"Don’t buy insurance from Progressive."

No brand wants to see anyone on the Internet telling others not to buy its product. But as any multimillion dollar brand has come to surely experience, there are a lot of haters in the world and talk on the Internet is cheap. But the case with Progressive Insurance is different and its bungled handling of the criticism has turned what should have been one of those dismal, forgettable cases of the insurance industry being the stupid greedy insurance industry everyone knows it is, into a PR disaster that may do the brand genuine harm.Continue reading...

Readers participating in the Consumerist blog’s second annual Worst Ad in America Awards have crowned Luvs “Poop! There It Is” as the 2011 winner, (above) taking 32% of the 115,000 votes and beating an AT&T spot at 23.98%, in which a wife berates her husband for signing the family up for unlimited texting. Check that out, plus this year's other Consumerist 'winners,' below.Continue reading...

Walmart has built its entire retail brand around the proposition that it "always" offers the lowest prices. "Always Low Prices" was the seemingly timeless Walmart mantra, only recently replaced with the tagline, "Save money. Live better."

Well it turns out that Walmart's prices are low — but not necessarily lower than everybody else.

Arch-rival Target, who has continued to make gains at Walmart's expense, may actually beat out Walmart when it comes to lower prices, according to recent studies.Continue reading...

It's that time of year again, kids! The Consumerist's 6th annual Worst Company in America tournament is underway. In the spirit of March Madness, the Consumer Reports-owned blog has picked a bracket of 32 companies, culled from thousands of nominations, this year.Continue reading...

...goes to Staples' "Wow! That's a Low Price!" commercial (actually one of a series), with 30.6% of the vote. The Consumerist blog received more than 100,000 votes for its first "worst ad in America" awards. Click through for the other winners — er, losers.Continue reading...

Brands beware – you are now subject to consumer rankings on performance and values.

Launched in March, Brandkarma.com is the brainchild of Craig Davis, Publicis Mojo Australia chief creative officer and co-chairman. At the heart of the site is the Brandkarma flower, with five petals emblematic of how a brand treats its customers, employees, investors, suppliers and the planet.

More than 300 brands are included so far, including Starbucks, Disney, the BBC, The Huffington Post, Whole Foods, Google, Apple, Tesco, Toyota, Nokia, McDonald’s and Nestle.

The brands are rated by consumers with comments and color grades, from red (bad) to green (good). Each has its own ‘karma flower’ which is color-hued according to the number and ranking of responses. The site also includes rss news feeds and a ‘hot or not’ style voting tool.Continue reading...