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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday November 29 2018, @04:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the another-brick-in-the-wall dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Parents putting together baby registries on Amazon have begun to notice a pesky problem, one that has resulted in parents receiving items they neither listed nor wanted. The online retailer has been placing sponsored products in baby registries, the Wall Street Journal reports, but because the ads look so similar to other registry items, people are purchasing them, unaware that the items weren't added to the registry by parents. Like added items, the sponsored products include an image, rating, price and a "0 of 1 Purchased" tag. The only thing that distinguishes them is a small, gray "Sponsored" label situated just above the item name.

[...] One new dad told the Wall Street Journal that he only realized Amazon had placed sponsored products in his baby registry when the Aveeno bath-time set arrived at his home. He said the ads were "blatantly trying to trick you." "Worst part is a friend spent money on something we didn't want. And Amazon profited," he added. While users can remove these ads from their registries, Amazon reportedly told advertisers that around 60 percent were left in place.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/11/28/amazon-inserting-sponsored-products-baby-registries/


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:20PM (2 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:20PM (#767908)

    Yeah, it's essentially that, but with the appearance of having chosen a gift out of the registry.

    I haven't looked at trends, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that later marriages and modern consumption patterns are badly hurting the whole wedding registry industry. Baby shower registries probably have some future...

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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:35PM (1 child)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:35PM (#767921)

    later marriages

    I resemble that remark, I recall relatives asking if I wanted a toaster for a wedding gift because boomers and depression era folks all got married at 18 with nothing but the clothes on their backs, but my bride and I both being over 25 we already had three toasters between us, so ...

    consumption patterns

    That's where its at, we got several bottles of really nice booze and ironically we don't even drink very much, we enjoyed those for a long time. I suspect between consumption patterns and income inequality increases, baby shower gifts are gonna tend toward stuff like coupons for baby sitting or exotic chocolates for mom and less daily stuff like toys and clothes.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @09:37PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @09:37PM (#767941)

      I know you're a bit of a right wing nutcase but please at least don't emulate Pence and start calling your wife "mom" or "mother" when not talking to your kids!