Although we thought Enfatico was put to bed for the time being, we learned today who is behind its much-more-fun doppelganger, Enfartico DOT com, and why the Web site no longer exists.
Your Monday night may be dominated by track and field and gymnastics (go Nastia!), but we’re here to keep the ever-ridiculouser Enfatico details coming (yeah, we had to make up a word and hyphenate it to describe this situation). It’s worth a click.
More after the jump.
Robert Gilbreath is the dude behind Adomatica DOT com, and subsequently Enfartico. I know Gilbreath because he was the first blogger to poke fun at me when I first started here at AgencySpy.
He leaked the info about Enfartico to us last week, and immediately our senses were piqued to the possibility that Rob was at the helm of the bizarro ship (notice the “thanks Rob” in the first paragraph of our original story).
But our thoughts were quickly distracted by the depth of the cover-up, including a phony address (which we discovered with a quick whois search) and the subsequent coverage of the issue by the New York Post and others.
We asked Rob if he received any e-mails, phone calls, smoke signals or tweets from anyone claiming to be from the real Enfatico, WPP or Dell.
Rob: “I never got directly contacted by anyone at Enfatico. They did, however, complain to the company that was hosting the site regarding my fake/funny whois data and that got the site taken down. I was
hoping for at least an email from them, but I guess they weren’t sure
who they were dealing with.”
If you try to check out Enfartico DOT com, you’ll get this message; “This directNIC Free Hosting account has been terminated due to a violation of the directNIC Free Hosting Terms of Service.”
Leave it to WPP/ENfatico/Dell to resolve this little issue through passive aggression. Like first-time parents of a teenager, the agency-that-can’t is increasingly coming off as wary of bloggers…and other social media it doesn’t own.
So rather than address the issue with a stern e-mail or the lawyer approach, Enfatico got its way by whining. It was their best move, since making a ruckus would have landed the agency’s name in more negative headlines. So now, more questions for Rob.
Matt: Tell us about the site.
Rob: “This was too easy to do. I was really surprised that no one had
thought of it already. I guess sometimes the best ideas are the most
simple ones. I originally thought of this after first seeing the
enfatico site and thinking that even I, with basic html skills, could
spoof it…If I had to quickly answer the why I did it question again, I would say that I did it to show how quickly and easily it is to use the web as a means to make some noise, rattle some folks, and simply generate buzz. Frankly, I’m looking for my next victim…I mean next client who wants to use the web in a positive manner.”
We couldn’t agree more. It’s easy to pick on Enfatico, especially when they’re doing so little to communicate/actually show us the work they’ve supposedly done.
Rob: “I don’t hate them or want them to fail. Unfortunately, Enfatico is the latest whipping-boy and I figured that the timing was right considering the count-down clock that tribble recently put out there.”
We agree with Rob on that, save for the part about working there. We don’t do advertising, we just write about it.