Jon

Just heard that CX is planning on pulling all of their grant offers. I've been told "its due to a risk of being sued" by a source that wishes to remain anonymous. It still doesn't really make much sense, as they are pushing Acai pretty hard, and that's way worse in the misleading or risk of being sued dept than Grants.

Waiting for comments from upper management about the decision and reasons behind it.

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TheDean

I disagree. The reason the grants model is much more serious is that it is tied directly to a Federal Government program. Misrepresentations of a government program can skull fuck you.

Diet claims are tied to a product. Misrepresentations of a sugar pill, well now that's a different story...at worst a fat chick bites you in your ass because she's still hungry...

xmcp123

I wonder if this was a result of their in-house team, or the offers themselves

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gopher

Actually, that's not really true. There's plenty of grants on a state level, as well as private grants by foundations, charities, non profit organizations, companies, international organizations etc. So grants do not necessarily imply a Government association. Also, a lot of these offers aren't really misrepresenting anything. It's a fact that the US government is giving away billions in grants, its a fact that US citizens and residents are entitled to apply and there enough grants that don't have to be paid back.

The only issue with some of these sites is that they use Obama and/or Biden, include videos of him and generally represent it as a "stimulus" type of offer. And you also must have missed the part were a few of the acai advertisers "settled". The lawyer should have told them to laugh it off, stupid fat chick.

So the type of offer doesn't really matter (as long as you aren't marketing to kids & teens, that's a whole different game), if you hide your terms, have a non-existent support department, don't issue refunds, don't let your members cancel and "accidentally" double charge them, then you are going to have an issue whether you are pushing water bottle rebills or grants.

TheDean

Wow...you're splitting hairs here. I'm not talking about "grants" in some abstract way, anyone with half a brain knows they exist. I'm talking about "grants" in the Obama/Biden stimulus getmoniesfromthemotherfuckinggov type sense, this is what I mean by misrepresentation, and don't be naive to think this is a moral judgment either. I'm aware of the Acai settlements and Crush LLC 's FTC fines, news alert buddy it's already forgotten, and new acai offers are added daily. Meanwhile, CX of all networks is suspending the grant offers, I mean come on now, really connect the dots...

The OFFER makes all the difference. Believe me, diet and grants aren't the only rebills, and there isn't nearly as much scrutiny.

gopher

Splitting hairs? No, not really. That's the difference between an offer running for decades without too many issues and the FTC looking into it after just a few months. And the old news somehow contradicts your earlier statement about diet offers being somehow safer than these offers.

And no, unless you make up some bogus claims, it's not going to matter and people will run into issues with the FTC/AG based on how they run the offer.

TheDean

Christ buddy. The context of the topic is why is CX pulling its grant offers for liability concerns, while it continues to go full force with Acai. Please read that statement again, so it will sink into your skull. We're not talking about these offers in a perfect world untouched by internet marketers. How they are being run is a given. It's a fact, fucking rebills are run a certain way, so which one is more dangerous? That is the question. According to you a shady business model in the name of government grants is on par with a business model peddling diet pills. And at this moment CX disagrees with you.

Then why didn't CX pull all acai offers?

I really have no idea what point you're trying to make. Who's doubting FTC/AG involvement because of the way offers are run? Welcome to the American marketplace sir, I'm glad you've discovered one of the costs of doing business and decided to share your self-evident truth. Now on matters of degree, imho CX is pulling their grant offers because the FTC grant fuck pole is a lot larger than the FTC acai fuck pole. That's my take.

Good day.

windjc

I spoke to my affiliate manager at length about this today. The reason they pulled the offer is because the head of their legal division asked them to until he could come in on Tuesday and debrief them on the legalities of the landing pages of most of the offers.

Apparently CX is public (or wants to be soon) so they are being extra careful. They asked their ACAI advertisers to make their T & C more visible including sometimes have a box to check saying that they have been read.

They want the Grant Landers to do the same.

We also may (just my opinion) start seeing the end of "Obama" "Stimulus" on landers, but I get the feeling its really more about the T & C.

Grants aren't going anywhere. IMO this is all a healthy process bringing things back into line.

AdHustler

The problem with these grant offers is that they mislead people into thinking the federal government is behind the offer which of course brings a government agency in to regulate.

Not that you didnt know that LOL

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gopher

You seem to be missing two things: The advertisers themselves were running sites that featured Obama or had an official sounding URL, so blaming it on the way affiliates ran the offer is only half of the story. Also, I said in my first post that grants itself aren't the problem, but implying some sort of government relation and claiming the stimulus is available for personal assistance, not grants itself. But we are running in circles.

Point I originally was trying to make is that it's not grants that is the problem, but the stimulus angle and having Obama pimp your site.

5starAffiliates

I knew yesterday the FTC was planning a press conference about the bogus stimulus offers. But wanted to wait to post here after the official info was up on their site. Right now they are just trying to warn consumers. Next step they will probably start slamming people with fines.

FTC Warns Consumers About Economic Stimulus Scams

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