5/26/2006

Isn't this truly obnoxious

Banner discover 468x60

The text on this banner reads Discover a Place Before The President Starts a War There Search from Here - Kayak.com.

Imagine, this is not a political site, this is a business. Guess they are writing off the red states. Or in their arrogance, they think that conservatives don't travel.

Here's the message from the affiliate site of Kayak.com
Congratulations! You have been approved into the Kayak.com Affiliate Program!

Created by co-founders of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, Kayak.com is a search engine that helps consumers find great travel deals from over 100 other travel sites.

Our Affiliate program gives you 50 % of the revenue we generate from visitors who are sent to us from your site.

We offer a variety of links and link types. We recommend using our popular (and high conversion) Dynamic Rich Media search box.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at partners@kayak.com with any questions.

Thank you for your participation in the Kayak.com affiliate program, and we look forward to a rewarding partnership with you!


I had one of their banners up on my Things You Should Do website, something with a normal message, but I went searching to find a banner I could post that was a different size when I stumbled across this one. I semt the affiliate manager an email last week expressing how offensive this banner was, but I received no reply (it figures)

Perhaps other bloggers might want to tell the founders of Orbitz, Travelocity & Expedia how offensive their marketing is.

Calling themselves the new Internet travel "dream team," a group of online travel experts has launched a Norwalk-based Web site to take on the companies they helped develop into industry giants. Former executives from Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia and Intuit have created Kayak.com, an online travel search site with its headquarters on Marshall Street /snip/ Kayak.com's founders include Steve Hafner, co-founder and chief executive officer of Kayak.com and a co-founder of Orbitz Inc. in 1999. /snip/ The Kayak.com team also includes Chairman of the Board Terry Jones, the former president and chief executive officer of Travelocity.com, which he helped found in 1996; and Greg Slyngstad, director, former senior vice president of destinations and lodging at Expedia.com, which he helped found. Also Keith Melnick, formerly a manager at the Boston Consulting Group, where he served on the launch team of Orbitz; Matt Mancuso, former corporate controller at Hotwire, which he helped found in 2000; and Drew Patterson, former director of pricing, distribution and e-commerce for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, where he oversaw formation of Travelweb, a hotel industry consortium to distribute net rate inventory.