1139 Algorithm and Blues (Ad Nauseam)

1139 Algorithm and Blues Ad Nauseam

The computer age has brought us yet another form of ad-noction.   First it was just advertising.  Then came pop ups.  We all made quick work of them.  Now, it’s the nag-a-tive advertising.

They email you constantly.  There even are companies that help business nag you to death.  Turnoff. How many emails can one take from one source before marking them spam and letting Google heave this stuff over the side of the ship for you.  No heavy lifting.

No more popups.  Now we have “pop-throughs”  You’re on a page.  You click on a link and instead of the link, you get a pop-through that takes up most but not all of your screen.  Brilliant.  There’s a solution.  Tell ya later, keep reading.

Newer animated ads or ads with sound are hard to ignore.  And many of them want to panic you into buying home security systems or computer security systems … “YOUR COMPUTER MAY BE AT RISK!!!!”  “WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU CAME HOME AND YOUR LITTLE BABY AND HIS BABY SITTER WERE KIDNAPPED????”

Along with pop-throughs, favorites of the newspaper websites that charge you for page views:  drop-downs.  They fall like a theater curtain. Sometimes you can’t raise them until they have their way with you.  And sometimes they keep coming back, no matter what.

But here’s some praise for one form of advertising, the little things in the right margin of G-mail.  Why praise?  Well, two reasons.  First, they’re usually based on some Google algorithm that scans your searches and emails and puts in related advertising.   But that’s not the best and here comes that solution.  You can use these ads to train your sense of selective blindness.  After awhile, you’ll find yourself focusing on the middle of the screen, completely ignoring the ads.

This will lead you to the next stage, which is reflexive selective blindness.  When the pop-throughs pop through, you can X them out before you even know what they’re for.  Training, friends, training.  And self discipline.

Do this with Youtube ads, too.  “Skip this ad in five seconds.... four... three...” start clicking on it when the countdown box reaches “two.”  Since these ads tend to be long, they generally introduce themselves slowly and by the time the first five seconds pass and you click “skip ad” they haven’t gotten around to telling you what the ad is trying to sell.

Constant Contact trains business to nag you.  You can strike back.  Write and give them hell.

Ad-nauseam, ad-nausiciam.  The algorithms give us all of us the blues.

Shrapnel:

--NBC showed up fifth in the ratings, behind CBS, ABC, Fox and Univision.  How the mighty have fallen.  But ratings are cyclical and everyone eventually gets a shot at number one.

--Admitted killer Jodi Arias is giving the prosecutor in her Arizona murder trial a run for his money.  He’s nasty and angry while she’s cool-headed and zings him quietly.  But in the end, it won’t matter because the jury will find her guilty of... something.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013, AD