all over the place, who but the most careful reader can tell what's advertising and what isn't?
Thanks to our friends at SourceWatch for background on this topic.

Posted by Beau Brendler at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Alliance Against Bait & Click, an industry-sponsored group, is warning online consumers this holiday season about fake ads, which we've often found in the "Sponsored Links" sections of search engines. The group gives the following advice, with a few details added in from our own experience:
Look carefully at an ad before you click on it, making sure the headline, URL and text match up. Probably wouldn't hurt to look for spelling and grammar errors too.
Make sure the ad isn't taking you somewhere you don't want to go. If you click on an ad for a room at a Marriott Hotel, and you wind up at a search engine, check the search engine and its terms of use carefully.
If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Beware the word "free," especially when applied to expensive items like laptops and mp3 players.

Posted by Beau Brendler at 01:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)