Sly Sales

Mid-Week Rant

Back-door Advertising.

I was having such a happy week that I wasn't going to have a rant.

That was until --- I was seriously pissed off yesterday.

Now, I've got no problem with advertising on Facebook. In fact I welcome it. I often click on the ads, and I actually read them to find out what they are trying to sell me. Sometimes it's been known for me to be interested in buying the product being advertised.

And that's my point – I KNOW it's an advertisement. I KNOW I am being sold to.

There are posts going around at the moment, you know the sort of thing, a pretty looking picture with some sort of gooey message attached, telling us that this is the answer to our hopes and dreams and that we should believe in the power of the message.

Here's the rant – these posts insult my intelligence.

The person who has posted, is trying to get me to buy their tee-shirt or a service that is supposedly for my betterment by the back-door. They set themselves up with a Facebook page – it's got an ordinary name on it. We have become friends, and then – and then --- it's a sideways sell for anything from well-being, to dieting, and or a physical product with a something printed on it.

If you can't be up-front about it, then whatever it is you are selling can't be for my frigging well-being.

And when I question the ethics of this back-door tactic to selling me something – I get a double whammy of intelligence insulting by being told I don't know what I'm talking about.

Well I frigging do know what I'm talking about.

So how does this make the advertisers, who do pay Facebook, to put up their page feel? I doubt I'd be a happy bunny about it – that's for sure.

Of course, I want to sell my books – I'd like to eat this month, and it would be nice to have an egg on top of my baked-beans occasionally.

What I don't do when I am advertising my novels is pretend that I'm not selling them, and that I am just being a 'friend' in letting you know about them.

There's nothing wrong with pushing your 'stuff'. Lots of people do it – what is wrong is disguising the fact that you are actually trying to sell to me. And then having the temerity to tell me I'm the one being offensive, in questioning, why the person posting is not being entirely honest with me in the first place.

I will never buy any dumb-ass product, service or anything else for that matter that is not entirely honest with me from the beginning.

A contract - because that's what a buy/sell situation is, should always be up-front from day one.......

So get off Facebook, all you back-door sales people or pay for your advertising like everyone else, and for frigs sake do it openly.

thanks for reading this post...

The Riotous Writer

PS. Thought for the day – Never insult a bloggers' intelligence, and more importantly - don't piss one off.

www.josephine-sanchez-vanner.org.uk

Background courtesy of 'Stuart Miles' Angry picture by Jesadaphorn  FreeDigitalPhotos,net