MN Lottery Revenues Used to Spam MN Blogs From DC
Did you know that revenues from the Minnesota Lottery are being used to spam local bloggers? Here’s an example comment that was dropped on my post about Groupon.com:
1st sentence: On topic.
2nd sentence: transition.
3rd sentence and beyond: an advertisement and a link to the MN Lottery’s website.
Notice that the comment author is inconsistent in whether they’re writing about something they’re familiar with or for someone they work for.
In this case, the spammer doesn’t work directly for the MN Lottery. Instead, it looks like the Minnesota State Lottery has hire a company in New Jersey to spam blogs on their behalf. Additionally, the actual spammer lives near Washington, DC.
If you read the comment again, now knowing that it was written by a guy named Alex who lives in Washington, DC, you can understand how poor of a job he did pretending to be:
1. A Minnesotan.
2a. Not affiliated with the MN Lottery.
2b. Or, if he was attempting to comment form a MN Lottery perspective, he was inconsistent at that as well.
It’s a shame to see Minnesota State Lottery revenue is being sent out of state for use spamming in-state blogs. We have plenty of qualified spammers right here in the State of Minnesota who are capable of spamming blogs on behalf of the lottery.
If you’re going to pay people to spam blogs on behalf of the MN Lottery, hire locally. Better yet, stop spamming people (or hiring firms that think spamming is an appropriate marketing tactic).
July 13th, 2010 at 8:25 am
The use of Lottery money to the promote the Lottery in general (even in advertising) sticks in my craw. As if people who want to squander what little money they have need sparkly radio spots to encourage them to do it.
But spamming is obviously worse. Thanks for calling them on it.
July 13th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
The lottery is supposed to support the environment so I guess online spam is better than paper spam (i.e. Telephone Book ads) but at least they could outsource to a local blogger.
Is there any market research on the efficacy of this kind of marketting tactic?
Any way you could track the effectiveness of local spammers versus the out-of-state guys?
What about human versus robot?
July 13th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
I’ve been seeing lots of Groupon ads in my feeds. The whole coupon culture in a downturn really bugs me as it just helps the businesses go out of business faster as consumers get more discount obsessed.
Like Daughter #3, I’m not offended that the MN Lottery is allowed to spend money on marketing an addictive vice. Makes me glad most states got out of the retail liquor business …
July 13th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
@Mark
I’m pretty sure that coupons lead people into purchases they wouldn’t have made otherwise. Like when I stop by Cub to get a couple $3 12 packs of diet coke and end up coming out with other assorted purchases. Even the Groupons get you in the door at places you may come back to. Whatever my wife says about those Macy’s discount cards, I am convinced she spends more there then she would if they didn’t mail them to us.
July 14th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
@mark the problem is if you get that deal a few times in a row you’ll become conditioned and start to expect $3 12 packs. When Coca Cola trys to sell the 12 packs at the regular $5 you’ll feel like your getting ripped off. Even though that’s the price you were probably happy to pay before you were introduced to the discounts.
Discounts are a dangerous drug used to drive short term sales revenue.
In the words of the wise sage Axel Rose: “I used to do a little but a little wasn’t doin…so a little got more and more…”