According to TechCrunch, Wine review site Corkd was hacked to redirect to Adult Friend Finder. Interesting that the Corkd home page actually showed showed up for a second before redirecting to AFF. Details are thin but I bet it was an AFF affiliate. The Corkd site owner, the infamous Gary V, has turned the situation into a positive, getting some press and teaching us all a lesson about getting out in front of your PR problems and being proactive instead of reactive.

People often think of PR as getting reporters to write about your client for free, but that’s just part of it. Crisis PR is enormously important and you should always have a plan in place to deal with potential problems.

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It’s been a while since we’ve heard a juicy rumor.

Valleywag says:

What’s going on over at FriendFinder Networks, née Penthouse Media Group? Apparently the effort to migrate into an online publishing and social networking powerhouse is being hampered by developers dissatisfied with working conditions and an inability to hire new staff — even though supervisor Anthony Previte threatened he could replace the disgruntled employees at a whim, according to a tipster.

This could affect the planned $250 million IPO. Then again, consider the source. Still, makes for a juicy Friday rumor.

Related posts:

1. Penthouse Acquires Various, Inc.
2. Rumor: FriendFinder Acquired for $1 billion
3. Blog Problems

Turns out the rumor was true, Penthouse acquired Various, Inc. Various boasts 260 million members and about as many paying members as Match.com, most of the action coming from Adultfriendfinder.

Nice payday for CEO Andrew Conru and his merry band of alternative lifestyle gurus, although not as large as I expected. I wonder how the members of BigChurch feel about the sale? Imagine calling customer support and hearing, “Hello, this is Tiffany at Penthouse, how may I help you?”

When I was a kid my parents encourage me to buy a book when we went to town for the Sunday paper. While browsing the teen fiction aisle, I used to sneak over to the adult magazine rack, hoping to get an eyeful of the pocket-sized Penthouse Forum. Fast forward to today- forget reading titilating stories in a dead-tree media. According to AdultFriendfinder, the pervy Avon lady lives in the next town over and wants to meet you, today.

We’ll see if Penthouse know what it’s doing. Recent bankruptcy and the toning down of Penthouse Magazine to compete with Maxim have placed the organization in uncharted waters.

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Fresh on rumors that Adult Friend Finder was acquired last month, legal troubles which undoubtedly complicate the transaction.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a statement that AdultFriendFinder affiliates used pop-up ads to drive traffic to the site, and exposed consumers, including children to sexual explicit images when search for terms including “flowers,� “travel,� and “vacations.� More seriously the FTC alleged that the ads were also distributed with spyware and adware.
The FTC found that “the practice of displaying graphic pop-up ads without consumer consent was unfair, and violated the FTC Act;� essentially saying that porn pop-ups are illegal.

I use Firefox’s ad blocker, so I never see pop-ups. I do find AFF and Fling.com ads disconcerting. “Women in Charlestown want to meet you,” right. I’m looking for something totally unrelated and I get these “targeted” ads? I never see these women walking around town. Could it be a ruse?[/end snarky coment].
How many AFF affiliates are going to be shut down because of the ruling? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Details at TechCrunch.

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