The BadAds Weblog: June 2001

A DIfferent Kind of Spam

According to an article in ZDNet, Reva Networks has developed a technology that lets Internet Service Providers wrap incoming e-mail with ads before passing it on to the recipient. Says the article, "Admail will be sent with advertisements wrapped the around e-mail – down the right hand side and over the top of the message – and as ISPs have demographic information on all their subscribers, those ads can be tailored to suit individual profiles." Admail may hit inboxes within a month.

What you can do: E-mail Reva Networks and let them know that you consider Admail intrusive and an invasion of privacy. After all, you're paying for ISP service – why should you be subjected to ads, too?

You can also e-mail your ISP if they start using Admail and threaten to take your business elsewhere.

Reva Networks Pty Ltd
Contact: Robert Pickup
Phone: 61-3-9652-0237
Fax: 61-3-9652-0240
Mobile: 0407-528-349
Email: robert.pickup@revanetworks.com

June 26, 2001

Faster, Higher, More Annoying

With the Olympics coming to Salt Lake City in 2002, hucksters are already salivating. No, not because they're sports fans, silly – they're pumped up over the opportunity to slap advertising on every athlete, blimp, and stadium they can get their hands on.

Trykor Rolling Media, for example, has promised (threatened?) to wrap 50 taxicabs with advertising as part of its Salt Lake City Program: "The cabs run 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and will blanket the entire region in which the Winter Games take place.... These vehicle wraps offer advertisers a bona fide solution, where traditional outdoor is nowhere to be found."

Trykor, which offers an array of "Alternative Outdoor Solutions" (i.e., advertising in places it shouldn't be), has only begun to look for sponsors, so perhaps you should write the company and try to persuade them not to sully ourselves in front of the entire world.

David Margolis
1272 Morena Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110
Phone: 877-287-9567
Fax: 619-275-4465
E-mail: dmargolis@trykorrollingmedia.com

June 20, 2001

Ads Full of Hot Air

We already have ads imprinted in beach sand, ads on garbage cans at the beach, and advertising blimps floating above the water. It seems like the only place on the beach you can avoid ads is in the water itself.

Until now. Now, message-laden blimps are towed along in the water by powerboats to ensure that no matter where beach-goers look, they're confronted with pleas for their money.

Right now the company responsible for these water blimps, Poseidon Display, is negotiating with advertisers for the blimps' maiden voyage. But you can write to Poseidon Display's parent company, Olympus Enterprises, to voice your feelings about this form of intrusive advertising: info@olympusent.com.

June 19, 2001

Surviving Assaults from Advertisers

Ads on TV don't qualify as intrusive since they support free programming, but we thought this quote from Mark Burnett, producer of Survivor, exemplifies how folks in the broadcasting business view their audience:

Survivor is as much a marketing vehicle as it is a television show. My shows create an interest, and people will look at them, but the endgame here is selling products in stores – a car, deodorant, running shoes. It's the future of television. (from Esquire, July 2001)

That "endgame" is no longer limited to commercial breaks. For its second series, Survivor integrated brand-name products into the show itself, with contestants winning corn chips, for example, and waving bags about triumphantly. Everyone mocks infomercials, but apparently that's "the future of television." Thanks a lot, Mark.

June 14, 2001

Unholy Ads

In a recent newsletter, we wrote that if we don't put an end to advertising in schools, our homes and churches will be next on advertisers' lists. Little did we know that advertisers had already infiltrated our churches!

The simple cardboard fan has been a mainstay in African American churches for years. Traditionally, one side of the fan depicted Jesus, a praying girl, or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The other side had a subtle ad for an African American-owned funeral home.

But now mainstream advertisers have gotten in on the act, supplying churches with fans emblazoned with ads for everything from McDonald's to real estate agents. Writes Tatsha Robertson in the Boston Globe, "For pennies a fan, businesses are able to turn the faithful into standing, swaying billboards."

Unfortunately, the only advertiser the article mentioned by name is McDonald's. Please write to them and let them know that it's not appropriate to turn church-goers into advertising hucksters for their business.

McDonald's
Jack M. Greenberg, CEO
McDonald's Plaza
Oak Brook, IL 60523
Phone: 630-623-3000
Fax: 630-623-5004

If you're aware of any other companies that advertise on church fans, we hope you'll contact them as well. You can find contact information for many companies on Hoovers.

June 12, 2001

Misfortune Cookies

The following is a message from the Stay Free Ad Creep Forum (reprinted with permission of the author):

When I broke open my fortune cookie this evening, what should I find printed on the back of my fortune but an advertisement for Half.com. I've seen lucky numbers and useless lessons in Chinese printed on the reverse side of the slips before, but this was new. Apparently, some manufacturers have decided it's not lucrative enough to mass produce cookies promising its eaters health and happiness and some companies will advertise on any available surface open to them, but I wish I didn't result in me and others getting further bombarded by advertisements.

Half.com seems to be vying for the title of King of Intrusive Advertising. Last year, they made a deal with the town of Halfway, Oregon, to change the town's name to Half.com.

Please contact Half.com and let them know what you think of their intrusive advertising practices:

Half.com
500 S. Gravers Road
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462
Contact: Joshua Kopelman, President
Phone: 610- 680-4000
Fax: 610-680-4005
E-mail: info@half.com

June 7, 2001

Law & Advertising

If you're a fan of the TV show Law & Order, watch out – Lennie Briscoe's formerly blank coffee cup may soon sport an ad. According to an article in Advertising Age, "Turner Broadcasting System has reached a deal to allow it to insert virtual product images in reruns of Law & Order when the hit show moves to TNT in syndication next month. Virtual product placement allows images of products to be inserted into scenes to appear as if they were originally part of the setting."

The agreement involves AOL Time Warner's TBS, Princeton Video Image (which developed the virtual product-placement technology) and Studios USA. So far, they haven't garnered any actual advertisers, but they're working on that.

If you don't want your favorite show to be chock full of intrusive ads, please write a letter to the companies below to express your displeasure.

Mr. Jamie Kellner, Chairman and CEO
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
1 CNN Center, 100 International Blvd.
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: 404-827-1700
Fax: 404-827-2437

Studios USA:
E-mail: feedback@studiosusa.com

Princeton Video Image
15 Princess Road
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
Phone: 609-912-9400
Fax: 609-912-0044
E-mail: webmaster@pvimage.com

June 5, 2001

Ads That Make a Splash

Wish you could pee in peace? Don't hold your breath.

First there were ads above urinals. Then there were ads in port-a-potties. And now comes the next leap – ads at the bottoms of the urinal.

According to an article in Strategy Magazine, Phillips Beverage Co., the producers of the new whisky Revelstoke, have placed ads directly on the rubber nets that adorn the bottoms of urinals in local pubs wherever the rye whisky is sold. When the nets are sprayed with urine, the heat of the liquid causes a saying to appear on the net.

Please write or call Phillips Beverage Co and let them know what you think about their tasteless and intrusive advertising:

Dean Phillips, President
25 Main Street Southeast
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Phone: 612-331-6230

You can also e-mail Holmes and Lee, the company that helped Phillips put together this campaign: info@holmesandlee.com

Thanks to Tim Young for bringing this matter to our attention.

June 2, 2001

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