Internet “lead generators,” hired by for-profit colleges to help them identify potential prospects, are now seeking to attract single mothers with online come-ons that say, “Obama Asks Moms to Return to School,” according to a report by ProPublica and Marketplace radio. Critics of the practice told the two news organizations that colleges should be more vigilant about the marketing firms they hire, and that their recruiters should be making it clear to prospective students that the Obama administration has not authorized any special scholarships for single mothers. The use of such firms in sophisticated Internet marketing has long been a practice of for-profit colleges (and, increasingly, of nonprofit ones) even though colleges sometimes complain that the companies they hire use unscrupulous tactics.
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2 Responses to For-Profit-College Marketers Lure Students With False Promises of ‘Obama Mom’ Scholarships
guanxi88 - July 26, 2010 at 10:21 am
Funny, isn’t it, though? I mean, the idea of a free pot of money from Obama just seems to click with some folk; there is a certain facticity to it – well, to the extent that there’s any facticity in advertising or the Obama machine (the latter easily reducible to the former).
geppy - July 26, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Those ads usually feature animated characters (walking female silhouettes that I assume are “moms”)– a giveaway since those of us who are older can remember when similar animated figures were used to sell mortgages.