Photo fraud on behalf of certain news agencies is nothing new. From time-to-time many news agencies have been caught red handed shall we say; embellishing the accuracy of the photos they send out to hundreds of thousands of readers. Here is a classic method allegedly used recently.
The argument that the news agency does control the reporter or photo journalist in the field is no excuse. The agency is responsible for the validity of every single piece of news and information (including images) this is published on any of its properties, whether they be print or web based.
Besides being very dishonest and just downright fool-hearty, not much attention has been brought to how this affects advertisers. In addition to the duped readers, advertisers are also victims in this game of deception for the purpose of sensationalism. Let’s take a look at how photo fraud impacts advertisers.
At first glance some may say that the more eyeballs on the page the better. And perhaps this is true for some advertisers, the ones who aren’t particularly concerned about their exposure. For most advertisers however, I would imagine that the placement of their ads on property that contains alleged fraudulent photos doesn’t sit to well. Nor I suspect was this part of their advertiser agreement.
Advertisers need to hyper-vigilant when it comes to ensuring that their ads are being placed next to clean, accurate and ethically sound content. Every time a user lands on a page with a photo or content that is misleading, the entire “page experience” is in jeopardy and this includes advertisers. Advertising with big networks doesn’t ensure anything.
Whether the network has 50,000,000 unique visitors per month or 50,000, advertisers need to keep on top of what their ads are sleeping with.
This is John Brock for the OMAnalyst Network
www.onlinemarketinganalyst.com
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