Companies Who Can't Take A Joke, But Can Push A Lie

from the short-term-strategies dept

It's no secret that, on the internet, if you don't like something and try to get it taken down, you're only going to draw a lot more attention to it. However, corporations still haven't gotten this message. They seem to get especially annoyed at parodies, complaining that people might be tricked by them. Here's an article that takes these companies to task for not being able to take a joke, while at the same time having so-called "independent" organizations that are paid by them set up advocacy websites that are nothing more than a front for the company or group in question. In other words, companies get upset about advocacy that goes against them and try to force the sites down, worrying that people will get "confused." At the same time, they're hiding the fact that they're behind these other advocacy sites (which, some might say is confusing readers, as well). As the writer of the article points out, even if they're right, they're doing themselves harm by not being upfront and honest about these sites: "The more successful the strategy in the short term, the more it will eventually corrode trust in the long. People persuaded by such sites will feel betrayed when it becomes evident they were duped. And it won't even matter if the pseudo sites have truth on their side: when a messenger is exposed as an impostor, their credibility is destroyed." Another example of short-term thinking from corporations that do them much more damage in the long term.