Facebook Advertising Strategies And The Conflict With User's Rights Of Publicity

Submitted By jitty6311
Words: 3722
Pages: 15
Open Document
Tell a friend, or we’ll do it for you:
Facebook Advertising Strategies and the Conflict With User’s Rights of Publicity

INTRODUCTION Currently, there is one name that stands as a beacon of success in the businesses world: Facebook. Facebook is a company that has become a global icon. On the verge of a highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO)[1], Facebook has become the standard of success for web based business dominance. One method Facebook has used to stay on top is by implementing new marketing and ad revenue strategies to stay competitive in an aggressive business environment.[2] Recently, some of the revenue strategies used have created legal issues pertaining to rights of publicity and how a Facebook user defines their rights. This essay will look at a case currently pending against Facebook where right of publicity is the central issue. It will first provide a short background about publicity rights and will also analyze the rules and cases against the facts presented in this case. While rights to publicity litigation is most common for celebrities, the application of publicity rights to all individual Facebook users is unprecedented. This essay will present an opinion that if Plaintiffs win such a suit against Facebook, therefore extending individual Facebook users a right to publicity, the consequences to Facebook’s business platform and marketing strategies will be serious.

BRIEF HISTORY OF FACEBOOK

Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected.[3] People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters most to them. Its offices are located in Menlo Park, California and it has more than 3,000 employees.[4] It had 845 million monthly active users at the end of December 2011.[5] Approximately 80% of monthly active users are outside the U.S. and Canada.[6] It had 483 million daily active users on average in December 2011.[7] It had more than 425 million monthly active users who used Facebook mobile products in December 2011.[8] Facebook is available in more than 70 languages.[9] What do all of these statistics indicate? That Facebook is a valuable resource for user information. Its broad user base is a gold mine for advertisers looking to promote products and attract the business of consumers.
BACKGROUND OF CASE Recently, a group of Facebook users filed a complaint against Facebook for violating their rights to publicity, which, after various procedural rulings, is now pending in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California.[10] This case is a class action lawsuit filed against Facebook for its advertising practice known as “sponsored stories”.[11] “Sponsored stories” is an advertising campaign adopted by Facebook in which it uses your interest in other entities as an endorsement of that business or product, and then announces it to others in hoping to get them to also take interest based on the fact that you did.[12] Plaintiffs allege that Facebook’s practice of misappropriating their names and likenesses for commercial endorsements without their consent (1) violated their statutory right of publicity under California Civil Code § 3344; (2) violated the Unfair Competition Laws; and (3) unjustly enriched Facebook.[13] Plaintiffs assert that the “sponsored stories” constitute “a new form of advertising which drafted millions of [Facebook members] as unpaid and unknowing spokespersons for various products,” for which they are entitled to compensation under California law.[14] The Plaintiffs argue that sponsored stories are created when a user “likes” the user page of a business or group.[15] This entails clicking on a “like” button on their page. The user may “like” the page for a variety of reasons, including accessing extra content or discounts. After they hit the “like” button, Facebook can then use
Show More

Related Documents: Facebook Advertising Strategies And The Conflict With User's Rights Of Publicity

Essay about Facebook: Social Media and Mihaylo Facebook Webpage

Facebook One of the most widely used social media platform would be the Facebook. The users have no generational limits and have established largest interaction e-community among any other platforms. The promotion of Marketing Department can result in successful outcome as well as dull and perfunctory webpage. When measuring the performance, it is important to set specific goals that are measurable, realistic and review periodically. The current 'likes' in Mihaylo facebook webpage is at…

Words 411 - Pages 2

American Airlines Essay

provides flights to 900 destinations and 150 countries.While refreshing their older planes, they boast an order of a new one per week, loaded with entertainment such as movies, games, television shows, and Samsung Galaxy tablets for First and Business Class flyers. It also offers a loyalty program; AAdvantage Program, where flyers can earn and redeem miles, get flight upgrades, special vacation packages, and hotel stays. AA also provides a lounge to Admiral Club members through a 30 day membership or…

Words 1074 - Pages 5

Essay on Id-3

A proposal to Implement and test the ID-3 Algorithm on the Facebook Application Data set. Project Documentation By: Anuj Patel Akash Parekh CPSC 531-03 (21103) Professor: Dr. Chun-l Philip Chen Department of Computer Science California State University, Fullerton Spring, 2013 Table of Contents Abstract 3 1.Introduction 5 1.1 Background 5 1.2 Problem Statement 5 1.3 Project Goals and benefits of study 5 1.4 Hypotheses 5 1.5Relevance and Significance………………………………...……………………………

Words 3498 - Pages 14

first draft essay 4

Jordan Hau English 125 Tricia Khlief Essay 4 Final Draft The Life without Facebook I have been the only one who does not have a Facebook, of course nor a Twitter or Instagram, in my class since middle school. The more I matured and witnessed the changes of social networking, the more my attitudes changed towards it. In my earlier teenage years, I was not very sure that I wanted people to know that. Although I had persisted my own thought quite consistently, it was still hard to not feel a bit…

Words 1349 - Pages 6

Stop Complaining Essay

formats of complaint: (i) the “misery loves company” public Facebook complaint, and (ii) the hostile / accusatory / or passive aggressive email. But why do we complain? I can’t help but wonder if we millennials really are as entitled as the rest of the world proclaims we are, or whether the root cause is instead our dedication to discourse as mandated by the Booth culture. Regardless, it’s unclear that airing out our negativity over Facebook or confronting a classmate with some unsolicited and deconstructive…

Words 548 - Pages 3

7 Habits Profile Essay

specific reasons. The two habits that I talked about working on are my P/PC balance, and habit three. I still want to work on these because they are important to my physical and mental wellbeing, which are both very important to me. I still want to take action on both of these because improving my health and having a healthy life is important to me. There are many benefits to having a healthy mind, including better relationships with most people, better mindsets and healthier body, and better impressions…

Words 822 - Pages 4

The Snapchat Chapter Summary

By flipping the Newspaper, log into the Facebook or scrolling down the Snapchat, we could see the different about races, religions and racism. We will see the different about feeling, appearance and action, etc. When a person desired to live up and join to society, they would receive a lot of pressure from society. They have no choice to escape it, because everyone has a basic need to accept each others, but it also rejects or mistreats to the people who are look different from themselves. The novel…

Words 236 - Pages 1

Nt1310 Unit 1 Case Study

a computer and that they are giggling, whispering and pointing to what they see on the screen. Joe finds that one child, Kim, was able to access Facebook from their computer. They have found Joe’s Facebook page and there are pictures on it of Joe and other staff members drinking and smoking. Joe had just become friends with Kim’s father on Facebook. What are some of the potential professional and personal implications of this scenario for Joe? Joe could get into some trouble professionally because…

Words 1493 - Pages 6

Article Review: Making Monsters Into Celebrities

becoming famous on Vine, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook for their videos. There are two people I follow on Facebook to watch their videos which are Tiffany Alyssa and Ben Buckwalter. Last year in English 101 class, a girl in my class did a research paper on serial killers and the background. It was pretty interesting because they said you can tell who is going to be one from toddler years. They did a lot of studies about their actions that you can watch out for. I think a lot of people who…

Words 661 - Pages 3

Internship: Facebook Ceo Mark Essay

Coleman Argumentative Monday, September 24, 2012 Mr. Peter Green ENG 102 Intimate and Personal Information on Facebook What about Facebook, you might ask? Facebook “was invented by Harvard computer science student Mark Zuckerberg, along with classmates Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.”(“About.com”) Mark Zuckerberg’s first goal for Facebook was just a little sense of humor that led him to create the site as a type of "hot or not" game for Harvard students, where…

Words 1666 - Pages 7