And so much for Salon.com.
For some time now I have enjoyed reading and, sometimes,
sharing article at Salon, but that now comes to a screeching halt.
The reason? Intrusive, obnoxious advertising.
Look, I get it: Advertising pays the bills. I get to read
Salon’s stuff for free because of their advertisers. I understand the model
(heck, I used to work in an ad agency), and I support it. What I don’t support,
can’t support, will not support are in-your-face ads that insist YOU MUST
LISTEN TO THEM, at peak volume…never mind the fact that you, if you’re at all
like me, are already listening to music, at a comfortable level, on your
computer.
The big breakup occurred just a few minutes ago, when I clicked an article link in Salon’s
daily e-mail to me. The window hadn’t even loaded when a box popped up and,
immediately, AT MAXIMUM VOLUME, began to scream an ad for Homeland Season 2 on Blu-Ray.
In a friendlier age, one was given the option to “click for sound.” No more, apparently.
Why the hell would any advertiser think anyone would want to
be assaulted in such a fashion? Okay, an advertiser selling AEDs might want to
take such an approach, but why would anyone else? Basically, that kind of
auditory rudeness only sours me on the advertiser and the advertising medium.
After this experience there is no way in hell will I buy Homeland
Season 2 on Blu-Ray (not that I’ve ever been interested in Homeland at all, on Blu-Ray or anything
else, but that’s another subject). And, as indicated, I’ve now had it with
Salon, too.
Good job, everybody. Unless the goal was not to alienate readers/customers.
In which case, bad job, everybody.
I’ve been looking at Salon with a jaundiced eye of late
anyhow, ever since I began to notice that their e-mail announcements include a “sponsored
post” (aka “ad”) that is meant to look like one of the article links. (Today’s
ad is for, you guessed it, Homeland
Season 2 on Blu-Ray.) I come from a background in which editorial and
advertising are clearly delineated, and I resent attempts to disguise the
latter as the former in the hope that someone will be fooled into clicking on
it.
But I don’t resent that as much as BEING SCREAMED AT THROUGH
MY ALTEC LANSING SPEAKERS, and that in the end is what did Salon in for me.
I’m not saying that I will never read a link to Salon that
someone might send me – that smacks of slicing off one’s own nose – but I have
unsubscribed from the daily e-mail and will in general consign Salon to the
scrap heap of Sites That Used to Be Good.
