Like the laundromat around the corner that manages to stay in business even though you never see any customers — you know, the one that always has the limos parked in front — you have to wonder about Web sites. I mean, how do they stay in business? The answer, as most of you probably know, is advertising — those nifty little banners at the top or bottom of your screen (we're not puttin' 'em there for nothin'). Some of them try to get you to buy a product, others attempt to draw you to their site (so they, in turn, can sell you to advertisers). Largely, they're ignored.
My generation is more media-savvy than any that has preceded it, more attuned to ad tricks, less likely to be manipulated by commercials (or so we tell ourselves), but even I have been sucked in by a particularly flashy or enigmatic banner. But behind closed doors, in the unseen world of Internet business, a war is raging. On one side, companies are asking advertisers to go "beyond the banner," to create more deceptive advertisements. As New Media magazine columnist Laura Rich writes, this mission has taken some dramatic forms, such as the online scavenger hunt that SiteSpecific organized to launch its client, Big Yellow, or CyberGold's cash rewards to Web surfers who respond to their ads.
On the other side is the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) which has been petitioning online magazines to comply with its recently released "Guidelines for New Media," a document which attempts to reduce reader "confusion" as to what's advertising and what's editorial content.
But the bottom line — as always — is money, and as much as innocent and largely well-meaning Internet companies (i.e. Tripod) want to protect their readers from intrusive, sometimes deceptive capitalism — as much as I want to protect you from plastic Hercules action figures and online gambling — advertisers demand results, and I gotta eat.
So if you'd kindly click on the banner below...
Aaron Dubrow used to be an editorial intern at Tripod, but you didn't click enough ads, so we had to let him go. God bless him, we have no idea where he is.
