Great Idea, Shame About the Marketing

This is an interesting proposition.  “Sign up for our Linux card and help a cherished organisation.  However, apart for an initial $50 bung, we won’t tell you how much more you will be contributing.  Just spend like mad, safe in the knowledge that part of your spend will also be contributed.”

How much, then?  1%, 2%?  Or will it be something like 0.00000001%?  Why be so coy?  Is it because the percentage is big or vanishingly small?

How can this offer be right?  Who would sign up for such a deal?  Why aren’t they being open about the percentage?

I though we were moving towards more transparency in financial services.  Maybe this is the definition of ‘transparency’ in the US of A, but hopefully it won’t wash here in the UK.

I guess quite a few people would like to contribute like this to an organisation like the Linux Foundation, but I bet quite a few will be put off by the lack of transparency.  After all, who these days likes to be taken for a fool?