People Don't Like Marketing and Advertising

Yeah, I know, if you're here wondering what kind of obvious headline that is, you're in the choir. I'm just translating.

When John Connell mentions this bit of Wired's vanilla reinvention of what was predicted, I had to chuckle. People have shouted, they have screamed, and given the opportunity they will avoid marketing and advertising unless they like the product enough to get past the gimmicks.

People Don't Like Marketing and Advertising. They like products, they like services, and given half a chance they will find the products and services that they want without being beaten to death by wasted time on commercials on radio and television. There is a reason people use those times to go to the bathroom or grab something from the refrigerator. There is a reason that people don't sell advertising on their houses, cars and refrigerators. If you ask anyone who pays for cable television why they pay for the service and have to watch advertising, they may well scratch their heads.

And if you expect people to log in to a virtual world to go visit something that they avoid by going to the bathroom - well, what then? How long will it take for people to get that?

Useful products and services pretty much do their own advertising and marketing. By all means, enable visibility of the product but don't make us camp in our bathrooms.