Union targets M&S with 'wasteful' AdWords campaign

28 February 2008

General workers' union Unite's attempt to use paid search advertising (PPC) to attack high-street retailer Marks and Spencer has been dismissed as 'wasteful' by internet marketers.

Unite has launched "a virtual and an actual campaign", in which it accuses M&S of discriminating against migrant workers who are employed in meat production for its stores.

M&S has said it is baffled by the claims. "We are at a loss as to understand why they continue to single out M&S as we have a leading position in labour standards and work very hard with all our suppliers to maintain these high standards," a spokesperson for the company said.

Yesterday, the union claimed that thousands of people Googling the retailer's name would have seen a sponsored link to the union's campaign site, but the effect seems to have been short-lived.

It appears the attempted 'hijack' of M&S search traffic has fallen foul of Google's AdWords Trademark Policy, which forbids competitors from bidding on trademarked terms.

Ciaran Norris of digital agency Altogether Digital is among several bloggers to offer Unite advice on where to direct its campaign funds in future, suggesting that the AdWords strategy was a "waste".

"So next time you're thinking of taking on the 'man' (although I still find it hard to think of M&S as anything other than a gentleman), you may be better off spending your money on PR & SEO [search engine optimisation] than PPC," he wrote.

Category: Google, Online marketing, Paid search, Search engines