Connected

So much for the old business adage, "The customer is always right." Controversial Web marketers Affinion Group, Vertrue and Webloyalty and some of their clients, including Priceline, Classmates.com, FTD, Shutterfly and Orbitz, said customers who complained about suspicious credit-card charges are at fault for not reading the fine print, CNET reported.

CNET described the controversial marketing tactics as follows:

Under most of the agreements between the marketing firms and retailers, an advertising page is presented to a shopper while they complete a transaction at the retailer's online store. Many shoppers say they entered their e-mail address and pushed a large "Yes" button on the ad because it appears to be a $10 cash-back offer or coupon. Many of those that complain say they thought they were being rewarded by the retailer for making a purchase.

Written in much smaller print within the ad are the full terms of the deal. A customer is notified there that by providing their e-mail address, they are joining a membership program and agreeing to pay one of the marketing firms a monthly fee, typically between $10 and $20.

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In preparation for its spinoff from Time Warner, scheduled for Dec. 9, AOL will reveal new logos that shed the triangle and running man and replace AOL with Aol. (period included). The lettering will appear over several backgrounds.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told paidContent:

There's always something behind AOL. That's the thing that we're hoping to get across with our AOL brand. The AOL brand is composed of many different things. The nomenclature of the dot is what comes after the dot.

I don't think there's really any risk in it because the future of our business is really about showing people what we're doing. It's one of those things in the next few years that will be a sea change in AOL.

The hardest part about brands is everybody's got an opinion. What really matters is how well you like our products and services…We looked at a lot of different brand treatments. We felt this was the one that captured what was happening at the company underneath the surface. People see AOL as a big turnaround, but there is so much creativity at the company now.

We thought it was important to keep the a, the o, the l, but we were OK changing the case of the o and the l because it's kind of a lead in to the dot and to where things are going…Having people look at the identity differently will probably have them at least be open to thinking about the brand differently, something's changed, been updated—another reason for them think differently about AOL.

Armstrong told The New York Times:

There was a lot of feedback from people: Should we even stick with the AOL brand?

AOL is a turnaround situation. It will take every ounce of blood, sweat and tears to make it successful.

With nowhere near the fanfare of ESPN's local-site launches, Fox Sports Net soft-lauinched one-dozen local sports sites this past week, paidContent reported.

The sites are different for each corresponding regional sports network, and they include headlines from various sources, original video, dedicated pregame and postgame segments, team pages and integrated Twitter and Facebook feeds, according to paidContent.

Fox Sports spokesman Chris Bellitti told paidContent:

Our plans were underway long before ESPN rolled out their sites. Our goal is to be the best at serving local sports fans, and a strong online platform helps us achieve that.

The dirty dozen: Fox Sports Arizona, Fox Sports Carolinas, Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports Florida, Fox Sports Houston, Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports North, Fox Sports Ohio, Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Southwest, Fox Sports Tennessee and Fox Sports West.

In an effort to capitalize on the obvious synergy between Mickey Mouse and bleach, The Possibility Shop, a Web-video series produced with The Jim Henson Co. and exclusively sponsored by Clorox, will debut this week as the first-ever branded-entertainment program on Disney Online, according to AdAge.com.

The Possibility Shop was created to promote Clorox brands including Clorox disinfecting wipes, toilet-bowl cleaners and the new Clorox 2 laundry pre-treater, but the episodes will not feature the products themselves, instead being accompanied by Clorox-branded vignettes showing how each brand can help clean up the home, according to AdAge.com.

Clorox will also back The Possibility Shop with some magazine-advertising support, AdAge.com reported.

Clorox director of media Ellen Liu told AdAge.com:

The world is changing, and people are viewing all sorts of content in multiple places, whether it's still on-air or online or on their phones, etc., so I think there's a lot of growth to be had in terms of digital syndication.

And Disney Online vice president of advertising sales Brad Davis added:

Everything we've created before that has been Disney-driven. Now we've flipped that model where, in our case, we're creating the product with the advertiser's needs in mind and with the (online) guest's benefit.

Almost one month ago, AOL changed the name of its blog-content engine, Sphere, to Surphace. Now, AOL is rebranding the main page for AOL News as Sphere, according to Silicon Alley Insider.

Silicon Valley Insider points out that AOL News and its news brands, such as Politics Daily and DailyFinance, are reliant on people entering through AOL.com, meaning AOL users must sign on to the Internet.

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Online ad network Chitika studied the actions of 86 million Internet users over a two-week period and found that only about 2% of them actually clicked on Web advertisements.

More precisely, the company monitored 86,683,507 unique users and found that only 1,863,710 clicked on ads, for a rate of 2.15%.

The Chitika network encompasses more than 60,000 sites and generates 2 billion monthly impressions.

As part of NBC Universal's "Green Is Universal" ongoing environmental initiative, former Vice President Al Gore posted an exclusive, first-person essay on iVillage.com, "What You Can Do to Help Teens Go Green," and the essay is also linked to Gore's Twitter feed.

Gore will also appear in a cameo role during a green-themed episode of NBC's 30 Rock Nov. 19.

Gore wrote:

It will be the young people of today who will lead the movement, invent the technology and build the political will that brings an end to the climate crisis. Those great minds are teens and even preteens now. Recently when I spoke at George Washington University, I asked the students in attendance, "How many of you have changed majors to a field where you can help lead the fight to solve the climate crisis?" Scores of hands went up.

iVillage executive vice president Jodi Kahn said:

The iVillage community is filled with eco-moms who are engaged, passionate and thoughtful about the environment. Hundreds of conversations take place each week on the topic of being green.

Like.com went shopping for a new Weardrobe, and the latter relaunched Wednesday featuring the former's Likesense visual-search technology, which identifies clothing items and visually searches the Web for similar and specific outfits matching that style.

Weardrobe describes itself as a leading street-style Web site, while Like.com is a style shopping engine specifically designed for apparel, accessories and home décor.

Weardrobe founder Suzanne Xie said:

We've noticed that our community is looking not only to inspire and be inspired but also wants to replicate trendy creations in their own closet. Joining Like.com is exciting because the additional resources and technology create a more satisfying experience for Weardrobe users.

We are so appreciative of our fans and community, whose creative talents and imagination have made Weardrobe what it is today. With this acquisition, we're now able to offer more opportunities for our audience to connect through Weardrobe-sponsored events and conferences.

Like.com CEO Munjal Shah added:

We love street style because it really expresses global style personalities, but it still remains a bit of tease for fashion-savvy fans. Now, after fueling your curiosity with inspired fashion looks, you can actually shop for them—bringing the experience to a different and, ultimately, more fulfilling, level.

The process of shopping is evolving. No longer is it just about the static search. Sites like Weardrobe are the fresh voice of a new generation and, by partnering with them, we serve up the ultimate style offering—taking inspiration from the streets and making it attainable.

Longtime celebrity editor Bonnie Fuller and Mail.com Media (MMC) founder and CEO Jay Penske relaunched HollywoodLife.com Tuesday, which they described as "a vibrant new female-focused online destination that provides celebrity and entertainment news alongside an interactive conversation about lifestyle, health, fashion and beauty, for women 18-35."

Old Navy, Sony Pictures, People's Choice and WE tv have already signed on as advertisers, and HollywoodLife.com also entered into a partnership with women's online destination iVillage. HollywoodLife.com will also team up with AOL's PopEater.

Fuller, president and editor in chief of HollywoodLife.com, said:

HollywoodLife.com is much more than just a next step in my career. Rather, it's the next step in my relationship with the female audience. The site's interactive nature allows for a more immediate, emotional connection between readers and myself. It's a place that offers the right mix of news and opinion where women can express themselves and ask their own questions.

And Penske added:

It would be hard to find a better partner in building a lifestyle media brand. She has such an incredible sense of audience and how to make her content not only addictive, but conversational. I look forward to helping Bonnie relaunch our HollywoodLife.com property and break through the clutter, and create the leading site for young women.

Because catching up on style and fashion trends is the first thing that comes to mind while filling your tank at the gas station, PumpTop TV, which provides advertisement and entertainment content on monitors located above gasoline pumps, will offer original content from StyleCaster, which bills itself as "the world's first online personal style discovery platform."

StyleCaster executive fashion director Carol Han will present the latest in fashion and style trends in the 30-second spots for PumpTop TV, which will also include banners with information such as where to purchase the clothing being discussed.

Doug Woo, executive vice president of PumpTop TV parent AdtekMedia, said:

We are very excited about adding the most forward-thinking fashion site to our network. Both PumpTop TV and StyleCaster are very synergistic when it comes to taking advantage of digital content. We are both experimenting with all of the new digital applications in order to captivate our wide audiences wherever and whenever possible. We hope more and more content providers will realize the enormous opportunities PumpTop TV provides once they see how StyleCaster applied their talent to our video network.

And StyleCaster CEO Ari Goldberg added:

The future of new media is based on distributed content that can be seen on multiple platforms. Whether it's a two-inch screen, a 20-inch screen or a 200-inch screen, StyleCaster is creating engaging content that provides utility for style enthusiasts as we continue to democratize fashion.