I am honestly offended when people have negative things to say about marketing people.  When done well, marketing campaigns bring joy and deliver products to people who genuinely want them.

Who among us have not been uplifted by ads such like the Geico Cavemen, Bud Light Real Men of Genius, Lite Beer’s Men of the Square Table, any of the iPod ads, and the Mac vs PC campaigns?  This is why Marketing is a great profession.

Then there are the other marketers.  The scumbags, the scourge, the absolute low-lifes. 

if you’ve known me for any time at all, you know that for 6 or 7 years, I have placed Zango/180 Solutions on the very pedestal of scumbag marketing.  For the life of me, I cannot figure out how anyone can continue to fund these guys.  I thought they would live at the top of my list forever.

But now, we have a new winner.

Celebrity Calculator is the lowest of the low.  The most despicable form of bait and switch marketing ever to combine itself with a mobile subscription service that I can only assume is almost impossible to get out of.  I won’t even give you a straight link to their site because it will help their Page Rank.  But copy and paste http://www.whichcelebrityami.com/ into your browser.

This site is obviously targeted at teens who don’t know any better.  All of the legalese is below the fold.  If the teen fills out all the survey questions, and enters their phone number, then they are automatically signed up for a $20/month bill from these scumbags.   

This is worse than slimy.  It’s just gruesomely ugly.  I wish these guys ran ads on Google, so I could click on them all day long and run their ad budget into the ground.  But all I can do is tell you about these vermin.  Maybe you can come up with a way to punish them.