Truth In Advertising is a GOOD Thing, You Should Try It

by Kavella Maa | January 12, 2010 | No comments

Special note for MPI Model Management SL: If you’re gonna advertise your sim as “Model Management,” it helps if you are actually, y’know, managing models.

OK, well, you’ve got a landmark-and-notecard-giving kiosk that says “Modeling Applications.” That’s a good start. The notecard is a job application with good instructions I could possibly manage to follow (if, that is, I were interested in spending my SL time modeling for you), and the landmark goes to somewhere nearby also called MPI Model Management SL. Very nice. Very useful. Very on-topic.

Except this kiosk is sort of tucked away in a corner of your headquarters like you’re ashamed of it or something. Like it’s not the point.

You know what it looks like the point is? I mean, speaking as someone who just stumbled across your sim yesterday via the Earn2Life Pay4Visit thingie?

It looks like you’re just a shill for FreeDigitalCash.com, doesn’t it? And nothing to do with modeling at all. Because of the big freakin’ ad-board pasted to your reception desk, duh. Also the three web kiosks placed at the other three compass points (the entryway being the fourth). And the additional Big Freakin’ Ad-Board placed hugely next to the only nod of your head toward modeling jobs in the whole room. The one that gives you money every time someone clicks on it.

We are talking serious information design fail here. Also a small amount of bait-and-switch.

OK. So. Since you’re clearly more about shilling for FreeDigitalCash.com than about anything else, shall we talk about FreeDigitalCash.com? I think we shall.

I think I signed up for it once upon a time. Like Earn2Life, it purports to pay its members for clicking on stuff. Unlike Earn2Life, it’s not nearly as reliable.

First, it’s very very picky. It insists that it works best in Google Chrome. Meh. It’ll handle Firefox pretty well too. Not so much the in-game media browser, though. Which is silly, because it only works correctly if you launch the page from within Second Life, so that it gets connected with your UUID. So. Click on one of those blue-screen terminals, then click “Open in My Web Browser,” then click the big “Get Started” button.

Next: You can tell where a web site’s actual focus is by which links are offered first. On the “Paid Offers (SL)” page, the very first links offered are four ways to buy Lindens. Only after that do you get “Or, use Offerpal to earn Linden[s].” It’s clear that FreeDigitalCash.com would very much prefer you pay for your digital cash.

And the Offerpal offers? Most of them involve getting awarded Lindens only after you buy something. Subscribe to Netflix or GameFly. Join BLOCKBUSTER by Mail. Get 3 Disney DVDs for $1.99 each. Etc.

The only “free” offers I can see fall into two categories:

1. Sign up for people to spam you, or
2. Sign up to take surveys.

And I’ve done the survey thing. 5 minutes into each you get a page saying “Sorry, but according to the answers you’ve given we don’t need a completed survey from you.

So there’s your FreeDigitalCash.com. Rip. Off. I have better things to do with my time.

Now. If I walk out of your headquarters, I find myself suddenly in an area that looks much more like I’d expect a SIM to look like if it were advertised as “Model Management.” There’s a catwalk/runway thing with seats all around it, and at one end there’s a huge sumptuous office with lovely furniture and a huge wall of photos. Success cases, I guess.

But, you know what? The very fact that you’re using Earn2Life to push your FreeDigitalCash pay-per-click shill sign has left a bad taste in my mouth. If I were going to model, I’d rather go model for Jaqueline‘s. They’re X rated, but they’re a lot more up front than you are.