Created a sports news site. I was very proud of it - in the mid-90s it was fully internationalized for European audiences, and could deliver minute by minute updates. Mostly it was for journalists who would then relay the info over their media, but people on the internet could also use it.
It was commissioned by tobacco firms who had sponsored those teams.
Later on some regulators decided that this could potentially market tobacco to children and it was going to be shut down. My boss joked that we should just remake the site but never mention the names of the teams, only just use their colors. The sponsors thought this was an ingenious idea and we actually did it.
A lot of denial from people working on this project. I heard my product manager and the CEO talking to each other privately about whether this increased tobacco use and they both strongly agreed that it couldn’t, they repeated the common lie told by tobacco companies at the time that it just encouraged people to switch brands.
It was commissioned by tobacco firms who had sponsored those teams.
Later on some regulators decided that this could potentially market tobacco to children and it was going to be shut down. My boss joked that we should just remake the site but never mention the names of the teams, only just use their colors. The sponsors thought this was an ingenious idea and we actually did it.
A lot of denial from people working on this project. I heard my product manager and the CEO talking to each other privately about whether this increased tobacco use and they both strongly agreed that it couldn’t, they repeated the common lie told by tobacco companies at the time that it just encouraged people to switch brands.