Purple Clad Yahoo Sued for Sucking
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Two recent stories concerning Yahoo have crossed the retired circus monkey desk this week. This first is that Yahoo has apparently keyed on the motivation that will help it unify its efforts against the Google behemoth. Is it a refined focus? A killer acquisition? No - as reported by CNet, it’s the color purple.
Yahoo offers contests for the most dedicated evangelist among its 13,000 global employees, she said during the keynote speech at the Liquid Agency Brand Summit 2007 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto, Calif., Tuesday morning. Employees who do things like ask people who don’t work for Yahoo “Do you Yahoo?”, memorize the company’s mission statement and wear Yahoo gear to the office for a day can win trips paid for by the company, she says. Even visitors to Yahoo offices see purple everywhere, from the oversize, purple velvet seats in the lobbies to the purple sprinkler heads in the lawns as the company tries to embed its purple, fun image into people’s consciousness.
While Yahoo’s marketing tries to associate its purple with ‘fun’ most people are more likely to associate it with the bruising its getting from all sides. And not just from major companies. As TechDirt is reporting Yahoo is being sued by its users because its ad platform sucks. As Mike writes out:
Who knew that it was against securities law to make a product that didn’t live up to expectations?
He then (rightly) points out that most class-action lawsuits are really not about helping the ‘class’ represented but more about the lawyers involved. Still, how discouraging must it be to hype up the advertising system as being the Yahoo savior and then have it be sued by its very users?
