USA Today degrades Digg

30Apr08

Today I was reading an article on The USA Today web site which pontificated on the $64K question, “is the Fed done cutting the Prime Rate?”. In short, the economy is still in the doldrums, however, the Fed believes it’s work is done, yada, yada yada.

I thought it was interesting, so I clicked the Digg button, expecting to be teleported to the Digg.com web site and share the story with the community. TIME OUT. Instead of going to Digg, I was served an interstitial page, with a display ad from Dell. A new navigation bar appeared at the top asking me to click a button if I wanted to keep reading USA Today. What the F? Didn’t I just click the Digg button? I think I declared where I wanted to go.

The bottom line is USA Today is inserting buttons from sites like Digg, Facebook and Reddit, not only to look hip (Web 2.0 logos do that for an old gen media company) and to acquire free traffic, but what’s really evil?… These branded buttons are being used to bang the CPM/C meter. Dell, you’re a sucker if you pay for the bill.

And what about Digg? Unless Digg is paying for their presence on USA Today (would love to know officially) which I doubt, then they are being degraded and simply used for the purpose of creating unearned revenue for USA Today. I would think that would violate their Ts & Cs, but I’m not a lawyer.

Bottom line, this is the EXACT type of practice that desensitizes end users to online advertising. A big thank you should go to USA Today for eating it’s tail and damaging the online advertising industry.

Filed under: Display Ads   |  2 Comments
Tags: Dell, Digg.com, Display Ads, USA Today

NY Times goes on Russian diet, to be funded by Iraqi venture capital.

25Apr08

As I read through this article on the NY Times today, coincidently about online advertising, my eyes wandered to the Google Adsense module. Now mind you, the article is about ad networks.

You know, I can look the other way on the praying upon the weight challenged people ad. After all, that’s a significant percentage of all Americans so hey, odds are it’ll work. Venture capital? Well, sure. There’s no question the Financial community reads the NYT.

What really irks me is the text ad for a Russian news site which headline reads. “Iraq chaos: 130 dead”. Love the second line, “…Watch Video!” No evidence of any such story on the site and quite revolting marketing (call to action). What’s next? “Come watch the carnage in Darfur via our live streaming video!”

Way to go on that Adsense moderation algorithm Google! Jeez.

Filed under: Text ads   |  Leave a Comment

I read therefore I can dunk, run a 4.7 40 and have a 370 batting average.

24Apr08

Today’s gem comes to us courtesy of Yahoo! There’s nothing like curling up with a great audio book (huh?) like “The Call of The Wild” and having dreams of becoming an NCAA athlete. I’m sure that’s what Jack London had in mind when he penned this classic.

This was almost too easy. Every ad in the unit was non contextual. I guess Yahoo! believes anyone who wants to download a free audio book must be getting ready to apply for college. Perhaps it’s not that big of a stretch. Why bother reading a book when you can listen to it the night before your test. Brilliant!

Thanks to FreeClassicAudobooks.com for today’s AdBomb! I’m sure the clicks are piling up.

Filed under: Text ads   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Audiobooks, NCAA Scholarships, online contextual advertising, Text ads

Hillary Clinton needs teeth whitening and has bad credit?

23Apr08

Here’s a great example of non contextual text advertisements. The snappy copy was delivered by quigo, using their AdSonar network and displayed on Fox News.

The article is titled, “Clinton Claims ‘Tide is Turning’ After After Defeating Obama in Pennsylvania”

Poor Hillary, just when she’s getting ready to party in Pennsylvania, this is thrown in her face. Bad Teeth AND Bad credit? Tough day for Barack and definite AdBomb for the publisher site.

Filed under: Text ads   |  1 Comment
Tags: Hillary Clinton, online contextual advertising, Text ads