Airtel.com takes you to vodafone website - Sleazy or Lazy?

How many times have we talked about sleazy marketing strategies and lazy branding? Well, there are some who get away with cheap thrills like Sprite (whose only motto was to devalue Coke’s rival Pepsi by mocking others), but then again, there are some who can give us the shock of our lives. Take Vodafone for example. I have always been fond of their amazing ads shown on TV and have respected the brains behind. But today, while surfing the internet, I typed www.airtel.com (as will most of the people who are curious to know about Airtel) and to my utter dismay, I found, I am redirected to Vodafone Spain! Airtel’s most probabilistic domain taken up by Vodafone? Hijacked? WTH. Just try it out.

However, don’t jump into conclusions yet. Read on to get more twists and meet the real villain.

Sleazy Vodafone?

airtel.com was owned by Airtel Spain. Later Airtel spain was acquired by Vodafone. It was in the year 2000 when Vodafone completed the acquisition. If it killed all the fun for you, there is no way we can blame Vodafone for it. So the sleaziness accusing Vodafone doesn’t hold (ofcourse unless we consider that Vodafone had the foresight that they will acquire Hutch after 7 years and then Airtel will be their immediate rival. But anyway, we can not make a case out of it against Vodafone.)

Lazy Airtel?

But what about lazy branding? Despite knowing millions of people will actually come and visit and inquire about their company in that domain (airtel.com) directly, Airtel never ever asked Vodafone to sell it to them (at least not in public which could have still made the case for them). In this hugely growing internet world, how can you be so relaxed after seeing that the most important domain name of your company redirects you to the rival’s site! I am speechless. Its as if typing amd.com takes you to intel’s website. Ridiculous, no?

What do you think?