Can I give companies free advertising on our website without their permission?

January 25, 2009 4:26 PM

Can I give companies free advertising on our website without their permission?

We are doing some testing on our consumer product related website. One of the things we want to see is click through rates for various placements and techniques. However, I am not thrilled to spend a ton of time getting permissions and explaining the idea to potential advertisers.

So could I take, for example, the Target logo and put a link to target on it. Or say an ad for Sony and use that?

The odds of them seeing this are miniscule but I want to be safe.

posted by UMDirector to work & money (6 comments total)

IANAL, but I'm pretty sure that if Target found out you were doing this, their concern would be that their logo on your website constituted an endorsement of your site - an endorsement they have clearly not given.

Why don't you sign up for an affiliate ad network instead?
posted by CRM114 at 4:43 PM on January 25

Such corporations have entire legal teams itching to justify their payroll. As such, trademark infringement is something they take seriously. It's their bread and butter.

You can reproduce their logos, but because it sounds like your site is actually "using" these logos in a way that may generate profit, you have to establish in legalese that you are no way a representative of these corporations. That requires a lawyer who knows a thing or two about trademarks and publishing...

In other words, it may be to expensive upfront to insure that you're doing it right, in which case you can either wing it and hope for the best, or not do it at all.
posted by wfrgms at 5:03 PM on January 25

I'll second CRM114: What not just use a real ad network. They already have all the tools in place to try stuff out, measure clickthroughs, etc. And the added bonus of using real ads that will generate money rather than provoke legal action.

Sure, the worst legal action you'd get a a Cease & Desist, but why chance it?

If you want to have name brand banners on your site to provoke a most-likely response you're doing bad research because that's not what your visitors will see once you deploy the live ads. If you want to accurately see what the user's response will be you should show the ads that you intend to show. (Unless you're working a placement deal with Sony and Target, then ignore this paragraph.)

If it's a web site with a loyal following I might click through anyway to help the site earn it's $0.02 for the day. I'd be pretty annoyed if I clicked through and it was a fake ad and it didn't generate anything for you.
posted by Ookseer at 5:35 PM on January 25

Get some affiliate links to Amazon and other up-to-date companies and use those. Bonus: you might earn money ($0.25) from them during your testing.
posted by rhizome at 5:39 PM on January 25

You can always run AdCouncil public service ads. Sign up for PSA Central to get the necessary code.
posted by helios at 6:33 PM on January 25

The odds of them seeing this are miniscule but I want to be safe.

It's perfectly safe to do until they find out, then they'll (legally) chew on your ass until they reach your neck.

That's the first one that finds out. The second one will have your first born, 'cause they'll be able to show you knew it was wrong.

Also, I happened to catch a show about how big chains deal with theft. Target had a very serious department that looked for people selling suspicious goods on Ebay (say people selling iPods with no box), set them up by buying the product from there, so they could match serial numbers to stolen inventory and then turned that info over to the police.

I would strongly advise you not to do this.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:10 PM on January 25