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Eric Schmidt, of Google, says my cell phone should be free, its cost subsidized by advertising. Bad idea. Advertising is intrusive enough. We need less, not more. In the age of Business Intelligence, intrusive advertising is no longer intelligent business.
Half of every publication I buy is taken up with advertising. Just trying to find the table of contents is an effort for which I could profitably employ Google. In some magazines, there are twenty pages of advertising right up front, and the table of contents is spread over two half pages, which are shared with (and not easily distinguishable from) still more advertising. Once I have found the table of contents, and know the page number of the cover story that caught my attention in the first place, finding that page number becomes yet another arduous search effort, because at least half the pages are not numbered at all. And if there is a “special advertising supplement”, cleverly disguised as an article, with twenty or so pages inserted between pages 50 (which is numbered) and 51 (which is not), I give up the search.
Twenty minutes out of every hour on TV is taken up with advertising. Unless I have recorded the material (or have a TIVO), these intrusions on my limited, linear time cannot be avoided. I may take advantage of the interruption to go to the bathroom or the kitchen, but they are still an unwelcome attribute of “free” TV. (Which, by the way, is not free in my neck of the woods, because you can’t get anything if you don’t have cable.)
When you buy a magazine or a newspaper, most of what you pay is not for the content. That is supported by advertising. You are paying for distribution costs. Somebody had to lug all that paper from the printer to the distributor to the news stand. So you are really paying for the advertising. What you pay for with basic cable is access to a distribution channel that is largely supported by advertising. Again, you are paying mainly for the advertising.
This advertising model is sooo last century. Before the Internet, the only way to get the advertising message out to a receptive audience was to bombard everyone in listening range with a blitzkrieg of repetitive visuals, slogans and jingles in the hope that you could get someone’s attention.
Marketers were aware that certain things could create or enhance responsiveness in the marketplace. Price promotions were one potent weapon. Leveraging consumer impulses was another (for example, the placement of gum and candy by the checkout register). Coat-tail effects were also exploited (like placing a coupon for spagetti sauce on a pasta carton).
Amazon.com applied these ideas on its website, taking advantage of the Internet’s interactivity to track customer preferences and target promotions to customers who were likely to be receptive, based on what was in their “shopping cart” and on their account history. Now, most commercial sites on the Internet do the same thing.
This is effective, and non-intrusive, advertising. I call it intelligent business, fueled by business intelligence; a marked contrast to the ambient message traffic in which we are constantly immersed that is now just so much black noise. We need less of the latter, rather than more.
My cell phone is a tool. It contains all my contacts, my calendar, a notepad. I give the number out to my customers so they can reach me when they need me. Every few years I pay for a new one that does a better job, or to replace one that is wearing out. I don’t have time to voluntarily listen to or view advertising. I highly resent the time I spend cleaning junk e-mail or voice mail from my in-boxes, and I think anyone but a pre-teen with her first cell phone would, as well. If my cell phone were advertising supported, on the other hand, the advertisers would know that they have to place their ads as obstacles to my use of the phone, or they will never be seen.
Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll pay for my phone to keep it advertising-free.
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