Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/27/to-find-tech-talent-an-entrep.html
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Better there than my inbox.
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That’s got to be at least a couple types of illegal, right? Or at the very least, the store could sue the person on the grounds that it opens them up to some liability?
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Huh? She would seem to be narrowing her potential audience to those in the Spam aisle who are close enough to read these cans? What am I missing? Are programmers into Spam?
If she wanted programmers to see her ad, wouldn’t she just somehow get her advertising into takeout apps? or she could pay a popular takeout place to rename something on the menu to point them to her ad?
Seems more plausible to reach more eyes like that than a find-the-revised-label-on-the-unpopular-lunchmeat ploy?
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As a software engineer: nope.
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Plenty where I live, but I don’t see how this works in SF.
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The thing is, after the initial micro-chuckle wears off, this is, in fact, yet another vector for spamming people, and another step closer to ads attacking us through toilet bowls, speculums, funeral wreaths etc.
And the story seems fishy. If she was trying to hire a programmer, why did she make labels to advertise literally any job? Given the dedicated website and cans for sale, it sure sounds like this is the business.
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Aside from how humorous the affected store finds this; it wouldn’t entirely surprise me if Section 403 is not terribly pleased by this sort of thing.
Almost certainly about a zillion notches down the enforcement priority list; but putting food items with modified or substituted labels on the shelves of a retail establishment isn’t something I’d want to be in the position of defending as robustly legal if questioned on the point.
So long as you preserved the appropriate parts of the label it probably wouldn’t be an FDA thing, only parts of it(mostly nutrition information and ingredients) are legally controlled by them, in which case it would just be the store in question and/or Hormel’s displeased trademark lawyers; but if you effaced the wrong parts of the label you could be in technical violation of some theoretically serious rules. Not wildly likely to be a priority(unless just to dissuade others from thinking that retail relabelling is amusing); but still.
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I fear that you may be correct. It’s a dark day when spammers have learned to emulate having a conscience about spamming as a tool to spam more effectively.
Truly, the sophistication with which the spammer can emulate its hosts in order to target them more effectively is chilling and uncanny. Like replicants, except that there wouldn’t be enough moral ambiguity about having a specialist force dedicated to tracking them down and retiring them to build a movie around…
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You sometimes hear advertisers talk (seemingly earnestly) about the idea of ads that are enjoyable for the victims. It always gives me a little thrill of primeval horror, hearing human-shaped entities say stuff like that.
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So, I gather the Senior Designer position is filled then.
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I guess it’s great if you don’t want Muslims to apply. They don’t eat pork products so I would be concerned this would eliminate those in a protected class. This would be concerning for a professional in HR.
the cans of spam wasn’t the advertising, THIS is the advertising. here we are reading about it, and talking about it and arguing about it…and that means it got eyeballs on it. Enough eyeballs and you will find someone that will be like, oh how cleaver or something i want to work for the spam lady…or something…
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So, this is a vegan filter?
Going get plenny Hawaiians tho, brah!
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You'll also find a 10-pack of "Recruiter Spam" for sale ($89).$8.90 for a can of spam? Oh, I see, she'll modify the label to match your company's job recruiting needs and ship it to you, so you can stick them in your local store.
Gotta agree with @jimmyjone that this probably breaks some law or other regarding food packaging.
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Maybe they would get more bites if they stopped trying to recruit contractors, and started trying to hire employees.
I for one am growing pretty hostile to companies that are trying to shirk the responsibility of being an employer by only hiring contractors, but then making employee like demands of them. I.E, must come in to the office, must use supplied computer, and email, must work at specified hours, must submit pto requests, etc. That’s not a contractor, that’s a statutory employee. Companies like that can go to hell.
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Seems risky, putting relabeled food back on shelves. Why not just put fake cans with the new labels on the shelves?
I was thinking the same thing until it occurred to me that the coverage may have been the point. The stunt going viral, maybe?
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I mean, N=1 but I like spam. It reminds me of pork roll.
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It’s certainly against California law. Not only could the store likely sue the spammer, the DA could probably prosecute Danielle Baskin. It sounds more like she’s a artist pulling stunts and this is intended as culture jamming. While I appreciate the humor, I don’t really think she thought this through.
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It reminds me a little of long pig
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