Ad Industry Falls Back On Old Tricks
from the this-space-for-rent dept
It's become obvious over the past few years that competition has heightened in the ad business. Not among agencies competing for work, but rather ads competing for people's attention with all the other media they want to see. It used to be a lot easier: advertisers could simply use interruption to get their messages in front of people. That no longer works, though, thanks to things like DVRs and the web, where some content worth seeing is merely a click of a button away from an ad. There's been some inkling of suggestion that advertisers were beginning to understand that they needed to begin regarding their ads as content, and that they need to engage people instead of just annoying them, since the idea of a captive audience is largely disappearing. So what's the latest trend coming out of ad industry? Nope, not better ads -- just the same old stuff pasted on any available object. The article contends that "marketers say the best way to reach time-pressed consumers is to try to catch their eye at every turn" -- but it seems more likely that people will just grow more and more resistant to all the ads they see instead. Advertising is becoming like camouflage on the modern urban environment. Individual ads no longer stick out, they just fill in the background and add to the visual clutter. Some ad agencies are experimenting with more interactive displays that seek to engage viewers through some form of interaction, but this seems secondary to the overall goal of simply throwing ads up anywhere there's space. This won't make ads more effective, it just leads to an arms race of sorts: after everything's coated in ads, how will they make them stick out then? Sadly, it seems, just by finding a way to make them more annoying and interruptive.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Silly Humans....
I understand the need to advertise your product or service, but dam some of the methods are just plain ludicris.
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Prime Example
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I agree...
Advertising has just gotten out of control. It's all over TV and radio (always has been and always will be). The websites we go to have advertising all over it (look to your right). Even the video games I play have advertising in it.
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But more is the new less.
Come on USA, prove that when it comes to depths of tasteless excess you can go one step further.
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Re: But more is the new less.
Puhleeze...we have Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith. If they aren't the depth of "tastless excess", I don't know what is.
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No ads for me.
^^
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FlashBlock
BitTorrent
The Mute Button
Sunglasses
"Advertising has just gotten out of control"?
Yeah ads are totally outta control dude. I saw an ad mugging an old lady in the subway last night.
I don't deal with ads. I prefer a life of sanity.
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ads, ads, everywhere
1990's capitalism triumphed over democracy. Welcome to the
new world state.
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Judging the effectiveness of radio, TV, print, etc. advertising is difficult. At best, it takes a long time to get a read on it. It's even harder when many campaigns happen at the same time. Which one is/isn't working.
One reason it's big news in the ad biz when a client switches agencies is that clients are in the dark for so long.
Compare that to the instant and accurate pay per sale - internet affiliate model. Bad ads are noticed right away, and the cost of every ad can be known. Unproductive affiliates cost nothing.
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Re:
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I went a monster truck show over the weekend and half the dam show was ads it was annoying I mean sure put some stickers on the trucks I can deal with that I don't mind at all in fact I understand monster trucks aren't cheap and ticket sales will not cover the whole cost of the show, but this was just ridicules I thought I was watching TV or something in fact I think I heard and saw more ads there then I would have watching TV. I'm sorry but when I pay to see something sure put up some banners mention a supporter or two but try to keep it to a minimum when I pay to see the show!
I want the show not ads!
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waste basket
And then we take anyone who has ever purchased anything from a spammer or obnoxious web ad and prohibit them from accessing the internet for the rest of their lives because they're obviously too freaking stupid to be left alone with a computer!
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Re: waste basket
some people are just silly.
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Desperate to see commercials
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Re: waste basket
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Start, then abruptly stop
I have noticed this for weeks on the Scifi Channel, perhaps other channels too.
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Those partial ads you see are sold at a cut rate in case no local advertiser bought space.
Hope that answers your question
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Leroy --- if you aqren't using Firefox there is a
Open the hosts file and add an entry to the offending server that points it to the IP address 127.0.0.1. I long ago switched to using a Mac but the file should be located in c:windowssystem32driversetc if I remember correctly.
There are several programs out there that will download lists of known adservers and update the file for you automatically if you prefer to not edit the file yourself.
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