"Have advertisers ever quit TMP over bad reviews?" Topic

You cannot advertise on TMP or have news stories without a lot of negative flack.
I wonder if any advertisers have ever left in a rage over bad reviews?

I rmemeber once when I wondered if some sculptor had ever seen a woman's body. Outrage ensued, but compared to others' rants about other products, I thought that was pretty tame criticism. I heard later that that company left in a snit, but cannot be sure.
That's nothing compared to what Battlefront and Games Workshop have to put up with.

That company was essentially a one man operation who did the business out of a love for what he was doing, not for the nearly invisible profit margin. The sculpt in question was one that someone else had done for him, not one of his own.

Given his product line of his own sculpts (the repro rights since sold to another firm) which are excellent, he decided the hassle and insults outweighed the benefits, both monetarily and personally.

Leaving in a snit? Perhaps you could call it that. I'd offer that non-corporations (unlike GW) often do what they do for the love of the game as it were as opposed to it being their living. I know that is the case (non-TMP'er) Michael Thomas who went around searching for, buying the production rights, having moulds remastered for a number of minis, mostly the Heritage and Der Kreigspielers he could get but also has some Ral Parthas, including the Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age. He sells legitimate recasts, but not as a business at all. Can't afford it, not enough income, doesn't need the hassle with his wife and infant.

In the case of Eric, whether the ranting hit him at a bad time or whether he was at a point of departure anyways doesn't really matter. It wasn't fun anymore. Decided to just close up shop and walk away. He did advertise here IIRC.

I'm glad his figs were picked up as I think they are some of the best around. I'm pretty sure that a fellow TMP'ers company owns them now:

link

GW has lawyers to deal with this stuff and the owners / sculptors / painters are isolated from the ranting. Mom & Pop companies? Not so much…

JJ

JJ,
Those are some extremely cool figs!
Thanks,
Kevin

Well, in the famous case you refer to above, the company chose to go out of business – which had the indirect effect of cancelling their advertising!

(The only good news being that someone else bought the models, and they are TMP advertisers.)

Advertisers seldom give me a reason when they stop advertising, and it is only months or years later when I hear the rumor "oh, they quit TMP, they didn't like such-and-such…" that I find out the (real?) reason. If they give a reason, it's usually "cash flow" or "trying other forms of advertising" or "temporary shut down" (which may be permanent – sometimes they don't return, sometimes they go out of business!).

Or sometimes the advertisers come back to TMP, and then I may finally learn why they left in the first place.

Bottom line: I don't recall any advertiser ever telling me at the time that they were quitting over a bad review/comment.

klepley,

Yep.

This guy is my favorite:

with other color schemes at:

link

You have no idea how hard it was for me to control my beast during the prelim shoots of this. The "bird" I'm holding is a prop as HsTaThaa ate the real one.

JJ

Battlefront and Games Workshop

Do they ACTUALLY advertise here?
Are they paid advertisers?
I don't ever remember seeing them here in an 'official' presence.

Battlefront and Games Workshop

Do they ACTUALLY advertise here?
Are they paid advertisers?

Battlefront is a TMP advertiser.

Games Workshop is not.

Still picking that scab??

All miniatures are distorted to make them look "right". But through that lens, the sculpt in question was a lot more like a real woman than most of the Barbie dolls. An excellent sculpt along with the others in the series.

Pity Bill doesn't exile people for being boorish.

You'd be gone, Hew. That 1.14 ratio didn't happen by happy accident.

Heck, the place would be a ghost town. Bill might even exile himself for good measure because commiting forum genocide by exiling most of us is pretty darn boorish in itself.

Damn straight. It's hard work.

Obnoxious? maybe. Boorish? no. That distinction belongs to those who post a lot and have nothing to say.