Ok, I realize that everyone and his/her mother is trying to make a buck off this Innerweb thing by selling ads, ads, and more ads.
They have popup ads, banner ads, contextual ads (those stupid little double green underlines). If they could figure out how to have an ad jump out and zap you with electricity, they would do that.
We all understand that.
But today brought a new oddity.
I signed up with ESPN to get text alerts whenever someone scores in a Red Sox baseball game. (Boy was that fun this weekend when they went 13-3 and then 0-14! Beep beep! Beep beep! Beep beep!)
Today I noticed something odd:
ESPN MLB NYY Home Run Bottom 2nd - NYY3 BOS 0 - J Giambi homered to right.
Baby Ruth by Nestle
Huh-wha?
What about Babe Ruth?
Oh, Baby Ruth. Oh, by Nestle. Huh. Ok.
Each text message from the game has the same last line.
Ads in text messages? Really?
You’ve got roughly 160 characters to work with, you’re going to spend almost 20 of them with “Baby Ruth by Nestle” why?
Is this supposed to make me want a Baby Ruth? Maybe while I’m out in my busy life getting text’d I’ll see the score and think “Wow, I could really go for a Baby Ruth?” or “Red Sox down by 4? I need chocolate!”
What’s their motivation? What’s mine? Is there any way to think of this other than ridiculously silly?
I can just see the next round of product endorsements by the baseball announcers.
“It’s a hard shot to 3rd and oh he bobbled the ball, safe at first. And speaking of butterfingers…”
Lord save us from the marketing department.