Have you ever entered a contest via your cell phone and subsequently received text messages about random products and promotions after that?

I sure have, and it ended up creating a phone bill over 300 dollars. This new marketing tactic is called the SMS bait and switch, a version of the unethical marketing practice “the bait and switch”, where a company lures you in to win a specific product at a discounted price, then sends you text messages (usually costing two dollars per text just to read) that promotes different products other than the one you originally wanted. Weird, right?

Wrong, this tactic is used over a vast number of industries.  Derek Johnson’s blog post discusses the bait and switch tactics used by Pro-Cuts who offered four tickets behind home plate at a Rangers game if fans entered a contest. Although this marketing tactic gives the ability to reach a huge customer base, pro-cuts now has the personal phone number of over 40,000 fans of which they choose to take advantage of, which is seen as unethical.

This directly violates Dr. Silver’s ethical marketing rubric. It takes advantage of people who don’t fully understand the costs of each text messages, and preys on people who are fans of the rangers, not pro-cuts. Another unethical part of it is that it is unsolicited. You become the personal target of a new promotional deal without initial interest in the product. Marketing is supposed to give information, establish relationships and get people to do things that are valuable to them; SMS bait and switch does none of the above.

As someone who has experienced SMS bait and switch first hand, I can rightfully say it sucks.