Additional Marketing Disclosure Needed
Filling out time-wasting surveys, quizzes, and questionnaires on sites like Facebook and MySpace might not be as innocent as you think. The little ads pop up everywhere, sometimes even "recommended" by friends, saying things like "how smart are you?" or "what's your real age?" Some are harmless, some are outright scams trying to sign people up for text alerts or spam email, and at least one is walking a fine line in-between.
RealAge, which asks people to take a quiz about their health and habits and returns a "real age" that they can compare to how old they actually are, has drawn more than 27 million users. After calculating the results, the test offers recommendations for how people can feel or look younger. But that's not all. RealAge is promoted by Dr. Oz (from Oprah) and many people believe the quiz will help them change habits. But without realizing it, users are giving very valuable information to pharmaceutical companies and their marketing machines.
With drug companies now limited in how much they can influence doctors' prescribing decisions, they're going directly to consumers. RealAge users' information is sold to various drug companies, who analyze the answers from the quiz and send follow-up emails suggesting a certain drug or treatment. In many cases, the pharma companies are trying to diagnose something the user may not be aware they have yet. They're essentially taking doctors right out of the process.
Leaving aside the ethical questions for a moment, the problem from a customer standpoint is that there's not adequate disclosure that personal information will be shared with drug companies, and the email messages that follow don't disclose that they're a sales tactic disguised as medical guidance. What do you think? Is this an acceptable way to utilize social media and online marketing?
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