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Reverse advertising

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Laq

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My attention got drawn to a google ad, after browsing on laser related sites.  This was the particular ad:

laserglowadkz0.png


Curiously about the description, i clicked it to see what laserglow would explain as cheap imitation...

Well..  you might expect the outcome, this was the link attached to the Google ad:

http://pagead2.googlesyndication.co...s/117.php&client=ca-pub-3154305712485200&nm=9

Without starting another bashing round ( i know its not appreciated anymore ) i do feel like this have to be mentioned.  This is reverse advertising, implying that reputable lasercompany's like laserglow.com sell cheap imitations, and wicked lasers will save new laserist from this mistake, buying a high quality laser. .  unfair, and near scam activities.  

Makes me feel sad, that these kind of low tactics are used.   :-/
 





MarioMaster

MarioMaster

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i seem to remember this happening before and one of the company representatives took the issue to google and got it pulled, but it seems that it's back again :-?
 
S

SenKat

Guest
Yeah, Justin needs to check this crap out again...I sincerely hope that Laserglow, Nova, etc are not getting screwed like this all the time by WL - it makes me ill, thinking of their deceptive business practices, and downright nastiness.
 
Justin

Justin

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Dammit, I already spent hours dealing with Google and they said that they had pulled the ads which use our trademark name to drive traffic to WL. These ads are illegal, not that it means anything to Wicked, and Google does pull the ads once you complain. I guess I'll have to call Google again... what a waste of my time.

Can you tell me the date, time and site that this occured on? I'm having trouble getting the same ad to show up and I need a reference for the people at Google AdWords.

Thanks for pointing this out, we do appreciate it.

Edit: The title of this thread should really be "Illegal and misleading advertising". Do you think that any law-abiding company would be able to get away with this? Could Pepsi do this to Coke? BMW to Mercedes? I don't think so, but then again none of those companies ships improperly declared, illegal product to the US on a daily basis. Competing with an amoral company outside the bounds of North American law is difficult, but you can help by just not buying anything from those clowns!
 
L

Laq

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I've seen at least 3 websites with google ads, that gave the above result, the only one i can remember and find back in history which puts up the similar ad is:

http://www.topblogarea.com/sitedetails_3121.html

It might not pop up the first time, but as far as i tried, it does 3 out of 4 times when reloading.

The exact site i made the screenshot from in my first post, i unfortunately can't find back in my history. although it was shown at about 5 minutes before i made that posting.

Same goes for the link i just pasted in this reply.. the moment i posted this reply was the moment it was displayed on 3 out of 4 refresh page tries.

I hope google will stand by you Justin, and remove those misleading advertisements a.s.a.p. I just don't like unfair trading at all.
 
H

Hanshotfirst.kc

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Justin said:
I can't get the ad to show up... What country are you in?
Click to expand...


I'm in US. I just did a basic google search for the words Laser Glow.
I saw the same ad listed. Basically...

"Sponsored Links

Laserglow Technologies
www.LaserGlow.com Worlds Most Powerful Handheld Laser Blue, Yellow, Green Laser Pointers!

Laser Glow
www.WickedLasers.com Wicked Green, Red & Blue Lasers Beware of cheap imitations!"
 
Kenom

Kenom

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in seperating the words glow and laser is the reason your bringing up wicked lasers as well. Using adwords on google is pretty simple I could advertise using the same word laser and every time you bring up a search with the seperate word laser it will bring up my ad as well.
 
L

Laq

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Justin said:
I can't get the ad to show up... What country are you in?
Click to expand...

I'm from The Netherlands

I regulary get those ads when i look up any laser related websites that also make use of google ads.
Also i get the same sort of adverstisements with exactly the same text, but then with "Dragon Lasers" "RPL Lasers" and "Nova Lasers" as well.

However i haven't seen the others company names as much as laserglow. 1 thing is sure,. WL is setting up a bad marketing strategy that is getting worse by the day. if it weren't for them being located in China, they probably woundn't operate anymore due to law regulations.
 
Benm

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Well, google has an obligation to prevent trademark violations too, and they are still US based.

Under many foreign legal systems the name 'laser glow' would be very difficult to protect, but perhaps under us law google can be convinced this is in fact not tolerable?

One problem is that both 'laser' and 'glow' are generic words, and even when combined to 'laserglow' form a word that has a reasonable meaning (the glow from a laser) without refering to the company Laserglow. This might be a reason for google to deem the advertisement acceptable.
 
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BlueFusion

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hmmmm too much WL hate..... i am becoming even more pissed off. i do wish 'steve' was right here with me, my homemade flamethrower and 'utility' knife... lol i'm not that nasty though i would give him a whack in the face.

not condoning or promoting illegal activities... but "if" i "could" organise to have WL's site "removed" i 'would' go right for it, as soon as my server is up.... muahaha :p

until the guardian angels of legitimate business organise to smite WL from the face of the earth, all we can do is write to these companies and have them complain to Google. And continue to not buy WL.
 
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Things

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bastards! Google should do something about that, since that is against one of their regulations aswell.
 
Justin

Justin

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BlueFusion: What are you thinking... DDOS? Hehehe, count me out. I don't want to get sued, but knock yourself out.

Et Al: Several months ago we noticed these ads and filed a complaint with Google over the misuse of our trademark "Laserglow". They DID act (slowly) and the actual word "Laserglow" will no longer generate these misleading ads. However, the seperate terms "laser" and "glow" cannot be disputed as trademarks since they are two common words, and I think it will be difficult to file a dispute with Google's trademarks department since we cannot claim rights to these individual words.

If you don't like the ads and the business strategy, then don't buy from Wicked. Even better, click on them every time you see them and don't buy anything, that way you're costing them money! ;)
 
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tarek777

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Makes me feel bad that my first laser is gonna be a WL core... Man, I should research more before I buy. Bad lasers, customer service, false advertising.
 
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