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Say That Again

from the fooled-me-once dept

Get-paid-to-surf schemes aren’t the only artifact from the bubble we’re seeing today. Another classic is misleading press release, usually put out by tiny company, that appears to suggest a relationship between it and a much larger company. For example, back when Amazon was the premier internet company, companies would tout the fact that they were part of its associate program, which any company could be part of. Now today, many companies advertise on Google, but not too many put out a press release about it with a cryptic headline stating that the company has “Renewed With Google Inc.”. For a second, you might actually think that it had signed a deal with Google, until you read a little further to see that they are just continuing to buy more AdWords. Not too impressive, really. Of course, there is one major difference between the bubble and today. The stock of this company isn’t doing much on the news; back in 1999 it might have jumped sharply.