What News Corp doesn't want you to know about myspace is that the much of the success of myspace was due to a large successful advertising campaign and it wasn't grass roots at all. They also don't want you to know that Tom Anderson didn't really create the site and that it is more spam 2.0 than anything else. The article is written by a 19 year old web journalist called Trent Lapinski. Has everyone just been had? Does it matter? (via Digg and Valleywag)
posted on Sep 11, 2006 - View this thread

Russian spammer beaten to death.
posted on Jul 26, 2005 - View this thread

"I just read about CNN Headline News in us weekly. Those guys at the football game were total jerks." --Thoth
posted on Apr 25, 2005 - View this thread

Not only is pop star Ashlee Simpson lip syncing and manufactured, but so are some of her fans:
"I just read about Ashlee in us weekly. Those guys at the football game were total jerks." -- mandyc19

Welcome to the world of message forum viral marketing, "street team" advertising, and corporate shills. That "fan" posting in forums about Court TV, The Smoking Gun, or shows on Fox isn't a fan at all -- just another type of spammer -- only this time employed by giant media corporations.
posted on Jan 25, 2005 - View this thread

The Puma "French Pleasure" Campaign: Hoax From felixsalmon.com. via the AdCritic daily newsletter [Gawker AdRants got there first, however, on a tip from MemeFirst], comes a meme-hacking story straight from the Anarchist's Cookbook chapter on propaganda of the semiotic deed: the infamous Puma viral-marketing scam. It was Tim who got the official statement from the marketing geeks:

It has been brought to our attention that several unauthorized, sexually suggestive advertisements portraying the PUMA brand have been released over the Internet. We are appalled that images like these would be created and distributed under the PUMA name. As a brand, we seek to take a unique perspective toward our advertising in an effort to challenge the boundaries of our industry; however we would never consider using these tactics. We are in the process of researching the circumstances and reserve any legal steps available.

posted on Mar 14, 2003 - View this thread

There's a reason why you've been getting those 'RapeMaster' spam ads although we're not sure why, but alot of weird stuff is popping up in spam. I could live without ads for 'farmer girl on cow' sites.

To heck with thinking this out, it's obviously a massive conspiracy involving the Government, Government Ops, Ariel Sharon, the CIA, the Queen of England, Mothers who post bikini pics for pedophiles, Wired.com, Capitol Hill Blue and other forms of media to discredit the Internet while using the Internet to do it.

Anyways, what sorts of weird 'GovOps' spam are you getting in your mailboxes?
posted on Sep 30, 2002 - View this thread

Judge orders VeriSign to stop ad campaign A U.S. court on Tuesday ordered Internet naming giant VeriSign Inc. to immediately cease a direct-mail campaign that used what a rival called deceptive advertising to poach its customers. A development in an earlier posted story.
posted on May 16, 2002 - View this thread

Verisign sued for false advertising. Domain registrar VeriSign has been mailing out thousands of "domain name expiration" notices that imply that domain-name owners could lose control of their name if they don't return the form (as noted previously on MeFi), and BulkRegister has filed suit in federal court. No lawsuits on that that other matter yet, but is the fall of Verisign impending?
posted on May 13, 2002 - View this thread

Ironic Spam article Does anyone find it ironic that a NY Times article on the horrors of spam is accompanied by one of those ads that automatically plays annoying music and requires you to find and then click on the off switch every time the page loads?
posted on Dec 23, 2001 - View this thread

Psycho ex-girlfriend is a hoax! Looking at the code, I could see that it would sleep for a while, then start popping ad windows. Because of the delay, people would not associate the advertising with PsychoEx - the countdown starts only when you leave the page. and registered at anystreet, Dallas TX phone number 214.555.1212
posted on Mar 30, 2001 - View this thread

What Would This Do To the 'Net? Would such legislation be Constitutional?
posted on Mar 28, 2001 - View this thread

We're all doomed. You think the spam level is bad now, just wait.
posted on May 16, 2000 - View this thread

I hate telemarketing calls. I've done a number of things to amuse myself in the process of dealing with such calls but that doesn't stop them. Here's how to cut down the calls you receive.
posted on Apr 10, 2000 - View this thread

I have seen the future of advertising, and it is PP * blog. My ultra-top-secret advertising scheme is finally let out of the box. Okay, so it might not be the future of advertising, but it IS a sleezy scheme on my part to help get both me AND you more visibility in the weblog dept.
posted on Mar 21, 2000 - View this thread