[st1x7]

This is kind of embarassing. Do you guys think that the people at Facebook who make these decisions realise how pathetic it looks from the outside? Or are they somehow justifying it in their own heads?

[threeseed]

My partner runs a small business and bidding on competitors is recommended by many marketing blogs.

It's extremely common now and before the internet this sort of marketing i.e. positioning against your competitor was also extremely common.

[ergocoder]

As a consumer, I also want to know the competitors on the product I'm buying.

I don't think this practice is generally bad.

[colejohnson66]

They don’t “realize it’s pathetic” because it’s SOP for companies buying ads to bid on their competitor’s name. You can argue that that is pathetic, but this one instance isn’t special.