The mission of Alloy.com is to sell as many things as possible to young female visitors to their site. Alloy employs many methods of getting a young person to part with their money.
Below is one example.
This screen shot of an Alloy story looks like a “how-to” article. The helpful people at Alloy are giving youngsters tips on how to apply nail polish. (Alloy is always pushing children to grow up as fast as they can. Only by doing so can they sell them more products.) The article in reality is just one big ad. There is no header that says. “Advertisement.” If Alloy did that they might not get as many purchasers. Deception is the rule at Alloy. By making it look like the editorial part of Alloy is endorsing this particular product the product gains much more credibility. A young person who reads this “article/ad” is being taken advantage of – a 16-year-old may be taken advantage of less than a 10-year-old, but in both cases it is wrong.
Adults don’t like advertising that masquerades as something else so it is even more outrageous when Alloy plays such tricks on kids.
In this “article/ad” there is a link to a store that is offering this product for sale. There the young person can make the purchase. Alloy, more than likely, will get paid for sending the purchaser to the store site. Even if they don’t get paid per “click-through” the more sales that result from Alloy making up phony articles that are really ads will allow Alloy to raise its ad fees.
