All Rights Reserved © 2004 Thomas W. Day
The Internet economy died when marketing gurus decided that website ads were ineffective. How they made that decision is about as logical as all of the rest of marketing decisions.
Take, for instance, television advertising. Nothing costs more than television advertising, except government. How does a company know its advertising dollar produces income? The Neilson rating system. How do the Neilson ratings determine a program is "popular?" The folks with the Neilson monitors have left their TVs on a program for at least 5 minutes. Those five minutes don't have to be five minutes of advertising, either. Just any old five minutes will do.
Pretty scientific, don't you think?
Last year's ABC attempt to buy Letterman to replace their evening news is based on the idea that people will go to bed, leaving their boob tubes on ABC (and Letterman, who certainly bores me to sleep), and wake up to Diane Sawyer or some talking head selling widgets. If you turn on the tube, head for the bathroom, and leave the box on that channel for five minutes, up go the Neilsons.
What would you spend for the science behind that kind of advertising clout? Personally, I'd rather have a website ad. And I'm not convinced that website ads work, either.
Obviously, ads do something. Otherwise, George Bush II wouldn't be in office. He sure wasn't elected based on performance, capability, intelligence, or good looks. He's proof that most Americans don't know "What me worry?: Alfred E. Newman from "E=MC2" Albert Einstein.
Marketing gurus seem to think that the 18-35 year old male is especially stupid, vulnerable to advertising, in other words. I guess it's possible that 18-35 year old males elected Bush. I have to say that's a disturbing thought. I wouldn't put that whatever group who elected GWB in charge of parking my 35 year old pickup. That rust-bucket still has some practical value.
August 2004
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