Filed under: Fun, Internet, Weird Wednesday
Weird Wednesday: Internet advertising
1. In-your-face gigantic ads or ads that "do something" significant to distract you. Common examples include full-page "interstitial" ads that interrupt your browsing, anything that flies around the screen or busts out of its little box or anything that expands when you hover over it.
2. Creative, "viral" ads that are so clever, weird, gross or unusual that they are passed around despite their more than obvious marketing nature. Let's look at some of these, shall we?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I prefer the latter. Unfortunately tracking down "weird" ads isn't easy. Ad campaigns, by their nature, are dynamic and ephemeral. The Internet Archive doesn't cache dynamic ads, either, so some of those golden oldies may be lost forever. If you snag a pic, please let us know in the comments.
A few of the more clever online ads are presented for your consumption on the next page.
I have a bad habit of leaving Adult Swim on at night while I toil away in the wee hours, and a new Old Spice ad has been running in-between other 30-second ads. It's a simple thing on TV, just a URL "ResidueIsEvil.com" and a creepy sing-song voice. Unfortunately you arrive at the site to see what looks like some pretty nasty underarm hair and an infestation of what is supposed to be deodorant residue... but looks more like albino Corn Pops.
The site is kinda clever, though, with random "nasty" things being activated when you click on a chunk of festering deodorant. My favorite was the Idiot site, where you have your pic taken and put (with permission) into a gallery of other "idiots." The pic is taken somewhat randomly, evidenced by my thoroughly doofy look.
Another recent fave is the Pringles "can hands" ad, which won a 2009 Cannes Cyber Lions award (I'd never heard of it either, but the Cannes part makes it sound sexy, doesn't it?). Like any cyber lion, you'll be pawing at this one for a while. It tells a story, of sorts, and tests your endurance like those stupid "Big Red Button" iPhone apps and websites, but the Pringles ad isn't lame. It's funny and clever, which is what you should be doing as a marketer, frankly. Maybe not for life insurance, but for junk food, it's great. The big question: will people click on it?
Of course, the name of the game in web advertising is "getting to click." Advertisers seem to have moved on from the seizure-inducing flashing light banners, and some sites are actually reducing their overall ads on the page, realizing more isn't always better. But marketers continue to have to get creative, and that often involves oddball enticements and dynamic elements on the page. What strange stuff have you seen out there?
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mason said 8:54PM on 8-05-2009
Found this one when I was downloading a file... if the link didn't work, simply email me for it... it's a really good, funny one.
http://i31.tinypic.com/2i97e9t.jpg
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michael.shi said 8:21AM on 8-10-2009
haven't seen a lots ads lately, thanks to Adblock plus and Adsweep
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