Would you do business with a company that does this?

[Cronus Protagonist]

I got a request to include this web site in my listings...

http://www.bumperbanner.com/democrat/

They sell a plastic holder that you can stick to your car and insert printed bumper stickers. Looks OK, you might think... until you go here...

http://www.bumperbanner.com/gop/

And notice that they're working both sides of the fence. And the Republican side of their business has better graphics and more money spent on the headers.

My business, http://brainbuttons.com only plays one side of the fence, the left side. I couldn't sleep well at night if I plotted and schemed to make money off each side in a poltical campaign.

I think what these people are doing shows a lack of integrity. They could sell non-partisan or bi-partisan card holders with generic messages, but they don't, they pretend to be on your side while stroking your opponents as well.

What do you think?

Would you buy from a company that plays both sides like this? Does it not matter at all to you that your money goes to promote the other side of the political fence? In other words, are you in their target market where you don't care what they do with the profits you're giving them?

I think that no partisan would do business with a company that does this, and my argument is supported by the fact that they keep it a secret that they are playing both sides - there's no link from one side of their business to the other.

Sneaky, in my opinion. Sneaky and lacking in ethics.

[mongo]

1. Would you do business with a shameless self promoter?

there's no link from one side of their business to the other.

Sure there is - if you go to the root of the site http://www.bumperbanner.com

Where they have banners running the gamut from Christian to pro-choice (not that the two are mutually exclusive). They don't even sell the banners, just the stupid little holder for them. All they are doing is trying to appeal to the widest range of people they can.

Sneaky, in my opinion. Sneaky and lacking in ethics.

Sneaky? I see YOU have managed to use this thread to promote YOUR own business:

My business, http://brainbuttons.com only plays one side of the fence, the left side. I couldn't sleep well at night if I plotted and schemed to make money off each side in a political campaign.

Not that I'm against shameless self-promotion - I do it whenever possible. But I really think you are only creating a non-issue to promote yourself. (nice site BTW.)

WARNING - Shameless self promotion below:

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. I don't submit my site to right wing sites

And I don't make any products for right wing clients. This company submitted their left-wing side of their site to a left-wing web site ( http://hated.com ) and pretended that they were left wing partisans - perhaps I didn't make that clear.

Here's the referral link:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=liberal+democrat+websites+usa&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-tab-web-t&n=20&fl=0&x=wrt

Where they searched google for "liberal democrat websites usa" and asked for a listing on hated.com

And there are no links from their left wing side to the right wing side. Sure, you can change the URL but as I stated earlier, there are no LINKS to the other side of their site. How many people go up the URL manually? I'd say very few.

Apparently you missed the main point and that may have been my fault for not being clear.

And as for the shameless self-promotion, I do that all the time. I have few other options. I've asked several times for DU to put up paid text links or accept advertising and they will not do it and how else would I get my empowering products into the hands of people who want them? I'm willing to accept your suggestions - who else would promote my products?

I pay for ads on http://bartcop.com too (more shameless promotion, but not for myself) - but the site in question wants free advertising based on a sham, IMHO.

Remember, I'm promoting a partisan cause and selling tools to do that to people who want to help the cause. Sure, I'm trying to make the products pay for themselves in the process and I presume you have no problem with that.

I'm not like these people who are selling "guns" to both sides in a "war" - to use an apt metaphor, and using partisan pretenses to gain free promotion.

I know you're not bothered by shameless self-promotion, but I could argue that I promoted the site in question much more than I promoted my own - I did give them two links after all.

Here's some more shameless promotion... which is also not the primary purpose of this post or this thread...

Click here for "HERO KERRY ZERO BUSH", "VETERAN KERRY AWOL BUSH" and other fair and balanced yet stunning, insulting, shocking, funny buttons, magnets and stickers

Oh, and since we're on the topic, have you bought my album yet?

http://brainscream.com/wakingborn

:)

[Alerter_]

2. All corporations play both sides

The more cynical ones don't just sell crap to each side, they fund and direct each side to fight each other.

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. That's the point exaclly

They're parasitic, uncaring and unethical. I wouldn't do business with a company that does that unless I had no other choice.

Click here for "HERO KERRY ZERO BUSH", "VETERAN KERRY AWOL BUSH" and other fair and balanced yet stunning, insulting, shocking, funny buttons, magnets and stickers