AdCritic To Return 117
jspectre writes "The Ad Age Group has acquired advertising archive AdCritic which was shut down last year and are bringing it back new and improved. They're also looking for comments on what people did and didn't like to help improve the site."
Re:They're Back but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Something is definitely wrong if that's their business model..
A better idea would be to use the site as a testing ground for new commercials. Let the users watch and rate the clips in the same way as test screenings are used for movies. A service like that could be very valuable for the advertising industry.
Re:They're Back but... (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm still scratching my head... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Doesn't it say something about society? (Score:4, Insightful)
I am one of those people. Let me try to explain why I like some ad formats and dislike others.
I like television ads because many are funny, and because my interest in psychology makes it interesting to think about why a particular ad works. I like most web banner ads because they don't get in the way and are sometimes funny. I love Google text ads because they're useful, sometimes more useful than the search results.
On the other hand, I don't like the large square ads Yahoo News uses because they can make it very difficult to read the text around them. Slashdot uses similar square ads, but Slashdot's flash less and are positioned between paragraphs rather than floated next to them, and so are no more annoying than banner ads.
I don't like pop-ups and pop-unders because they require my attention to dismiss, and because they take away the option of "quickly leaving the site because the ads are annoying" available on television and sites without pop-ups. They turn leaving the site into a two-step process, closing the ad and leaving the site. I don't consider "you may open windows on my desktop" to be part of the implied contract of going to a web site.
so what if it costs money (Score:3, Insightful)
If it's worth it then buy it, ain't that the tr00th?
Also, the advertising professionals section (to which I subscribed) was quite worth it. Giving feedback on the ads (most of which were specatuclar) helped the industry and led to some ads that marketing execs thought were st00pid getting aired (success) and those that were st00pid not getting aired. You're not only helping others you're helping getting sn00ty marketing execs get fired.
Here's a hint (Score:1, Insightful)
HOWEVER, I do find some commercial witty, funny and sometimes refreshing. Just let ME decide when and which ones to view.
P.S. I also hate seeing the same damn commercial 2-3 times in the SAME break.
Re:They're Back but... (Score:1, Insightful)
Nothing wrong with it. You're not their target market. The ad industry is. Everyone in the ad industry used that site.
Re:Doesn't it say something about society? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm really not trying to "look down my nose" at anyone here. Just because *I* think "Friends" is the most boring thirty minutes a week doesn't mean that the millions of others that enjoy the show have to change their minds, and I'm fine with that. Most of them would probably find my shelf full of O'Reilly books just as boring, and that's okay with me. But I'm not kidding when I say that I really *do* think that most of the stuff is just ambitiously awful, as if they're trying to outdo each other in terms of how bad these shows can be. I really do think that it's incredibly difficult to be an informed member of society when all you get is the slash & burn pap on broadcast news, and I really do think it's an insult to think that the infotainment on shows like "Dateline" is in any way insightful, investigative, or, well, relevant. Others disagree. That's okay. I don't want everyone to see things my way anyhow.
But my main point remains. Think what you will of the shows, but the commercials is where the real creativity seems to be these days. They have a lot more freedom to do innovative stuff within their "must sell in thirty seconds" format, than the regular shows get to do in 22 or 48 minutes of paint by numbers genre programming. Even if all they do is amuse, that in my opinion is a head start over their competition.....