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  mhh5, 26 Sep 2000 @ 2:26am

  
  

  Genius...

  These people are geniuses. They don't have to advertise on any other media b/c they've just made it a *news* story. I saw a whole article in the WSJ about this ad campaign. Who needs to buy ads when reporters will write stories about it? I fully expect this campaign to "work" well enough that some other company will try... But they'll fail if they follow too soon b/c no one will hype the "SECOND car to be marketed online only"... And what ever happened to that VW Bug that you could only *buy* online? No one cared about that publicity stunt.... In the end, I predict we're going to see more and more advertisements disguised as content.

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    Mike (profile), 26 Sep 2000 @ 3:17am

    
    

    Re: Genius...

    Good point... though, I'm not sure whether or not people will remember these articles when thinking about buying a new car. Also, I think it's been that way for a while (advertisements disguised as content). In fact, a fairly larger percentage of the news that you read today is exactly that. I try (and occasionally succeed) to avoid all that on Techdirt. It's also why I don't think highly of "press releases" and can't stand when people submit them to Techdirt.

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      mhh5, 26 Sep 2000 @ 4:16am

      
      

      Re: Genius...

      I realize ads-disguised-as-content have existed for some time, but infomercials don't count. Maybe I don't watch enough TV news, but I'm not sure how much news is "advernews"... I definitely think it's an increasing percentage, but not a large one --yet. Maybe we're all headed for a Max-Headroom future of "advernewsment" all the time... But somehow I think/hope journalists will wise up to the trend and separate ads, news, and entertainment.
      
      PS-I'm not sure why I don't just call you up, Mike. I guess it's too late to call...

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        Mike (profile), 26 Sep 2000 @ 11:49am

        
        

        Re: Genius...

        Not talking about infomercials. But plenty of news articles read like they're press releases for the company and not real reporting. That's what I consider "advernews". Just look at news.com. Any sort of product announcement, such as Real Networks and HP working together. Read the article. There's no analysis or critical thinking going on. It's strictly an advertisement in my book. Here's another one about a launch party for Microsoft DataCenter. Someone put out a press release, and news.com thought it was "newsworthy", but it's just an easy unpaid advertisement for MS.

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          mhh5, 26 Sep 2000 @ 12:45pm

          
          

          Re: Genius...

          Ok, one last thing. I agree -- it boggles my mind everytime I see a Palm or Handspring product announcement in the news. Or an Intel/AMD MHz speed bump for that matter. Those kind of stories have no business being reported as real news. However, some articles live in a grey area of "advernews" because they're semi-critical but positive. For example, most Apple "advernews" starts out bashing the company, but then goes on to praise the current product line and Apple future. Look at all the OSX news: people don't like the 'dock', the lack of the 'old apple menu', preemptive multitasking has been a long time coming, etc.. but people love OSX anyway b/c look at the alternatives. Is this bad reporting simply due to the chosen topic of a product announcement? Probably not. Is this "advernews" b/c it decides in favor of the product? Probably, yes.
          
          Ok I'll stop rambling now. I really just wanted to say that any positive "news" article about a company is suspect. But it's not necessarily "advernews." And negative "advernews" is still "advernews" in some cases. Sheesh, I hope I'm still making sense....

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        Mike (profile), 26 Sep 2000 @ 12:20pm

        
        

        Re: Genius...

        And oh yeah, no, you can't call me up at 2 in the morning, because then, you know, I'd have to let everyone who reads Techdirt call me up at 2 in the morning and I don't think I could handle thousands of phone calls at two in the morning. Though... actually, considering the rate at which people post comments here, most of those phone calls would just involve people breathing into the phone and not talking anyway. But, then, of course, I'd just assume I'm being stalked, and I have better things to do with my time then deal with stalkers...

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