January 18, 2007

Those dancing silhouette ads.

They own your brain.
Posted by Ann Althouse at 8:55 AM
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9 comments:

Laura Reynolds said...

Well I think they give themselves too much credit, however well the ads work. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while, and it doesn't take any skill to win the lottery.

Maybe its just me, but anyone who appeals to me with something that obnoxious, generally does not get my business.

1/18/07, 9:16 AM
Tibore said...

Meh... those ads are the reason I tweaked my browsers to kill animations and junk like that. And yes, I also promised to never patronize a business that'd put out such an annoying ad.

Businesses that resort to such annoyances think "Hey! It's working" when it does bring in some business. But how much damage are they doing to their long term image in exchange for short term gain? Note that the successful companies don't resort to cheese and outright annoyance to get customers.

1/18/07, 9:24 AM
vbspurs said...

Note, she owns a Cheshire cat, but went for a long-hair chihuahua for her ad campaign.

Chihuahuas rule!

Cheers,
Victoria

1/18/07, 11:11 AM
stoqboy said...

I've seen more articles on dancing silhouettes than I have seen the ad. Firefox browser with adblock plugin works great to eliminate those pesky things.

1/18/07, 1:19 PM
vbspurs said...

Not that it affects me, but bloggers who have over 500 readers might soon have to register themselves, as per Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), as per Insty's link:

Register bloggers, not guns?

Posted by David Hardy · 18 January 2007 08:41 AM

S.1 has been introduced in the Senate as "lobbying reform" -- which in this case means "First Amendment infringements." An amendment has been attached, which requires registration of bloggers with more than 500 readers, and who comment on policy issues. Violation would be a criminal offense.

Look, I don't mind people who complain about the Patriot Act.

But why is it that those same people, never complain about crap like this?

Like Ralph Nader...

Cheers,
Victoria

1/18/07, 2:39 PM
vbspurs said...

Whoops, I forgot the (OT) tag in front of my reply (what an odd segue it looks without it! Sorry).

But since we're OT, just to say that Blogger STILL has not solved its glitches since the Globes.

Sucks.

Cheers,
Victoria

1/19/07, 1:44 AM
Tibore said...

BuffPilot:
The easy way to kill those ads in other websites you don't have to log into (Note: *NOT* your Yahoo mail):

In IE, go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Security Tab -> Select "Restricted Sites" -> Click "Sites" button" -> Enter URL in the field provided.

Why not do this for your Yahoo mail site? Because you won't be able to log into your mail if you add "mail.yahoo.com" to the Restricted zone. It won't allow the cookie with your password to transfer. For that site, you can try changing the details for the "Internet Zone" in that security tab. Go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Security tab -> select "Internet" -> Click on "Custom level..." -> Scroll down to "Scripting" -> Under that, locate "Active Scripting", select either "Prompt" (to have IE ask you every time a script wants to run) or "Disable" (to never be asked). That'll kill active scripting, but I can't predict what that'll screw up.

Above steps assume Internet Explorer 7. IE 6 is very, very close though, so these steps should work there too.

Alternate ways: Mozilla Firefox has a Flash ad blocker you can download.

I do support for a living, so I get asked these questions all the time. Anyway, there are your choices.

1/19/07, 2:54 PM
Anonymous said...

Wow! There are fussy people out there. Perhaps because, like most Americans, I've swum in a sea of advertising my entire life, these silhouette ads don't bother me at all. They're often amusing in a weird way, and I can kill them or move on easily. And being a Firefox user, it's also easy to block them if I really feel affronted. IE users can follow Tibore's advice and do the same. What's to worry about?

1/20/07, 3:59 AM
Anonymous said...

They are pure evil!

1/20/07, 4:00 PM

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