Maybe I’m just cynical because I woke up with a head-cold this week and I’m feeling miserable, but I’ve noticed a trend that’s occuring a lot lately in television advertising: companies are treating their customers like idiots.
Best Practices to Keep your Inbox, Voicemail and Mailbox Free of Solicitations
A few years back, my company, era//404, was written up in The Wall Street Journal’s online site, WSJ.com, for an experiment we ran concerning unsolicited email. The experiment was to test if those “Unsubscribe” links actually work. Upon creating a dozen brand new email accounts, we subscribed each to a dozen different online newsletters, contests, subscription services and mailing lists. Then, upon receiving the initial emails from those services, we clicked the “Unsubscribe” link.
What we found was that while we were removed from the initial mailing list, the inboxes were getting filled with other junk mail that we supposedly subscribed to. This meant that while the company had held true to their word on removing your address from their mail, they had taken it upon themselves to sell your email address to a number of other online list services. And why not? You were no longer of any use to them. You’d already expressed disinterest in their products or services, so what harm would it be to give their faithful ex-customers opportunities from other firms with products or services to sell, especially when they could make some money on the side.
This mentality, however disagreeable, has become the norm over the past few years. It is no longer disreputable businesses, product knock-offs, pornography and pharmaceutical sites, college diplomas or spam enterprises run by people like Spam King, Alan M. Ralsky, that you have to worry about. The ethic has run rampant among larger mainstream corporations as well.
In September 2004, we conducted the same experiment among customer-oriented businesses like credit card companies and domain name registrars and found their practices to be as bad, or worse, than the pornography businesses of yesteryear.
“A script in this movie is causing Flash Player to run slowly” suppression.
As the Valtrex (valacyclovir HCl) ad says, “It’s not about a cure, it’s about suppression.”
Beautiful Children
My company, era//404 is working with author Charles Bock to design and develop the exploratory site for his first novel, Beautiful Children (Random House).
The Amazing Work of Ron Mueck
My father sent me a forward of this guy’s work. It’s quite amazing. Unfortunately, the pictures that I found online are only about 500px wide and I’m sure they don’t do Mr. Mueck’s artwork justice. Also, unfortunately, he had an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum (details below) that was only there until February 4, 2007, so I missed it. Anyway, take a look.
Blocking Flash Ads
As a graphic and web designer, I’m pretty sensitive to the idea of people blocking flash movies. However, the way I look at it, a user won’t block your flash if you’ve made it right. If the movie is truly interesting and part of the overall experience (as with most of the sites that I’ve proudly designed), a user comes to think of the Flash as an integral part of their browsing session. Granted, you could work for a company that creates rich media ads (as I have) for the expressed purpose of selling you the little blue pill—or giving you an online high school diploma, stock tips, etc.
Home Renovations
This week, we had our halls repainted and new carpeting put in. I’m still not sure about the wall colors, but I was vetoed in my argument that it wouldn’t match the carpeting by other owners in the building, so I couldn’t do much about that. Overall, though, the paint and carpeting are a huge improvement. What do you think?
In January, Jetco came by to seal our building. I think it’s a great improvement. What do you think?
