FC: Doubleclick wants to advertise with Zero Knowledge (humor)

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

**********

> From: Austin Hill <austin () zeroknowledge com>
> To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
> Subject: FW: Your IPO and working with Doubleclick
> Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 18:25:58 -0500
> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21)
>
> Hey Declan,
>
> I thought it was hilarious that a Doubleclick salesman approached us about
> advertising with them, that I thought your Politech readers might enjoy the
> response:)
>
> Hope all is well,
>
> -Austin
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Austin Hill
> Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2000 9:39 AM
> To: Tremblay, Francois
> Subject: RE: Your IPO and working with Doubleclick
>
>
> Dear Mr. Tremblay,
>
> I appreciate your interest in working with ZeroKnowledge, and as you point
> out we are planning an IPO later this year/next year and will be
> aggressively building our brand.   We are working on an aggressive spending
> budget with regards to our advertising that includes both offline media and
> online media in the form of banner ads.
>
> This budget will continue to grow as we continue to invest in our branding
> and positioning leading up to and following our IPO.
>
> Unfortunately, none of these dollars will EVER be spend with your company
> Doubleclick.
>
> ZeroKnowledge is the leading Internet privacy company, dedicated to
> protecting our users from the type of unsolicited profiling that your
> company engages in.   Doubleclick has a dismal reputation for consumer
> privacy and until recently continued to ignore the protest and complaints
> from consumers, privacy advocates and privacy companies such as ourselves
> with respect to the aggregation of the data files from your purchase of
> Abacus Direct with the unsolicited profiles your have accumulated through
> your ad network.
>
> While I appreciate Kevin O'Conner's temporary reprieve with respect to your
> company's plans aggregate the online and offline data, the history and
> reputation of your company is one which as a privacy company we have no wish
> to be associated with.    As you point out our brand is something we need to
> invest in, and we have no wish to have it sullied by being associated with
> Doubleclick.    As such our online advertising dollars will be spent with
> companies that have taken greater care to protect their own brands and
> consumer privacy such as Engage and Flycast.
>
> Thank you for your note, and I apologize that we cannot work together.
>
> Austin Hill
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Tremblay, Francois [mailto:ftremblay () doubleclick net]
> > Sent: Friday, March 03, 2000 12:04 PM
> > To: 'a_hill () zeroknowledge com'
> > Subject: Your IPO
> >
> >
> >
> > Austin
> >
> > I have followed the evolution of your company over the last
> > few years - been
> > in contact with <your employees> since the summer of 1998.
> >
> > I know that Zeroknowledge intends to go public shortly, and that it
> > certainly has considered public relations, advertising online
> > and offline,
> > and brand positioning before its IPO.
> >
> > I believe you will agree with me when I suggest that
> > Zeroknowledge will
> > require exposure on "A" brand sites. On sites like Nasdaq, on
> > busy affinity
> > sites and current news sites, targetted to companies in the
> > investement and
> > finance sector... I would like to discuss what we have for
> > you - as soon as
> > your time permits -  next week - we could do lunch.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > François
> >
> > François Senécal-Tremblay
> > DoubleClick
> > 204 Saint-Sacrement, bureau 303
> > Montréal (Québec) H2Y 1W8
> > Tel. ; (514) 286-6161
> > Fax. :  (514) 286-6175
> > http://www.doubleclick.net/ca/f/
> >
> >

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