Arthur D. Hlavaty

A CNN article on tricks cyber-marketers use to get you to buy more stuff immediately pops up an effort to get you to turn off your ad blocker, but at least it’s easy to bypass.

Link thanx to twistedchick

Facebook plans to show ads to the people with ad blockers. The next generation of ad blockers will stop those. I’m rooting for ad blockers that tell the advertisers that their crap is being looked at by people as rich as Trump and as gullible as his supporters.

Thanx to andrewducker

Esurance, in the grand American tradition, used a sexy woman (in this case a cartoon character named Erin Esurance) to peddle their product. For some unfathomable reason, filthy perverts made porn of her. Or, as The Onion put it, “Vanessa Williams Tarnishes Miss America Crown with Sexist Objectification”

Thanx to Metafilter

For many people, including some who read this, Sunday evening was a festival of new TV ads, interrupted for some reason by funny-dressed big guys bumping into each other. (There was also a lengthy interlude of what has replaced music, but that's not important now.) Two of the ads won my support by the enemies they attracted: the Cheerios ad, with its interracial family, and the Coca-Cola ad, which included "America the Beautiful" in languages other than English. John Scalzi offers some info on it. I had not known that "America the Beautiful" was written by one of those early-20th-century spinsters who had a really close female friend and we can't be sure but....

Most of the ads went over my head because I am an old fart who doesn't know contemporary pop culture. I'm glad there was a lot less of the misogyny that seemed to rule the Super Bowl ads a few years ago. My least favorite was the Chevy ad with the bulls and the trucks. It dripped with testosterone, to the point where I was glad I didn't have to take a PED test after watching it.

Why Marketers Fear the Female Geek

Thanx to andrewducker

Secret of suckcess

Thanx to andrewducker

Advertisers making us hate ourselves.

Thanx to Body Impolitic

One of LBJ's favorite jokes dealt with the candidate for sheriff who accused the incumbent of improper relations with the livestock. He knew it wasn't true, but "Maybe we can get him to deny it."

Christine O'Donnell is launching an ad campaign in which she proclaims, "I am not a witch."

Thanx to rm