Games In Ads Still Work

from the sneaky,-sneaky... dept

Back in 1996 or 1997 when banner ads were first becoming popular online, I (like so many folks) quickly learned to ignore them. Then, one day, I came across the banner ad that got me hooked. I was ashamed to admit it, but there was a banner ad from HP for a product called the mopier (yes, I still remember), and within the banner ad, you could play the game pong. Yes, it's a very simple game, and there were probably other places online I could have found pong, but I got hooked for at least half an hour playing pong in a banner ad. Afterwards, I was a little ashamed, but later spent time trying to search out the same ad. The HP mopier product never went anywhere, but that ad has stayed in my head ever since. Of course, since then, there have been plenty of other ads that have involved games, and I've learned to ignore all of them as well. However, I'm reminded of that story in reading this article from an editor at PC Mag who basically went through an identical game-in-ad playing experience recently - but in a pop up ad. It seems that no matter how much you dislike ads, sometimes you just can't ignore a little game.
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  1. identicon
    eeyore, 6 Nov 2003 @ 5:08am

    boss

    my boss used to play the "fly the blimp" game in the Orbitz banner ads. I think he actually spent nearly an entire day playing it once.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    hired.goon, 6 Nov 2003 @ 9:58am

    Re: games in adds

    i remember that mopier ad! i got sucked in same as you for at least 30mins. i saw it on CNet only once, and must've sat there for about 20mins hitting "refresh" after my browser crashed, trying to get it to pop up again.

    sadly, it only came up once.

    sadly? ugh. it *was* an add after all, so maybe not that sad after-all. :)

    -hg

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Beck, 6 Nov 2003 @ 1:46pm

    Re: boss

    You can play those games? I always thought they were just a trick to get you to click and go to the advertiser's site.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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