I love this on Yahoo! News. They have a story on “tips for Easter driving” from a certain car loans company. The advice amounts to this (from the company’s co-director):
“Older cars can be particularly vulnerable to breakdown when sat in traffic on busy motorways so anyone driving an older vehicle, or a car that they have not had serviced for a while, should certainly follow our tips for having a hassle free Easter getaway.
“Of course, for those who are not going anywhere in their cars this Easter because they simply think their car is too unreliable and prone to breakdown, it is worth remembering that there are some great car finance deals [link to own company website here] available at the moment for buying a new car and prices are more affordable than you may think.”
It then talks about car loans, with a further link to the company’s own website.
Oh, wait!. There ARE some tips. These are:
- check your tyres
- check your battery and lights
- check your windscreen
- check your oil
- think about breakdown cover
- buy a new car [link to company’s website again]
I’ve recently accepted a sponsored article on the blog. Basically, an advertiser provides an article with a link back to their website, which I publish for them and provide a link to it on the blog homepage for an agreed period of time. It’s clear that Yahoo! may well have done something very similar by allowing such blatant advertising to go under the guise of “news”. If they did, I bet they charged more than I did, though.
As for the “advice”… well, it could have been lifted from anywhere (the AA for example). It is public domain common sense that applies all through the year, with some bad marketeering very conspicuously tacked on the end.