The BadAds Weblog: December 2002

Telemarketers Still Have Your Number

Our piece earlier this month on state "do not call" lists prompted the following message from an anonymous BadAds reader:

Retailer Sears, Roebuck & Co. has had built-in permission for telemarketing in their credit card agreement for quite some time. I cancelled my card, but Sears has already found a new way around the telemarketing law that will go into effect in January 2003 in my state, Massachusetts. When making a recent purchase at my local Sears, I was asked for my phone number. When I gave it, my personal info, spouse's name, and home address came up on the computer screen.

By maintaining your info in their system, and tracking the date of your purchases, they are able to claim 'customer requested' contact for a two-year time period. Each purchase you make will extend the two years.

Our anonymous writer is correct. As Chapter 265 of Massachusetts' Acts of 2002 states, an "existing customer" is "a residential telephone subscriber with whom the [telemarketer] has maintained an account or had a business relationship within the previous 24 months." So if you keep buying items from Sears in a manner in which Sears can identify who you are, placing your phone number on the "do not call" list will not stop Sears representatives from calling with pitches for extended warranties and car maintenance specials.

However, you do have options. First, no matter what state you're in, tell all companies with which you do business (and which have your contact information) that you don't want to receive phone calls or be placed on mailing lists. Sears, or any other company, is not allowed to contact you if you tell them not to.

Ideally, you should keep a dated log of your "remove" requests so that if a company does contact you later, you can file a complaint with the state attorney general protesting the intrusion. (Links to all state AGs are available here.) Filing a complaint with the attorney general is the only way to ensure the company will be punished. If you don't complain, no one knows the company broke the law and it will continue to make such calls.

Giving out as little contact information as possible will also reduce telemarketing calls. Like Sears, Toys 'R' Us and Linens & Things regularly ask for your phone number at the register, and we're dumbfounded by the number of people who give it to them. Based on personal experience, at least 90 percent of our fellow customers look shocked for a second, then reel off their digits – as if the store had a right to know such information. Politely tell the register operator that your number is unlisted or that you prefer not to give it out.

December 16, 2002

Here I Sit Broken-Hearted...

Going to the bathroom is, if you're lucky, boring. You don't want any surprises when you pull down your pants. You just want to unload the goods and get back to the real world.

Some people don't see bathrooms that way. These people – let's call them "marketers" – view the bathroom as a source of potential fun and enlightenment for those who pass through the door. All that's been missing so far is the fun, and they're more than willing to provide that fun in the form of advertisements – because we all know nothing is more exciting when you have your pants down than looking at ads.

Montreal-based Zoom Media has been at the forefront of bathroom advertising since they hit upon this brilliant idea back in 1989. Over the years, the marketing firm has focused their advertising efforts on restaurants, clubs, and bars that draw large numbers of patrons in their 20s and 30s.

While the majority of Zoom's ads have been foot-tall, poster-shaped billboards in hard-to-pry-open metal frames, the company has recently started placing video monitors above urinals and in stalls to make their pitches even harder to ignore. Says Claude Breault, director of communications at Zoom Media, "People, when they go to the washroom, they have to do their thing. They can't just walk away.... And really, we're the only media that can say they're face to face with a client."

Face to face with a client – who's excreting wastes from his or her body. Oh, sure, we can see the appeal to an advertiser of that image. (Actually Zoom can't even claim to be the only company doing so, since NewAd Media in Toronto does the same thing, but let Breault have his delusions.)

Zoom Media has signed up Rogers AT&T, a division of Rogers Communication, as its exclusive client in the Ontario test market. Perhaps you, faithful BadAds reader, can discourage Rogers from participating in the spread of this new form of intrusive advertising.

Edward S. Rogers, president and CEO
Rogers Communications, Inc.
Phone: 888-764-3771
Online feedback form

As for Zoom Media's more "traditional" framed advertisements, you might want to read about Concordia University student Paul Onion (not his real name) and his efforts to eliminate signs at his school. (The page does not load properly on Netscape.) Inspiration for us all, especially if you want to flaunt your efforts to those responsible for the visual pollution.

Carl Grenier, president
Zoom Media
Phone: 514-842-1155
E-mail: carl@zoom-media.com

Patrick St-Arnaud and Michael Reha, co-founders
NewAd Media
366 Adelaide St. E, Suite 411
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 3X9
Phone: 416-361-3393
Fax: 416-361-0939
E-mail: info@newad.com

Thanks to sparkling clean BadAds reader Bob Pezzolesi for suggesting this topic!

December 11, 2002

Are You on the List?

Check out this sales pitch from Bob Traylor, president of Do-Not-Call Protection, Inc., a company that helps telemarketing companies comply with state "do not call" lists:

Dear Telemarketing Manager: As you know, consumers have become much more educated and aware of our industry, causing the various state governments to act more aggressively in enforcing outgoing call regulations....

That's right, Bob. The more aware of the telemarketing industry we become, the less we want to participate in it.

Unfortunately, U.S. courts have mistakenly treated corporations as if they were people, granting them first amendment, freedom of speech rights to annoy and pester us in our homes. Instead of properly presuming that citizens do not want to be bothered in their homes, our government allows companies to intrude upon us until we say otherwise by placing our name on a "do not call" list.

"Do not call" lists are wrong for the same reason that spam opt-out lists are wrong, and yet we seem to be stuck with them due to the weakness of our courts and political leaders to place individual privacy above the desires of marketers. (At least we've avoided "do not burgle" lists to date.) We're stuck with this system for now, but if you live in one of the states below, at least you can cut down on the number of sales pitches you receive.

By signing up for the "do not call" list for your state, you should receive fewer annoying calls from hucksters trying to sell you aluminum siding or phone service.

Alabama
Alaska: 907-269-5200
Arkansas: 877-866-8225 ($5 registration fee)
California (information only; registration begins April 2003)
Colorado: 888-249-9097
Connecticut: 800-842-2649
Florida: 800-435-7352 ($10 registration fee)
Georgia: 877-426-6225
Idaho: 208-334-2424 or 800-432-3545
Indiana: 888-834-9969
Kansas: 866-362-4160
Kentucky: 502-696-5389
Louisiana: 877-676-0773
Massachusetts (begins Jan. 1, 2003)
Minnesota
Missouri: 866-662-2551
New York: 866-622-5569
Oklahoma: 800-390-5708
Oregon: 877-700-6622
Pennsylvania: 888-777-3406
Tennessee: 877-872-7030
Texas: 866-896-6225($2.25 registration fee per number)
Wisconsin: 866-966-2255

"Do not call" lists vary greatly from state to state: Arkansas keeps your number listed for only one year, while Colorado lists it indefinitely; most states are free, yet Florida requires you to cough up a Hamilton; Alabama residents can still be called by folks selling funeral services, vacation time-shares, and "food or produce if for less than $500."

These laws allow state attorneys general to impose fines on telemarketers who violate these lists; so if you receive a telemarketing call after your state's waiting period, be sure to visit the state's Web site and report the offender.

Nearly all states allow sales calls from non-profit organizations, politicians, and companies with an "existing relationship" with a customer, so telemarketing calls will not cease entirely after signing up with the state. You are still required to tell each of these callers to add you to their individual "do not call" lists. Sigh.

Still, you should speak up and make your preference known. Supporting "do not call" lists will hopefully encourage politicians to take stronger stances for consumer protection in the future.

December 5, 2002

AOL, Spammers Duke It Out

If a man said you weren't welcome in his home, you would leave, right? If a woman asked you to get out of her office, you'd waste no time reaching for the door handle, wouldn't you? In all likelihood, you would because you're a civilized human being who respects the boundaries and requests of others.

Spammers, unfortunately, are not so civilized. Not content to merely burst through your door uninvited, they shred your couch, eat your food, and poop on your rug – pretending the whole time that they're doing you a favor.

Witness, for example, the reaction by spammers in late November 2002 when America Online announced that it had tweaked its network to block pop-up advertisements (also called "net send spam") being sent to AOL users through the Windows messenger service. Network administrators normally use this service to notify network users of server downtime or scheduled backups, but a handful of unscrupulous companies – including DirectAdvertiser, Broadcast Marketer, SlySender, Broadcast Advertiser, and Instant Advertiser – have created software that allows marketers to send millions of text-only pop-ups by infiltrating computer ports designed for another purpose.

Net send spammers noticed the change at AOL within hours and complained to the software designers, who immediately started looking for a new path to AOL's huge member base. "Pretty much our next version will have a workaround for AOL," said Anish Dhingra, president of Broadcast Marketer, in an article on C|Net.

Amazingly, Dhingra does not consider Broadcast Marketer pop-ups – which can be sent out at a rate of 135,000 per hour – to be spam because network users can turn off the Windows messenger service that allows pop-up ads to appear. "It is pretty hard to opt out completely from spam," he said.

Well, we can also poke out our eyes to avoid seeing the ads, but that defeats the purpose of us having eyes in the first place. Similarly, shutting down the messenger service to eliminate unwanted ads prevents it from being used as intended. Why should millions of computer users be forced to cripple their networks due to the rude actions of a few scoundrels who will do anything for money?

BroadcastAdvertiser.com laughably includes a "zero-tolerance anti-spam policy" on its Web site, stating that their "Affiliate Members are strictly prohibited from using spam in their marketing" and a "respectable Internet business would never spam, and we will always remain that way." This from a company that invites you to "send your advertising message to millions of people instantly," that boasts of software that "shows your advertising message in the middle of someone's screen, on top of any other running applications."

If that isn't an unsolicited commercial message, we don't know what is. Perhaps you can write these poor misguided folks and reeducate them.

BroadcastAdvertiser.com
Phone: 815-361-0800
E-mail: support@broadcastadvertiser.com

BroadcastMarketer
Anish Dhingra, president
Phone: 858-455-1617
E-mail: customerservice@broadcastmarketer.com

DirectAdvertiser
Zoltan Kovacs, founder
Phone: 800-323-2146 or 866-691-7978
Fax: 800-323-2145
E-mail: support@directadvertiser.com

Instant Advertiser
Greg Willbanks
Phone: 800-638-0696
E-mail: silentpartner03@yahoo.com

SlySender
Phone: 877-809-5243
E-mail: support@slysender.com

For those users of Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 and XP who do want to shut down their messenger service to block the pop-ups, visit this site and follow the directions.

You also might consider sending a thank-you note to AOL as well. First, AOL decided to cease accepting outside pop-up ads for its 8.0 software in October, even though it would lose millions in revenue, and now it's making a strong effort to block the exploitation of its users. Sure, AOL 8.0 is still loaded with tons of ads for Time Warner products, but its current efforts should be rewarded and encouraged.

December 3, 2002

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