Journalist Still Loves Desktop Billboard Company

Tessa Wegert is at it again trying to convince us that people want to see ads on their desktops and that AdDiem's Digital Billboard, a company she wrote about last week that serves content and ads to a person's desktop, is something people would actually seek out and download. We didn't like it last week and we don't this week as she positions AdDiem's Digital Billboard as a custom publishing solution and gushes about that particular medium's benefits. OK. Last week, as the name indicates, it was a digital billboard. This week, that same company has somehow morphed into a custom publishing solution. Which is it Tessa and why would anyone want it?

Of course custom publishing works but that's because most people who receive a custom publication (mostly unrequested) don't know the content has been completely paid for by the advertiser. When people think they're getting unbiased information, they're getting anything but. So now Digital Billboard, which is a piece of software a person has to download and serves noting but "paid content" and ads is somehow something a rationale person would want? Pardon us while we stick our head out the window and puke on the sidewalk below.

While there is certainly merit to custom publications, Tessa twists her promotional efforts for Digital Billboard even further countering some who said corporate firewalls would block Digital Billboard by saying "And because custom publications are generally read at home, the way magazines are, company firewalls that could bar a successful download become a moot point." A moot point? What about all the research that proves daytime is primetime for the Internet? Sure people go online at home but not nearly as much as they do during the day...while at work...behind corporate firewalls. And who says all magazines are read at home?

Who knows. Maybe there's value to AdDiem's proposition. We just don't see it. Another point to consider regarding desktop advertising: when was the last time you actually saw your desktop? Last we checked, most people have multiple applications running at the same time and can't be bothered with anything that would take their attention away from them. If Microsoft chose to give away its Office Suite in exchange for placing ad banners in the menu bars of each program, then we might be talking about valuable desktop ad space. Until that happens, people have work to do. Not ads to read.