México: Multas por publicidad engañosa

México: Multas por publicidad engañosa

Gilberto Macias (@gmaciasb)   April 21, 2010   No comments:

Desde principios del 2009 a la fecha, la Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor (PROFECO) ha multado a 11 empresas de distintos giros económicos que operan en el país por difundir publicidad engañosa. El monto total de las sanciones fue por 7 millones 367 mil 357 pesos.

Estas multas indican que los códigos de autorregulación publicitaria del sector empresarial en México no han probado ser herramientas eficaces, no obstante, la Profeco considera que existen las condiciones adecuadas para que ese ejercicio [el de la autorregulación] sea eficaz o que consiga su objetivo.

Entre las empresas sancionadas por mentir a los consumidores en sus campañas publicitarias figuran Telmex, Genomma Lab, Kellogg’s México, Reckitt Benckiser, Nissan, VivaAerobus, Nacional Monte de Piedad, Industrias Alen, Clorox de México, el jardín de niños Mundo Chiquitines y Venta Universal.

A Telmex se le multó con 800 mil pesos por la campaña “inviértale”, que lejos de ser cierta “timó” a sus consumidores. Nissan por su parte tiene una multa de 32,000 por no ofrecer información completa sobre sus planes de financiamiento. Kellogg’s por ofrecer propiedades excepcionales después de consumir su producto. Viva Aerobus por ofrecer boletos con costo de un peso.

Sin lugar a dudas son unos buenos comienzos en la materia, aunque siempre sería de agradecer que los consumidores afectados recibieran una contraprestación de parte de las empresas sancionadas o de las multas recabadas (utopía?).

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Facebook is looking to target the Latin American market

Facebook is looking to target the Latin American market

Patricia Covarrubia   November 03, 2009   No comments:

The biggest social network, which has more than 300 million users, has expressed its intention for closer relations in the Latin American market. Michael Murphy, worldwide sales vicepresidente at Facebook, explained that Facebook is a great place for brands. At the moment, there is a large portion of ‘Latinos’ visiting the website; from these, one million are developing applications for the site. He believes that Facebook is a great place for consumers who would like to share and create business opportunities.

Facebook’s advertisers want closer relations with users and they are planning to do so through Fox Point. Hector Costa, senior vice president and general manager of Fox Point Networks for Latin America, said that “in Latin America web advertising penetration is growing at double digits every year. Advertisers want to use social networks to advertise their goods and services”.

Murphy, also explains that Facebook has a link to advertisers in different formats and so a brand can send messages to users. Nevertheless, he said that this is just a business model which is in test phase. All the same, he confirms that Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising. As for competition, he mentions that Facebook differs from others like Twitter and MySpace in that people on Facebook register with their real name, and other networks of people are anonymous, "so Facebook is a safer space for brands to reach out to consumers."

Facebook is working as any other media - professionally. They are not taking advantage of the cyber space – are you listening...metatags, keywords, hyperlink and finally adwords? We can note a straightforward business agreement. There is ‘consent’ to display an advertisement. That said, if we do not discuss here the issue of whether an average consumer will be confused or not by these new way of advertisements, it is clear that there are ‘fair practices’ in which the cyber world can integrate marketing and advertising without raising concerns to trade mark owners.

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