Robb Montgomery

Facebook ads - featuring your friends

Do you see that blockbuster ad in the middle of my Facebook news feed?
Look again.

I didn’t see it at first either but I did notice my friend’s face popping up in my status udpates. Look there is Denise! I did a double take and wondered how she landed that fat modeling/spokesperson contract for this movie rental company.

But then I realized that it was a new FB application she just added that allowed her to used as an unpaid model to promote a paid service for Blockbuster. And I wondered if she even knew she was being pimped out like that.

So I asked Denise:

Hmm, I bet that was probably a box I clicked when I added the application — I hardly look at those checkboxes anymore, I guess I should. I also should have guessed privacy was out the window when I signed up for a service that would show others what’s in my Blockbuster queue.

Nope, they aren’t paying me. It would be nice if I got a referral fee for others joining through me — especially since they just raised my rates (again).

I’d been thinking of dropping that application for a while (not the service) because I felt it was a bit invasive — now I have my motivation. Thanks!

No doubt this type of practice would not be used elsewhere. There are protections against it in print and broadcast - you know. “Using someone’s likeness for commercial gain” and all that. In fact companies make you sign a model release first before their lawyers would ever let your pretty mug appear in their ads.

Firms like Blockbuster better be prepared for more Instant Karma if they think they can dupe unsuspecting online ‘friends’ to do uncompensated viral marketing for them.