My first reaction to The Onion’s latest video, “The New Targeted Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads into Users’ Ears,” was similar to Engadget’s “Oh man, the Onion really outdid itself this time.” What makes the video so amusing is that at the beginning it seems incredibly real and then it ventures on to the absolute extreme, with a whisper ad in the middle of an emergency call. But then I took a step back and asked myself, what if Google really did figure out a way to incorporate targeted whisper ads into our phone calls in order to offer a completely free smartphone. Would I, just maybe, be willing to put up with the ads in order to credit my monthly cell phone bills? What makes voice based ads during a telephone call so much worse than the pop up ads that surface in the middle of browsing the Internet or using a mobile app? What if Google limited the ads to once every 3-5 minutes (and obviously blocked ads from emergency calls…)?
Just to make the Onion video a little more fun, call into VoteByPhone and share your opinion. Is the concept of “whisper ads” too extreme to ever entertain, or could you envision a situation where this concept could actually serve as a beneficial model?
CALL OUR TOLL FREE NUMBER TO VOTE BY PHONE (877) 663 – 4605. (powered by PMI’s Ifbyphone account)
Voting poll will be open from now until midnight on Monday May 24th. Click here to view the results in realtime.
New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users’ Ears
On PMI we’ve talked mostly about the positive side of targeted mobile ads, from both the perspectives of customers and advertising agencies. Check out some of our posts on targeted ads, such as Is Apple Joining the Ad Business?, Find the Location of Any Phone Number with Cloudvox, Location on Facebook: Good NEws for SMBs, Mobile Marketing is Also on the Customer’s Side, Why Ad Agencies Should Choose Telephones Over Interactive Displays. This video, by Onion, emphasizes the possible intrusions of targeted ads, taken to the extreme. Where do you stand?
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- iPhone FaceTime and Skype- Friends or Foes? [VoteByPhone Poll]
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