[jaguar]

I have a wired relationship with these things. On one hand I don't mind *some* ads. I don't mind a few ads in the paper, I don't mind sites using a couple of standard issue banner ads to help pay the bandwidth bills. What shits me is the attitude some advertisers take (particularly with sponsored events) that the event should be ENTIRELY about them, utterly pasting their crap on every flat surface, or those FUCKING ANNOYING flash ads that pop up all over the site you're trying to read, I’ll eat rusty nails before I’ll buy crap from companies that do that kind of thing. On the other side are companies I boycott for ethical reasons, Nike, adidas, nestle etc.

Ironically enough I’m now part of a team planning the launch of a new venture for a major IT manufacturing player in the Asia-Pacific region and part of that is marketing and advertising. As part of this effort we're buying banner ads on some appropriate websites and some 'branded' ventures. The philosophy we're trying to apply is one of getting a short, direct message across without being either distracting or annoying. On one hand it seems antithetical to the entire idea of marketing - on the other hand there is little to be gained by annoying your audience. We want to be seen to be promoting and supporting what matters to our target audience without attempting to blanket those things in our marketing crap and thus alienating people. Rather than doing a nike and attempting to co-opt and assimilate a culture and community we merely want to be acknowledged for supporting. Thoughts?