There is stupid and then there is f*&^ing stupid
I really don’t give a rat’s ass that some of the blogging glitterati boo-hoo things like advertising on blogs or basically anything Web 2.0 and social media related. I firmly believe that if there are advertisers that want to spend their money on things like blogs or other user generated type sites then all the more power to them. It is up to the site owner as to how greed they are going to be by the amount of advertising they try and cram on a single page. For those trying to provide a steady stream of news and information; which takes more work than most people seem to think, it costs money to keep those pages fresh for people who want everything for nothing.
One of the big areas of monetization that is still having a problem trying to see the end of the rainbow is video. Whether it be pre-roll, roll-over or post-roll everyone is trying to figure out a way to make some money; hopefully a lot of it I would imagine, from all that video being created out there. The consumer in the end will be the judge of what is okay and what is going to far so it will be interesting to see what the reaction is to Keystone’s SmartAds idea.
I can say right off the bat though that this idea has to one of the stupidest and consumer intrusive ideas I have seen to date for video advertising. You see what Keystone wants to do is place ads in the “blank” spaces of online video content. WTF – can I have some of the drugs this company is on that enables them to think this even comes close to be a good idea. the way it actually works for example sakes let’s say the video has a clear blue sky over some field or the blank wall behind someone’s head – this is where SmartAds proposes on sticking some ads.
Give me a friggin’ break. How can anyone in their right mind even think this is a good idea. Advertising is a necessary evil but that doesn’t mean that we need to have this faux product placement shoved down our throats. As Doc Searls said today in a post about this stupid idea
Advertising even at its best is still guesswork. That’s the “pain point” we should be trying to relieve, and where ideas should show up that VCs can fund. Improving a pain in the ass doesn’t make it a kiss.
Well I have a suggestion of what SmartAds can kiss – how about you?
