Manufacturer Misrepresentation

How excited would you be spending an hour listening to a sales guy with only a few months at a company talk about technology he has no previous experience in? That sounds pretty bad. For most mortal marketers, this would pose a big problem but not for the cunning ones at BRS Labs and SecurityInfoWatch who masterfully spin this speaker and presentation [link no longer available].

Here's how they pitch it:

"Director, BRS Labs has deep roots in the video surveillance world, with more than two decades of experience helping build some of the world’s largest video surveillance network implementations. His unique understanding of how video surveillance works within urban environments helps companies maximize the value of their systems and deploy new technology on time and on budget."

That sounds quite impressive - a director with two decades of experiences helping build world class surveillance systems.

The truth is:

• The person is a Director of Sales, not a Director. Leaving out the sales part is a crafty omission that certainly would make it less attractive to potential attendees.
• The person only joined BRS Labs a few months ago, so lacks any practical experience in the topic of the webinar ("Using Behavioral Recognition Technology")
• The two decades of experience [link no longer available] includes all their time out of college, including stints as Sales Director at Food.com and owner at Atlanta Beads as well as 6 years selling anti-virus.

You would think marketers would be more careful as verifying such details literally takes minutes with Google and LinkedIn. And yet, most will probably not take the time or effort to do this, so it may be a valuable, if ethically questionable move.