The economy is not the only factor driving advertising into the ground.
It's the consumers.
In a recent survey, almost three-fourths of Internet users said they consider advertising to be "annoying" or "extremely annoying." More than half of them want advertising eliminated completely, period.
This doesn't bode well for the ad business.
Before the Internet, public animosity toward advertising was more a creative and media issue than a question of survival. But today's connected consumers have an increasingly effective arsenal of technology to avoid advertising -- from pop-up blockers to email filters to automatic commercial skipping on their digital TV recorders. Some Internet browsers like Firefox now offer add-ons that strip display advertising from web pages altogether.
The more that advertising tries to scam or intrude its way through, the more people figure out ways to ignore it.
"Here's a good question for marketers," writes ad guru Greg Stuart in AdWeek. "What is the future of a business where the consumer hates your product -- in this case, advertising?"
Good question. Hard answer.
Ironically, the first comment posted to the AdWeek story was a spam ad for discount-priced computer equipment. It was quickly deleted.
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