I think someones going to end up crucified over telemarketing porn. Public and messy…
I also think that it just gives Gonzo, the porn-hunting AG, just that much more ammunition to cater to his wing-nuts. It too will be public and messy…
I also think that someone is gonna sue Vivid, and win, when their kid orders that phone deal.
/end thinking
Z
Do We REALLY Want To Do This?
My friend Mandy Writes
“Vivid Video called my house this morning and they asked for my husband Tony. He’s not here so they did a very short survey with me. What kind of porn do you like, favorite pornstar, etc. all they did was ask if i was over 18. I said Iwas (but so could a 12 yr old). Then they said for doing the survey they would send me 4 xxx videos in the mail, all they needed was $1.00 to cover s/h. I said no thanks. Then she said actually it wasn’t to cover s/h, it was to verify my age so they could actually send me the movies…therefore charge $1 to my credit card. Then she proceeded to tell me that after I got those 4 movies I could call them to cancel whenever I wanted, cuz they would be sending me more each month.
Now if I wouldn’t have said that I would not pay the $1 fee, she never would have told me this was a recurring thing.”
Ok this troubles me. When I contacted Vivid Direct they confirmed that they were indeed running a telemarketing campaign, they also assured me that had she signed up she would have been told that the charges would be recurring.
OK business to consumer telemarketing has a bad reputation to begin with and even though I was assured that these were opt -in lists and that they were not on the national no call list it still troubles me that our industry is telemarketing porn, specially using the billing model that the “Girls Gone Wild” folks are now in major hot water over.
For one telemarketing porn, even via an opt in list seems to be asking for trouble, I mean what if the wife doesn’t know? Or the 16 year old son answers the phone and lies about his age? people are gonna get mad just from that. How long before someone files suit? Or starts pushing congress for legislation because his 13 year old son got a package of videos from Vivid on dads credit card number. Is the potential upside to this really worth the potential downside?
I can easily see both sides of the argument on this one but when I ask myself how much money it would take for me to use this marketing strategy I just don’t see any amount being worth the ultimate grief that will befall the industry as a result of this practice.
What do y’all think?
