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