Stop the madness! I say boycott the sites that are going to do this:
> Television Commercials Come to the Web
Now this may not seem like a bad idea to you.. but read how the testing of this will be implemented:
"Beginning tomorrow, more than a dozen Web sites, including MSN, ESPN, Lycos and iVillage, will run full-motion video commercials from Pepsi, AT&T, Honda, Vonage and Warner Brothers, in a six-week test that some analysts and online executives say could herald the start of a new era of Internet advertising.
...
The new ad technology, from Unicast, an advertising company based in New York, invisibly loads the commercial while unwitting users read a Web page, then displays the ad across the entire browser area when users click to a new page. The resulting ad is identical to TV, whether the user has a high- or low-speed connection. The company says the technology evades pop-up blockers, but the person can skip the ad by clicking a box.
...
Mr. Vail, of Pepsi, said he would monitor online viewers' reactions through a tracking study conducted by the research firm Dynamic Logic, to determine how much use Pepsi will make of such ads in the future. "Yes, it's intrusive," he said. "But I think customers will like it, because it will be so far superior to anything they've seen online."
How annoying will this be? Why exactly won't I mind the intrustion.. because the quality will be as good as tv? I don't want to see your commercials on tv, why would I want to see them online?
Is it impossible for companies to understand how people actually USE the web? I understand they need to make money, but aggitating all the users on the site is not the path to take. Just yesterday, I got this: Web design: never let an ad agency near your website from one of my email lists. This experiment is a prime example of why.-----
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Comments (6)
URL: http://www.badinfluence.com
It was only a matter of time.
Crap!
I thought th eWeb was a tool to communicate. To learn. To convey information.
Now I remember why I am not online much anymore!
I choose freedom.
Posted by Kenn | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15
URL: http://www.thedailypost.net
wow, this will be a disaster, a clear lack of understanding of the medium, pepsi et. al. hate the internet, HATE it i am sure!
Posted by al | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15
URL: http://www.justdonna.com
how are they gonna deliver these? Quicktime? Flash? Do you know?
It may be that this will target IE users only to which I say, they deserve what they get...
I'd be real interested to know how they're gonna pull this off with modem users and what the delivery system is.
Posted by Donna | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15
URL: http://www.livingreflections.com/blog
Kenn - where is this mythical place where you can be free from being bombarded by ads???
They play ads before movies now, product placement in movies.. why not books? why not my bedroom ceiling? When will it end? ack!
Posted by amy | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15
URL: http://www.badinfluence.com
I DID have this great idea to project ads on the walls of the subway...and the walls of the train between concourses at airports. I thought that was pretty brilliant of me.
Posted by Kenn | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15
URL:
I couldn't agree more. I think this is another bad decision in a long line of bad decisions made by advertisers and the advertising industry.
Not to say that I'm religiously anti-advertising. I enjoy a clever ad just as much as the next person. The problem is that most advertising is not clever.
A bigger problem is that, as you point out, advertising is becoming ever more invasive. Where *does* it stop? I can't tell you how much I abhor advertising before movies. I can't leave, I can't switch channels, I can't even accurately time my entrance into a theater with the start of the *real* entertainment.
At least with TV, I can change channels or fast forward the VCR. It sounds like web advertising will have a "Skip Ad" button. (Too funny - your link to the NY Times article started out, for me, with a full screen ad that I had (or rather chose) to skip!!!) Which makes it, to me, less evil that ads at movies, but still more evil than banner ads, or none at all.
A friend (www.tatochip.com), recently (1/6/2004) blogged about an article on www.broadcastingcable.com ("TiVo's Got a Gun")that indicated there are those that would like to see DVR's (like TiVo) regulated so that consumers *must* watch the commercials rather than allow them to be skipped. "The protection of commercial-financed television is both a logical, and an essential place for near-term government legislation."
*THAT* to me is the biggest problem of all. Who really believes that an advertiser's right to create and show ads supercedes my right *not* to view said ads? Beyond ludicrous.
The only answer to "when will it end?" is when the collective "we" say enough is enough. And so far, it isn't.
Posted by Michael | October 26, 2006 8:15 PM
Posted on October 26, 2006 20:15