General Motors India is using a very unethical method of advertising its Aveo UVA. They are targeting the keyword “Fiat Grande Punto Car” in Google searches. This can not only bring down the already down reputation of GM in India but can also cause lots of trouble for the bankrupt car manufacturer. Fiat can sue GM for using their registered product and name in their advertisement campaigns. However the way Fiat India’s web team sleeps, its highly unlikely they will even notice. So GM can make hay while the sunshines all while Fiat snores.
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June 21st, 2009 at 11:10 am
General Motors is a reputed brand, I still don’t believe that would do this, This might be due to some error.
BTW, Have you guys confirmed that this is done by GM only and not because of Google Ads??
June 21st, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Hello All,
@ admin – In SEM (Search Engine Management – Pay Per Click) advertisement from google, it is an option to have a dynamic headline when advertisers advertise via network (like blog and other sites) or google/yahoo search engine. I feel there is no hard rule not to have.
@ The Automotive India – There is not harm until names are trademarked by the owner to the google. Google will stop if any advertiser using the trademark keywords to be advertised by the other advertisers (Except the owner).
Thanks.
Kamal
June 21st, 2009 at 1:24 pm
TAI, GM must have entered the keywords in their campaign so they are at fault. Even Google is at slight fault as they aren’t supposed to check it. I think this is done by GMs web agency.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:25 am
This article ‘GM India Using Grande Punto In Aveo Ads’ now displays ads of TATA Xenon in this page. Then this is also’very unethical method’ when a page with content Fiat and GM displays a TATA ad. So TATA is unethical? Its may display ads of some other manufacturer in other countries. So they are unethical and so on…..
Just another post to slam GM or Writing out of ignorance
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:05 am
Guys please check the Whois of the site linked by the ads – it most probably is some mischeif maker who is putting up the ads without the knowledge of GM or Fiat. GM may be down on its luck these days but is a very respected company and will not stopp so low.
I am at work and cannot do the whois lookup – please quickly check and update as to the owner details of the site posting the ads. This is definitely not an ethical ad.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:44 am
Look this happens all the time … and thats what web advertising is all about. It is at work for even most mundane of things .. when you are reading an article or browsing through anything .. google ads will display related things somewhere in the browser. I am not too sure if GM did something mischevious deliberately … but I do think they wont
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
It’s unethical alright. GM have a name already and they don’t have to use other brands for advertisement. Maybe this is one of their strategy to increase sales but not good. I hope this won’t affect their reputation.
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Godwin, there is no slamming of GM here. They are free to advertise what they want, but using the text Fiat Grande Punto in their advertisements is not right. When you come across the ad and you click on the ad to be directed to Chevy UVA test drive, what would your reaction be? You would surely not appreciate that, right.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Thank you admin for deleting my comment.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Sorry Kamal, I didn’t delete your comment but Aksimet caught it. Have approved it.
Next time if you face such issue, please contact me using the contact form above and Ill do the needful
July 6th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Its highly unethical and deplorable for GM to use a competitor brand name on its text ad copy.
I think its a serious violation on part of Google to allow this to happen. Am sure there are sufficient editorial guidelines within Google to regulate such blatant misuse. Difficult to believe that this campaign has managed to escape Google’s policy. Is Google India listening?