May 14th, 2006
Warner Bros. partners with 180solutions
This news came as a shock to me. From Media Post:
AN ONLINE COMPANY THAT HAS been asked to clean up its act, is now using a soap - and other programming - to market controversial adware software to consumers. 180solutions has quietly begun offering streams of two Warner Bros shows - the soap opera "Deception" and animated series "Medical Island" - created specifically for the Web.
180solutions is no stranger to "deception", however, having had a complaint filed against them less than four months ago by the CDT (Center for Democracy & Technology) for deceptive and unethical business practices, among other things. The Media Post article says Warner Bros. and 180 have been working together for nearly a year but the relationship had been kept "under wraps". The "Deception" episodes are available for download on 180’s Zango site and other partner sites, along with some freebie adware that will put pop-ups on user’s machines based on their web browsing. Thanks, but no thanks. What could Warner Bros. be thinking to partner with 180 and its bad reputation? I don’t know, but it certainly does nothing to elevate my view of Warner Bros.
