Insurers Trick Facebook Users Into Opposing Health Care Reform
Center for Media and Democracy / PR Watch
Source: The Business Insider
December 9, 2009
A coalition of insurance industry groups called “Get Health Reform Right,” led by Blue Cross Blue Shield and including America’s Health Insurance Plans, the American Benefits Council and others, has been caught tricking Facebook users into sending electronic letters opposing health care reform to their Congressional representatives by paying them with “virtual currency.”
Here is how it works: Facebook users often play habit-forming, online social games with names like “Friends For Sale,” “FarmVille” and “MafiaWars.” The games utilize virtual currency which allows players buy objects within the game and advance their progress in the game. Ads appear during the games offering Facebook users more virtual currency if they agree to take an online survey which, when filled out, automatically sends an anti-health care reform email message to their Congressional Representative. Continue reading “Duplicitous Electronic PR: Virtual AstroTurfing”