An industry group called the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition (IIAC) is attracting a lot of negative attention for its recent sponsorship of a course at the Hunter College of the City University of New York. The IIAC fights the sale of knock-off consumer products and represents major companies in the fashion industry including Abercrombie & Fitch, Chanel, Coach, Harley-Davidson, Levi Strauss and Reebok. In the course students were told to create fictional blogs written from the perspective of college students who had traumatic experiences with knock-off products. In one example a fictitious student named Heidi Cee blogs about how her beloved Coach purse was stolen. After paying a $500 for its safe return, she releases that she has been duped with a fake and proceeds to break down into an hour long crying fit. Of course none of the student blogs mentioned that they were fake or had disclaimers about being part of a college credit course sponsored by the IIAC, so the entire situation raises huge ethics questions not only about covert guerrilla marketing practices but also the idea of corporate sponsorship of college courses in general. Read more in an article Scott Jaschik wrote for Inside Higher Ed called “This course brought to you by…” or follow in-depth analysis of the situation on Bob LeDrew’s blog FlackLife.
