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stories filed under: "reviewers"
Culture

Culture

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
ads, critics, online reviews, quotes, reviewers

Companies:
disney



Disney Used Anonymous Online Quotes In Ads

from the as-good-as-made-up dept

You've all seen movie advertisements that include snippets of glowing quotes from critics. "Marvelous!" "Best Movie of the Year!" etc. There's been some controversy about these quotes in the past. There was an investigation into studios taking movie critic quotes completely out of context, and even a lawsuit against Sony Pictures for making up a critic and his quotes for movie ads. It appears that Disney has now been caught trying out a new tactic: using quotes from anonymous internet commenters on IMDB. These "commenters" could be, for example, Disney employees, but go under usernames like "Theedge-4" and "Mjavfc1." Apparently, that's good enough for Disney to quote them in their ads. While there's something to be said for tapping into a wider group of folks than just the big name "professional" movie critics and reviewers, this one seems pretty questionable and open to abuse -- especially given the industry's documented history of made up reviews.

27 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
patents, reviewers, rewards

Companies:
amazon



Amazon Patents Recognizing Top Reviewers

from the non-obvious? dept

theodp writes "Seems there really isn't anything you can't patent these days. It took seven-and-a-half years, but the USPTO awarded patent reformer Amazon.com a patent Tuesday for its invention of Creating an Incentive to Author Useful Item Reviews, aka Top Reviewers, a program that rewards those who have written as many as 17,308 free reviews with a free virtual 'badge'."

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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