Sunday, August 31, 2008

A WINNER? I don't think so

Internet advertising? The closest thing to 'the work of the devil'

Pop-ups, pop-unders, interstitials, general spam, fake-lottery notifications. Who knows, perhaps the summer months have turned me into a more attentive person. But am I alone in having noticed the renewed proliferation of INSTANT WINNER, NOT A JOKE YOU'VE JUST WON!..., and SERIOUS! PRIZE WAITING FOR YOU? They're absolutely everywhere, including some allegedly reliable and respected websites. I thought the end of pop-ups would herald a new era of more civilised net surfing. Or, more likely, the spammers never left in the first place and I never noticed.

Either way they reinforce my belief that marketing and advertising is the closest thing to 'the work of the devil' humans have mastered. Because this is marketing we're talking about. When you're ready to dress up, mislead and lie in order to coax gullible people into squeezing money out of their purse when they don't otherwise intend to, then what else is there but a cunning marketing operation?

Which leaves you wondering if there's still any click-happy plonker out there who genuinely believes he's an unsolicited internet winner. In these times of instant gratification, nothing's surprising anymore.

No comments: