Not for the US
Check out these 10 adds that Add Age says won’t show up in the US.
Via Juan Non-Volokh.
Marketing
Real Suit
Sure, they are probably right:
In a complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, California, RealNetworks claimed that Microsoft “pursued a broad course of predatory conduct over a period of years by abusing its monopoly power, resulting in substantial lost revenue and business for RealNetworks.”
but I wonder what makes them think that they will have any more success then Netscape.
The Peddlers Strike Back
Remember those peddlers we got rid of in the last post? Well, their more traditional counterparts are working on some new techniques to help us part with our hard earned cash:
A company in Atlanta is scanning people’s brains with MRIs, in an effort to record our subconscious thoughts about products and ads.
The process has been dubbed neuromarketing. It’s being hailed as a giant leap in the science of selling. But the technique is also raising some concerns.
The Emory University School of Medicine is performing some neuromarketing research and a Nader outfit called Commercial Alert is demanding they stop:
Commercial Alert and prominent psychology experts sent a letter today to Emory University President James Wagner, requesting that Emory stop conducting neuromarketing experiments. These medical experiments on human subjects are unethical because they will likely be used to promote disease and human suffering.
Apparently they are using Emory as a trial balloon as this specific type of research is a wordwide phenomena.
Tyler Cowan thinks the concerns are overblown:
Furthermore the worries are overblown. Let’s say we found such a buy button and that corporations could use that knowledge in their ads. Would it really shift the marketing balance of power in favor of sellers? Over time I would expect buyers to compensate, as the knowledge would not stay secret for very long.
And a Forbes article archived by Commercial Alert agrees:
The rational response to the injection of brain waves into Madison Avenue is that it will neither revolutionize marketing nor make us consumer slaves. It will, rather, yield incremental benefits. “The human brain is the most complicated thing in the universe,” says John Van Horn, a research associate professor in psychology and brain sciences at Dartmouth College. “It would be arrogant to say we could stick someone in a machine and understand everything.”
And, really, you and I and everyone else is looking for the same magic button all the time…we just don’t have the money to fund focus groups or use MRI machines.
Senate Supports Spammers 97-0
Well, it sure looks this way to me.
For instance,
the bill now includes a provision, supported by some opponents of spam, that directs the Federal Trade Commission to come up with a plan for a no-spam registry.
I think the off shore spammers will love this one: a list comprised of mostly good email addresses! Yea, I know that the spammers are supposed to send in their lists for scrubbing but I suspect joes p*rn shop won’t be sending in their list.
Marketing Peripherals
Eric at the Fireant Gazette is not sold by this Kensington add on the back of the September isse of MacWorld:
The tag line on the ad reads “Suddenly, Jennifer realized she forgot her Kensington Car/Air Adapter.” The “snicker, snicker” is implied……
I suppose this ad is appropriate if your demographic target is 13-year-old males, but last time I check Apple’s price list (and it’s been pretty recently, you know), most of them don’t have the kind of folding cash needed for Apple’s stuff.
Does anyone know on which airline this is common?