MoreNiche affiliate marketing and the Office of Fair Trading

I have expressed concern previously about the quality of evidence used to support statements made about the products sold by MoreNiche affiliates and written about a number of products (see below). Ironically this means that I now get some of the keyword traffic although I'm not selling anything.

The Office of Fair Trading recently concluded an investigation into MoreNiche and determined that more needed to be done to make it clear to visitors to the affiliates' sites that affiliates will receive payment when someone clicks on the 'buy now' link. MoreNiche have already addressed this by providing guidance to their affiliates and the OFT noted that they engaged with the investigation and were keen to be transparent which is good.

What surprises me is that OFT didn't question the evidence (or irrelevant testimonials) used to sell products.

As an example, one capsule-based product contains a number of plant-based ingredients but instead of providing trial evidence of the complete product the marketing content talked only about evidence relating to the ingredients when investigated individually. This seems to be a fairly common technique, and it isn't good evidence unfortunately.

Some of my blog posts about MoreNiche products

• Phen375 weight loss pills "reviewed" (14 January 2012)

• Capsiplex Plus - yet more magic beans advertised in newspapers (31 December 2011) 

• Polite suggestion to people writing about diet pills, patches or other supplements (26 December 2011) 

• Watch out for some PR about "Nuratrim" - wonder where the evidence is (21 December 2011)

I'm hoping there'll be more to come on this later, but probably not from the OFT.

Further reading

MoreNiche must come clean about online plugs by Andrew Penman in Mail Online (25 April 2012), amusingly this was tagged as 'online scams'.

The Office of Fair Trading has investigated concerns that "reviews and product endorsements running on some affiliates' websites were presented as independent consumer reviews when they were actually commercial promotions".

Investigation into inadequate disclosures in respect of Affiliate Marketing businesses OFT website (April 2012)

MoreNiche discusses OFT's quest for transparency in affiliate marketing - Q&A by Simon Holland on Affiliates4U (April 2012) - interview with Andrew Slack, MoreNiche's Managing Director.

I find the idea of doctors talking about religion in consultations a bit creepy

Today was the first time I watched the BBC's The Big Questions although I've often caught up with it on Twitter. I don't have the stomach for disagreeable confrontation or debate, I just don't enjoy it and tend to think that considered debate is something that lends itself better to written discussions than vocal to-ing and fro-ing. Anyway...

One of the topics today was about a doctor who had raised the issue of religious faith during a consultation with a patient. This makes me feel very uneasy and what made me feel even less easy was the attitude of the doctor and some others who agreed with him. While I don't doubt that religious faith is very important to a lot of people - and I can see how that importance might increase during times of health concerns - with the best will in the world bringing religion into the consulting room is surely at odds with appropriate care behaviour.

If my doctor started bringing religion in I'd feel a bit anxious. And remember I'm already feeling a bit anxious as I'm on someone else's turf and perhaps feeling additionally anxious about some new diagnosis or treatment. I would worry that the person in front of me, who let's face it has the keys to the prescription pad, has an ideology that I don't share - and might judge me for not sharing it. Even if they're lovely and non-judgemental I would still have to respond to their suggestion or question and make it clear that I'm not interested - surely it's better for the doctor to leave well alone and not put me in that position. I can't believe that people (patients) who follow a religion don't know how to find someone from that religion to talk to.

The idea that any interaction provides an evangelical with an opportunity to evangelise is perhaps merely annoying where both parties are on equal footing. I take a sporting attitude to irritants knocking on my door to tell me about their beliefs, chasing them off the property with firm words or a raised tea-towel as necessary. But when I'm in a doctor's surgery (it's not my surgery, it's theirs) it's quite different. Similarly I would be uncomfortable if my boss started talking evangelically (I'd be less bothered if it was a co-worker on the same level, still annoyed but I'd feel I was more able to ask them to shush).

One argument that sometimes comes up (that I don't have much time for) is the idea that a doctor that believes in sky gods might be less able to handle evidence-based medicine, given that they believe something for which there isn't much evidence. I might be wrong but I think people can compartmentalise things fine in their own minds and holding contradicting notions in that way wouldn't bother me in the slightest. My main concern is that by creeping me out by talking about religion they've created a barrier between us that never needed to be there.

Some links I need for later for session at SciCom12

On Tuesday I'm taking part in a panel session on Communicating Tricky Topics at the Science Communication Conference (#SciCom12 is the new hashtag) and wanted to add some links here before I put them into a more formal blog post...

The Quack Clinic checklist

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1710-the-quack-clinic-checklist.html

- a great piece highlighting some things to be aware of when determining whether or not a clinic offering some treatment or other is likely to be a bit dodgy. The information in this link will be particularly relevant for one of the four discussion sessions, which is on unproven treatments.

Everything communicates, but is everyone a communicator?

http://askcharity.org.uk/blog/2012/05/everything-communicates-but-is-everybody-a-communicator/

- this is more about general (not science) communication within and from a charity, touching on the use of social media and intranets. While not specifically relevant to the session we're running there's always some overlap whenever anyone talks about comms.

The Cost of Knowledge (pdf)

http://gowers.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/elsevierstatementfinal.pdf

Whole Lotta Sole / Stand Off - some online resources

This is rather a record-keeping sort of post that I'll be updating as and when, but hopefully it's of interest to others. If you have anything to add my email address is at the top of this page.

It's safe to say that I'm always interested in films that feature Brendan Fraser - apart from his obvious charms he seems like a nice chap - but my particular interest in Whole Lotta Sole, as opposed to any other of his other new films*, is because my friend Amanda (she plays Mary Ellen and she's the one standing in the caravan in this pic) is also in it. Woohoo!

I discovered this fact entirely by accident in December 2011. Knowing that WLS had been listed as a 2011 film I thought "well when's it being released then? Only a few weeks to go..." and took a look at its IMDb page again. The word 'amazed' doesn't really do justice to my surprise at seeing my friends's name in the cast list that had been updated in November. She's very discreet :)

There wasn't a Wikipedia entry for the film... so I decided to create one (anyone can create or edit any page on Wikipedia, try it, it's fun) and so I set up a Google alert for the film's name to help me pick up info. This has brought not just lots of information into my Gmail account but also new resources that I'd not known about so I decided to organise some of the material here because I.. am a librarian ;)

Because the content on this post contains the name of the film then quite possibly it will also now show up in my Google alerts, so hello to anyone else who's set one up too.

P.S. If you think this is detailed, just wait till you see my minisites for diabetes statistical information or open air cinema screens in London. I decided that I could probably keep this to one blogpost page, but we'll see how unwieldy it gets...

Pages and websites relevant to Whole Lotta Sole

• The trailer! Released 22 May 2012.
  
• IMDb
• Twitter 
• Facebook (I don't know if the Twitter or Facebook pages are official accounts)
• Wikipedia
  Facebook has a tendency to auto-create pages, derived from Wikipedia, for all sorts of things and true to form they've created one for the film here (this is just a mirror of the original Wikipedia page). Facebook fans can 'like' it - I don't know if they realise they're kind of hooked up to an orphan / non-real page...
• Whole Lotta Sole (2011) at the Film Catalogue
• Whole Lotta Sole (2012) at the Film Catalogue - no idea why there are two pages with different completion years
• Film - Whole Lotta Sole 2011 - cast, set and other shots by photographer Aidan Monaghan
• Tribeca Film Festival 2012 - photos from the world premiere of the film.

Reviews, previews, interviews and other information
                 
                          Related Belfast Film Festival (BFF) events                      
                          8 June 2012 - Terry George (WLS director) talking film (screenwriting)
                          9 June 2012 - Nick Emerson WLS film editor) editing masterclass                
                        10 June 2012 - Whole Lotta Sole European premiere

• 12th Belfast Film Festival launched by gordon, Film Ireland (9 May 2012) 
• Terry George talking about Whole Lotta Sole - BBC Newsline (8 May 2012), starts at 15m20s until 17m40s.
• "Whole Lotta Sole" - Oscar-winning Terry George’s celebration of Belfast and its characters by Cahir O'Doherty, Irish Central (6 May 2012)
• Unearthing the Irish in Tribeca by Gwen Orel, The Irish Examiner (1 May 2012) Tribeca Film Fest mini reviews: Sleepless Night, Whole Lotta Sole, Mansome by Eric D Snider, Film.com (30 April 2012)
• TRIBECA FESTIVAL | “Whole lotta sole”: Brendan Fraser leads one of the top comedies at this year's fest by Lita Robinson, Screen Comment (29 April 2012)
• Whole Lotta Sole: Tribeca Review by David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter (29 April 2012)
• Tribeca Film Festival '12: 'Whole Lotta Sole' review by Chris McKittrick, Movie Buzzers (28 April 2012)
• Whole Lotta Sole by Mark Adams, ScreenDaily (28 April 2012) - subscriber only content
• Tribeca Review: 'Whole Lotta Sole' is an insufferable comic take on the British gangster movie by Drew Taylor, The Playlist (27 April 2012) - bah humbug ;)
• Tribeca 2012: LFM Reviews Whole Lotta Sole by Joe Bendel, Libertas Film Magazine (24 April 2012)
• Tribeca 2012: Whole Lotta Sole by Jeff Hart, Culture Blues (24 April 2012) 
• Whole Lotta Sole - Tribeca 2012 Review by Jordan Raup, The Film Stage (23 April 2012)

               21 April 2012 - world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival
               Pics from the Premiere: Zimbio

• Whole Lotta Fun by Pete Hamill, The Irish Echo (18 April 2012)
• 2012 Tribeca Film Festival: The Events and Films We’re Most Looking Forward To, Vanity Fair  (13 April 2012)
• "Five Minutes With… 'Saving The Titanic' Actor Conor MacNeill" by Steve Cummins, The Irish Film & Television Network (IFTN) (5 April 2012)
• Oscar Winner's New Film to Premiere at Tribeca by Stephen Conlon, Toonari Post (31 March 2012)
• Terry George film set for world premiere, FilmNav (~25 March 2012)
• The Hudson Valley and WFF Alum Make Their Mark on Tribeca 2012 by Michael Burke, Woodstock Film Festival (15 March 2012)
• Irish films screening at Tribeca Fest, IFTN [The Irish Film & Television Network] (9 March 2012)
• 'Whole Lotta Sole' Begins Filming in Belfast, "going to love this" says Martin McCann" . The Irish Film & Television Network (IFTN). (8 April 2011) 

*It appears to be Brendan Fraser's Year of Awesome as, according to his IMDb page, he's got seven films (gosh, it's now eight) on the go at the moment with Whole Lotta Sole having just had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and William Tell in 3D in pre-production (due in 2013). High-fives! (Although recent news suggests that Tell 3D might be having some difficulties).

Assuming it can go ahead, the William Tell 3D one sounds doubly fun - I love archery and despite maximum respect for Walter Murch I don't agree with his assessment of 3D films and find them rather exciting. Although it might actually be filmed in 2D anyway...

Not that long ago I did a Saturday morning course in archery and remained comfortably below average although I did hit a few golds which surprised us all. It probably didn't help that I'm left-eyed and right-handed so I might be parallax-ically challenged. Also I think William Tell wasn't much of a one for the longbow but went more for the crossbow - I've no idea how to shoot with one of those. Anyway don't rely on me for catching your tea, I expect I would be more likely to annoy rather than fatally injure the edible woodland creatures.

Here's that competent fellow Ray Mears using stoneage tools to make an English longbow (I think it is in the style of the Holmegaard bow?) and some arrows with Chris Boynton - this is actually what spurred me to take up archery classes. It's a lovely bit of television.

I also see from the WLS trailer above that my friend Amanda appears to be shooting a crossbow (at about 2m 16s). Holy crap that's a bit cool :)

Imagine if you could pick your favourite films to see at the cinema

While reading an article on how social media might re-invigorate moviegoing (I clicked cos I thought it might be about livetweeting cinema, but that's pretty unlikely as no-one really wants another much smaller bright screen in the theatre with its owner texting away) I discovered something so brilliant I wish I'd thought of it. Tugg.com seems to work quite similarly to Pledgebank (from MySociety).

Pick a film you like (from a library of options), choose a location, create the event, promote it on social media and get people to sign up to buy tickets. If enough do, your film can be screened. Genius. 

Thus far this is a beta project and based in the US but it would be cool if it comes to the UK. I've found a UK film-related pledge on Pledgebank though - someone wants people to sign up to buy tickets to see The Dark Knight Rises at the Manchester Odeon IMAX theatre there (I'm assuming the film was shot in the right sort of format to allow it to be shown at the IMAX theatre of course). The pledge closes on 20 May, I hope it succeeds. 

Earlier today I was listening to a lunchtime programme on BBC Radio 4 about the ways in which retail spaces are changing, in response to changing tastes and the recession. One thing that intrigued me was the news that some shops now have CD / DVD / Blu-Ray printers that can ping you out a disc in under 10 minutes. You choose what film you want - I suspect you can even create a 'mix CD' with different tunes as you can probably by those individually rather than by album - and you'll get your DVD with the paper insert printed as well. Apparently identical to what you'd buy in a DVD shop online or offline.  Having now heard about Tugg.com (and on the same day too...) I can see parallels there.

---

Recently there's been a small spate of retrospectively 3D-ifying films formerly released in 2D. Last week I saw Titanic 3D at the IMAX (we sat a bit too close to the screen to get the full effect I think, nothing to do with 3D simply that the screen is so massive that being so close means it takes longer to scan your eye across to see what's on it, but the film was nonetheless magnificent), I understand that the Star Wars films are having the same treatment and Jurassic Park is set to be re-released next year in 3D.

While I'm deliriously excited at the prospect of seeing Jurassic Park in 3D (or indeed in any D, I am fairly smitten with this film) I think what really excites me about it is the prospect of it being re-released and having another moment in the sun. This is different from just spotting by chance that it's going to have a screening (thanks to information in the listings, usually via LondonNet.co.uk/films) or finding that it's being shown at an open air cinema screen (as it was last summer, in a garden in Bexleyheath) - this is an opportunity for a bit of both nostalgic and fresh buzz about a film, it's an event (to be fair all open air cinema screenings are events and are simply awesome).

I'm collecting information on London's open air cinema listings here by the way:
https://sites.google.com/site/openaircinemascreens/

I just enjoyed having Titanic 'back in the news', even if I hadn't gone to see it I would have enjoyed that. Like many I found the theatrical spectacle rather good fun the first time around and was curious to see how James Cameron had managed the layering techniques required to render 2D to 3D (that's the extent of my knowledge about it, it seems akin to magic to be honest). I also learned that Cameron drew all of Jack Dawson's pictures and that he co-invented the Cameron/Pace Fusion 3D cameras that were used to film Avatar*. Not to mention he's just shimmied all the way down to the Mariana Trench... I'm definitely of the opinion that he just makes startlingly incredible films to finance his science and discovery habit :-)

Speaking of nostalgia, the 194 minute Titanic 3D screening had a 25 minute intermission. I've no idea what the projectionist did during the 25 minutes (I like to think they changed the reels but I suspect not) but the presence of an interval was itself rather lovely. An 8pm start meant we left the IMAX at about ten to midnight though.

I find the information about the creation of a film every bit as fascinating as the actual film itself and can't help wondering why cinemagoers can't buy a programme about the production, with technical details as well as anything else people might find interesting. This is commonly done in stage productions so there seems to be some sort of precedent. I'm currently finishing off Simon Callow's excellent little book on the back story to the making of Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter. Why aren't miniature versions of film-related info / screening notes etc available for every film? Could be cheaper than popcorn and probably more filling.

It would also be quite useful if there was a Songkick for films to make it even easier to hear about screenings. Songkick is embedded in YouTube and lets you know if an artist whose song you're listening to is touring, you can also use the iPhone app which performs the same service for artists on your iPlayer.

* Further reading
The Cameron/Pace Fusion 3D cameras used on Avatar were 'first used in a feature film' on Eric Brevig's Journey to the Center of the Earth - which I had already deemed brilliant merely for having the lovely Brendan Fraser in it but it's nice to learn more about the technology behind it - and this is a technically detailed PDF on the filming, post-production and theatre projection of said film. The post-production process sounds pretty unforgiving and I suppose I have a marginally better-than-zero hope of grasping the gist of it thanks to having just finished Walter Murch's fantastic book "In the Blink of an Eye" which is all about film editing etc etc.

Not everyone likes 3D though

• Broken Glasses: Experts Try to Save 3D from the Theaters Themselves CraveOnline (4 May 2012) - it all went a bit pear-shaped here, but again it's not really to do with 3D problems but the infrastructure around it
• Even Walter Murch (who can do no wrong) isn't a fan of 3D projection because of the way he says our eyes and brains work (I'm not sure I agree but it's nearly 20 years since I did my Masters degree in Neuroscience so I'm not really up to date in that subject!) - Why 3D doesn't work and never will. Case closed. Roger Ebert's journal (23 January 2011)