I have met the enemy, and he is us!
Posted on 04 December 2009
Holy shit are we in trouble, AND I’m not overacting! We are impaling ourselves with our own spears as the Neanderthals are banging in the door of our cave. As I write, a bill in the works from Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., chair of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, would force marketers to disclose what and how information is gathered by cookies that they use, with a possible opt in clause. The EU has already passed a law requiring Internet users’ consent before cookies. Simultaneously, a perfect storm of creative optimization, audience planning and real-time ad exchanges finally may trigger the budget floodgates to open and speed the transition of dollars from traditional to online.
We had better get our act together pronto and demonstrate the value of well targeted advertising to the public and opportunistic lawmakers. Until consumers understand that they have a much to benefit from an exchange with marketers, they have every right to be suspicious. But, they are just as aware as we are of the magic that occurs when the right message is delivered to the right person at the right time… it’s not advertising, it’s valuable information that makes their lives easier.
Don’t even get me started about the hack job above which is paid for by my IAB membership. It is bad on so many levels. It reminds me of the old Far Side cartoon where after making a clumsy mistake, a brain surgeon cracks to his colleague, “Oh well, at least we’re not doing advertising.”
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