Advertising Firm To Use Aurora Borealis
On-line advertising firm DoubleClick of New York announced today that they will be expanding their use of non-traditional advertising media by using the Aurora Borealis to display advertising. The company believes that the addition of the Aurora will compliment the web-based banner ads and direct e-mail marketing that the company already provides.
DoubleClick spokesman Rod Dillon was enthusiastic about the new ad presentation method. “We plan to launch a satellite carrying a high-powered plasma cannon into a polar orbit. We’ll shoot the high-energy plasma into the Earth’s magnetic field. By modulating its output we can cause the Aurora to form shapes such as letters, words, and with a little practice, even pictures. We’ll set up the plasma cannon as an output device from our ad servers. Then we’ll schedule our advertisement displays based upon where on the Earth the Aurora will be visible. For example, if it’s night in Siberia we’ll use Cyrillic letters and display Russian advertisements.”
Critics were quick to condemn DoubleClick. “It’s bad enough that we are bombarded by pop-up ads and spam in our e-mail in boxes,” said Calvin Ritchie of Privacy Watch. “Now everyone who goes out at night in the northern U.S. and Canada will be bombarded by more ever-intrusive advertisements. There’s just no getting away from it. DoubleClick is spoiling nature for everyone.”
Dillon countered the Privacy Watch arguments by stating DoubleClick’s opt-out policy. “No one is being forced to watch these advertisements,” said Dillon. “If a person wants to opt-out of our advertising, all they have to do is put on some dark glasses or draw the shades of their home. No one is having these advertisements forced on them.”
Several problems still exist with the technology, not the least of which is measuring the number of impressions. “We don’t know yet how we’re going to report impression numbers back to the advertisers,” said Dillon. “Plus, at present there’s no way to have a click-through. It’s really more for branding then for anything else. We hope that when people see the ads in the Aurora they’ll remember what they saw, and when a similar ad pops up over their favorite web page they’ll click through to the advertiser.”
EGI has learned that DoubleClick is in discussions with Orbitz to be the first customer for this new ad serving technique.
Stumble it!