Classmates.com Agrees to $9.5 Million False Advertising Settlement

Classmates.com, a site that claims to be able to reunite old friends, is being sued for false advertising. Apparently, the website sent emails with false claims. One of the persons involved stated that he received an email saying an old classmate of him was looking for him and that the only way to see who this person was, was to upgrade his membership. Naturally, this upgrade didn’t come without a price. But the price was not what upset people, it was the fact that the upgrade didn’t lead to anything. This was just a “dubious marketing ploy from Classmates.com”.

I do agree that the false advertising done by this site was wrong, but how different is it from any of the other heaps of junk email and pop up ads we see daily. I have also seen these classmates.com pop up ads with the same proposals. “someone is trying to get in touch with you.” But I personally pay no attention. And even if it were a site that I was interested in, I still don’t think I’d react any differently. For example, if facebook were to email me with the same type of upgrade proposal, I still wouldn’t agree to it. And I honestly don’t believe that many other people would either.

whatever you beleive, this isnt the only legal trouble plaguing this website. the article refers to some privacy issues people were also having issues with. But the fact that classmates.com is having to pay for tactics employed by various other dating sites, might raise some interesting questions for those sites as well.

So, should people be more cautious with the email claims they receive, or should the websites be the ones to blame?

Unveiling the New Influencers

The beginning of Unveiling the New Influencers exerted pretty much the opposite opinion of the other article I just posted. It states that in the past, companies were able to control the content that was available to the public in order to get their advertisements or overall messages out to us. But now, in this new social media era, that’s pretty much over. This new revolution is putting “the customer back in the spotlight” and giving us the upperhand, so to speak. Being able to communicate through social networks about products gives us an authority that was unknown to the general public a couple of years ago. Companies must now be weary of the messages they send, because any of us could tweet, blog, or post an unsettling status about them.