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Zappos has ads in TSA bins?!

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Old Mar 28, 2011, 12:12 pm
  #1  
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Angry Zappos has ads in TSA bins?!

And TSA gets the money for it.

http://blogs.zappos.com/whyweadverti...s#comment-3741

Goodbye Zappos shopping!
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 12:39 pm
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Can someone please tell me why the h*LL we have a private company subsidizing government activities?
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 12:43 pm
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Well, there's a company that will not get any of my business.

Oh, and to answer your question eturowski.
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 12:46 pm
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The comments are mostly negative.
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 12:53 pm
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Originally Posted by eturowski
Can someone please tell me why the h*LL we have a private company subsidizing government activities?
They thought they would get their name out in the public. I don't think they thought that decision through very well.

They just associated their name with the worst name in the world.
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 12:57 pm
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Probably worth everyone's time to sign up and post a civil, concise comment to their blog. The most likely explanation is that they haven't thought this thru, and it could be a nice publicity "win" for folks who dislike TSA's current system if Zappos changes their mind.
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 1:20 pm
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Originally Posted by IslandBased
The comments are mostly negative.
^

And, due to the better training and additional resources, airports that have sponsors for their security bins have seen an average of a 16% improvement in wait time in getting through the lines. I’m not sure how much you travel, but that seems like a pretty good deal to me!
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 2:01 pm
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Thanks for the link. We have an account with them. Just posted my thoughts and we won't be shopping there again until they change that particular advertising strategy.
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 2:02 pm
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 2:03 pm
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Originally Posted by FlyingUnderTheRadar
CEO's email: [email protected]
According to wikipedia Amazon bought Zappos in 2009.
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 2:08 pm
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After re-thinking my post above...

Okay, so the concept of privately-sponsored public property is not exactly new (ads on subway trains, buses, etc.). However, public transportation is generally perceived to be beneficial to the people. TSA checkpoints... well, we all know what we think of them. It seems like sub-optimal business sense to allocate advertising dollars to subsidize such a controversial procedure.

If Zappos has enough excess profits resulting from my shoe purchases to reach out and sponsor the government-run POS that is the TSA, then I can only conclude that they are charging too much for what I am receiving, and I am going to take my business elsewhere.

It would be interesting to find out if Zappos solicited the TSA for ads, or if the TSA is offering their property as adspace and Zappos was the lucky bidder.

What's next? PPE for screeners provided by Trojan? Backscatter devices with ads for the TV series Big Brother? Groupon Gropes?
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 2:20 pm
  #12  
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From the blog post:

There are a number of advertising opportunities at airports (billboards, bin trays, free wifi, etc.) of which we've participated in. There could conceivably be a day when TSA is no longer required at airports, and we'd still be advertising in airports (including bins). Right now, we have no control over the government requiring TSA to be at all airports. For this effort, we contract with a media placement company (Security Point Media) who then contracts with the actual airports (not TSA). Thank you for your continued interest.
So they contract with a placement company, who puts their ads all over airports, including the TSA checkpoint.

Very easy problem to fix. Zappos tells Security Point Media to stop placing ads in bins. Done.
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 2:41 pm
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I posted a comment, forwarded the blog to my shoe-phile family and friends, and sent the link to Drudge and Consumerist.
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 2:45 pm
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Pretty sure they have been doing this for years. At least at EWR. Still love Zappos. I wish they wouldn't fund the TSA, but the TSA would just add the costs to our 'Security Fee' anyway.
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Old Mar 28, 2011, 2:52 pm
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Probably before, I wouldn't have purchased anything from Zappos, but now it is a certainty.
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