Online bazaar peddles fake news as bizarre marketing ploy
MANILA, Philippines–E-retailer Promo Shopping Bazaar has a bizarre way of promoting its products–peddling fake contents.
The website, which plugs its merchandise on its Facebook page, says it sells books online.
But the shop employs a marketing strategy that is dirty.
In its bid to sell its e-book Universal Beauty, featuring newly-crowned Miss Universe Catriona Gray, Promo Shopping Bazaar placed 10 ads on Facebook.
In one of its sponsored contents, the online shopping startup digitally manipulated an INQUIRER.net breaking news story about Gray bagging the Miss Universe 2018 crown in a competition held in Bangkok last December 17. Promo Shopping Bazaar altered the headline to read: “Catriona Gray was accused of cheating after winning Miss Universe.”
The Info and Ads section of its Facebook page has 10 sponsored contents placed on the giant social networking site. All ads carried fake headlines, basically saying that Gray broke the Miss Universe contest rules and that the pageant judges took back the crown.
When clicked, they would lead to the e-book Universal Beauty.
All the sponsored contents were originally in English but after being reported to Facebook as a scam, the headlines were changed and now written in Filipino.
Promo Shopping Bazaar’s sponsored ads on Facebook showcasing fake contents with headlines written in English.
One of the ads now written in Filipino.
A message to Promo Shopping Bazaar was sent via its Facebook page, asking the online shop to take down the digitally manipulated INQUIRER.net news.
There was no response from the e-retailer as of this posting.
Its Facebook page, created on October 24, 2018, has 290 likes. /muf
