Public relations firm Idea Grove interviewed Fark Founder Drew Curtis who, like us, has a few things to say about the idiocy of most advertising. First, he doesn’t understand the counterproductive approach most online advertisers take, saying, “The whole advertising industry confuses me sometimes. Advertisers for some reason really, really want to buy ads that annoy the shit out of the consumer. They want to buy ads that block you from seeing content, that shout at you when you hit the page, that stay on the computer desktop when you leave the site. You know why ads on the right sidebar get better clickthrough rates? Because people are trying to scroll down with their mouse and miss the damn bar, accidentally generating a click. Most popup ad clicks are generated by people missing the X to close the thing out.” He may be right. Someone should do a study on the whole frustrated/missed click thing.
He has no kind words to say about advertisers who insist upon using pops and wonders what advertisers hope to acheive by annoying people.. “What value is that kind of click to an advertiser? I can’t figure out why they want this. Surely they don’t want the added stigma of annoyance tacked onto their brand. Remember X10? Yeah. Assholes. Maybe I’m crazy but I think advertisers should concentrate on enticing the customer with either good product, good ad campaign, or better yet, both. When we have those types of ads on Fark, they go gangbusters.” Here that, advertiser? Promote a product that someone would actually want versus something you are trying to unload from inventory and do so in an interesting and respectful manner. Unfortunately, that seems to be easier said than done.
