An hour or so ago I read a grisly article about some Russian kids that killed and ate their goth friends. After scrolling down to the end of the piece and feeling appropriately perturbed, I came across the Ask.com video ad at left.
“How can you learn to walk in high heels?” it burbles cheerfully. “Get the answer.” I played the video out of morbid curiosity and watched a pair of legs walk, with sass, up until the grand finale — when the owner of those legs topples over with a scream, followed by cries of dismay.
It remains unclear whether she was eaten after her plummet from grace.
Clicking on “Get the answer” brought me to Ask.com, where a “natural” question — in this case, “How can you learn to walk in stilettos” — had been pre-queried. The most prominent result is a handy article titled “Walking in High Heels,” flanked by a shot of a fuck-me stiletto, links to shoe porn (Manolo Blahnik! Jimmy Choo!), and supplementary resources like “History of high heels” and “Health concerns.”
This is part of an effort by Ask.com to laser in on women, a demo it had some success targeting in the golden age of Ask Jeeves — wait wait, wrong picture.
Nice job with the ad. The video was lame, but the pitch was good and the click-through both informative and navigation-friendly. Maybe Ask.com could work on that whole “contextual targeting” thing, though.
