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goalieskates
Premium Member
join:2004-09-12
land of big

goalieskates to dave

Premium Member

to dave

Re: Consumer Reports Says Do Not Track, But Tracks Anyway

said by dave:

Gee, I wonder if it's just remotely possible that the editorial side of Consumer Reports is separate from web operations?

Sure, it's bad form if one side is writing articles about evil ad company practice, and the other side is engaged in evil ad company practice, but it's not entirely surprising.

I'm sure Advertising Age is without bias, though. They're just doing this as a public service announcement.

Rethink that. Every company has management that sets company policy and that the various divisions report to. It's not every man for himself, unless it's a really poorly run company not long for this world. Most consumers have little patience with hypocrites who say one thing and do another.

Whether AdAge itself has bias is beside the point, since both sides are on record and verifiable. The real question is whether Consumer Reports is being deliberately misleading with their statements, or whether a management problem just got exposed for all to see.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave

Premium Member

Which part is 'misleading'?

I agree with the Consumer Report letter as worded. I don't find it to be misleading at all. Clear as a bell.

Now, as to whether the CR web site uses the very techniques that the CR letter complains about - that is either (a) a cockup, aka 'management problem', or (b) hypocrisy - though not particularly serious, since it seems to me that if we do what the CR letter exhorts us to do, it will force the CR web site to clean up its act.

I think the 'misleading' thing is AdAge's attempt to make it look as though you can't 'back off' from an agreement until the agreement has actually been finalized. This is nonsense: even if you never finally agreed, you can be further away from an agreement today than you were yesterday, and any reasonable person would call that backing off.