The Most Typical Z Finance Joke Of The Day Debate Isn't As Simple As You Might Imagine

FUD is the fear, uncertainty and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering Amdahl products. Microsoft soon picked up the art of FUD from IBM, and throughout the '80s used FUD as a primary marketing tool, much as IBM had in the previous decade. Burson-Marsteller Communications Group has recently conducted a study which shows that 79% of Fortune 100 companies are currently embracing social media as part of their online marketing strategy.

Although illegal downloading is still prevalent within society, producers have taken notice of the possible marketing techniques through free song downloads. The SCO Group's 2003 lawsuit against IBM, funded by Microsoft, claiming $5 billion in intellectual property infringements by the free software community, is an example of FUD, according to IBM, which argued in its counterclaim that SCO was spreading "fear, uncertainty, and doubt". Again he was caught in a tempest of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt (often shortened to FUD) is a propaganda tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics, polling and cults.

Suspicion has no place in our interchanges; it is a shield for ignorance, a sign of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. The abbreviation FUD is also alternatively rendered as "fear, uncertainty and disinformation". This usage of FUD to describe disinformation in the computer hardware industry is said to have led to subsequent popularization of the term. After 1991, the term has become generalized to refer to any kind of disinformation used as a competitive weapon.

From the 1990s onward, the term became most often associated with Microsoft. The intention of this slogan and the associated advertising campaign has been interpreted as appealing to consumers' fears that products from companies with less brand recognition are less trustworthy or effective. Critics also pointed out that, despite its representation of GreenWorks products as "green" in the sense of being less harmful to the environment and/or consumers using them, the products contain a number of ingredients advocates of natural products have long campaigned against the use of in household products due to toxicity to humans or their environment.

The slogan implied both that "green" products manufactured by other companies which had been available to consumers prior to the introduction of Clorox's GreenWorks line had all been ineffective, and also that the new GreenWorks line was at least as effective as Clorox's existing product lines.

By spreading questionable information about the drawbacks of less well-known products, an established company can discourage decision-makers from choosing those products over its own, regardless of the relative technical merits. FUD is widely recognized as a tactic to promote the sale or implementation of security products and measures. The drawback to the FUD tactic in this context is that, when the stated or implied threats fail to materialize over time, the customer or decision-maker frequently reacts by withdrawing budgeting or support from future security initiatives.