Source:  Shoemoney – 11/12/2007

Thoughts:  Remember the whole “Truth in advertising” movement that occurred a decade or two ago?  It looks like it has made a comeback, this time on the internet.  Internet advertising company AzoogleAds has recently reached an agreement with Florida Attorney Generals office for $1 Million after an investigation found cases of fraud in the cell phone ring tone industry, a sector that AzoogleAds is heavily involved in.

So what does this mean for our future?  At the moment, probably not much other than a closer eye being kept on the online advertising industry.  If there seems to be a prolonged pattern to the fraud, however, you can expect there to be some new Federal laws cracking down on the industry.  For those of you who do not run web sites with ads, you probably won’t even notice.  For those that do, it is highly likely that you will see a short-term drop in your revenue.

For the sake of disclosure, the U.S. Common Sense web site does run ads provided through Google, however we try to limit our ads to those related to politics and public service announcements.  As a result, you should only see ads that link to intellectual property and campaign web sites.  However, if you do come across an ad that is trying to sell you a product or give a product away for free, always read the small print to protect yourself.  If you have children that use the internet, inform them of the potential financial dangers of clicking and signing up for content online.  The first line of defense begins at home.

Article:  “AzoogleAds Gives 1 Million Dollars To Florida AG”
By Jeremy Schoemaker

I missed all the excitement while at blogworld. As you know for a while now (seems like 6 months or so) the Florida AG office has been investigating many ringtone companies and their affiliates. I got several emails from people saying that AzoogleAds had settled a case or whatever was going on. I emailed them for comment and received this back:

Michael Sprouce, CMO of Azoogle:

“We have volunteered to work closely with the Attorney General’s newly-created ‘Cyber Fraud Task Force’ to further its efforts to combat illicit online advertising and to help establish a more transparent and accountable marketplace. As part of our cooperation, AzoogleAds will voluntarily contribute $1MM to the task force’s legal and investigative fund; this contribution reinforces AzoogleAds’ commitment to improving industry standards in the fight against fraudulent and deceptive internet advertising.”

Now normally I do not feel the need for disclosure but I want to be very clear AzoogleAds as been one of the biggest sponsors of this blog since its inception and I am also very good friends with the 2 founders Joe and Alex.

(Read the rest of the article here.)

Bookmark and Share

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!