Tag Archives: Meta

Is the Meta/Coinbase Anti-Scam Campaign Itself Just a Brandwashing Scam?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and poking around MediaPost’s Marketing Daily, when I came across Danielle Oster’s piece about a new anti-scam campaign sponsored by a bunch of scam-prone companies.

Tech Against Scams Coalition Serves Up ‘Scamberry Pie’

A group called Tech Against Scams Coalition (TASC) has launched a holiday scam prevention campaign as several companies involved in the group face lingering accusations of inadequate internal fraud prevention.

Launched in 2024, the cross-industry group includes representatives from companies including Cash App, Coinbase, Match Group, Meta, and Ripple. TASC partnered with Stereo Creative and media agency Noble People on the campaign, which the groups say was designed to inspire conversations around online fraud prevention.

According to Oster’s report, the campaign consists of “a social media ad . . . influencer partnerships, a food truck activation in Los Angeles . . . a Primrose Hill Bakery activation in London . . . and partnerships with community-based organizations such as AARP.”

So what are we talking here, Doc – mid-to-high five figures, plus creative fees? Isn’t this whole thing just a bargain-basement play for news coverage?

– Sam the Scam

Dear StS,

From all appearances, you’re right on the money.

Here’s the social media ad . . .

Not to get technical about it, but the video’s “Scam Fast Facts” are on-screen for all of three seconds, and the Scamberry web address appears in the tag for maybe two.

Feels kind of, well . . . scammy?

What’s most likely to happen is that the giveaways will get two minutes one night on local newscasts and the campaign will be over before you can finish your scamberry pie.

Meanwhile, here are some recent headlines you might find relevant.

Meta reportedly projected 10% of 2024 sales came from scam, fraud ads

Lawmakers pressure dating sites as $1.3 billion lost to romance scams each year

Coinbase phishing scams steal $65M in two months . . .

The Doc’s diagnosis: This Scamberry campaign is hardly gonna bury many scams.

What’s Up With WhatsApp’s Anti-Texting Ad Campaign?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and poking around CNN’s website, when I came across this piece by Rishi Iyengar.

Why WhatsApp wants to convince Americans to stop sending text messages

(CNN Business) – Since the start of this year, a series of advertisements have appeared on television screens and billboards across the United States, with ominous warnings to texters.

“I think I left the car unlocked, can you check?” reads a text message displayed on one of the billboards. The consequence, outlined next to the text bubble: “If your personal texts aren’t end-to-end encrypted, it’s not private.”

In a TV commercial, a mailman hands already-opened letters and packages to outraged recipients, before telling them that “every text you send is just as open as your letters.”

Those warnings are courtesy of WhatsApp, the mobile messaging service acquired by Facebookin 2014. While WhatsApp has grown into a formidable force since then, used by more than a quarter of the world’s population, the platform’s reach in its home market remains comparatively small.

So, whaddaya think, Doc – can people really be detexed from a longstanding addiction?

– WhatsAppening?

Dear WhatsAppening,

Here’s the thing.

According to the CNN piece, WhatsApp has fewer than 63 million users in the United States (versus 324 million Facebook users and 123 million Instagram users).

For those of you keeping score at home, “India alone has nearly 500 million WhatsApp users according to eMarketer, which is more than a third of its population and over half its internet user base,” per CNN.

Even more anemic than WhatsApp’s user numbers, however, are the messaging service’s revenue figures, according to Business of Apps.

Five and a half billion dollars is lunch money compared to Facebook’s 2021 revenue of $117 billion and Instagram’s $24 billion.

Thus, a series of TV spots like this one..

All this comes at a time when Facebook looks to be fading, as Tom Jarvis wrote last month at The Drum Network: “Recent news that Facebook’s user growth has slumped for the first time in 18 years has wiped 20% off parent company Meta’s share price (a drop in value of $175bn).”

Instagram’s numbers are also in freefall.

So now the empire of Mark (Data) Suckerberg looks to the Great Whats Hope to bail it out, as the CNN Business piece noted.

While apps such as Facebook and Instagram are already widely used in the United States and don’t have much room to grow, the potential for WhatsApp is much larger. The messaging app cost Facebook $19 billion almost a decade ago but generates little revenue. Meta is now trying to change that.

Boosting WhatsApp in the United States could have positive ripple effects on its other platforms and create new monetization opportunities in a lucrative market. But to get there, WhatsApp must fight an uphill battle to change how Americans text and, perhaps, how they view WhatsApp’s parent company.

No doubt that’s just what WhatsApp hopes its ad campaign will deliver.