NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] The Congressional Web Ad Campaign from Hell
The Congressional Web Ad Campaign from Hell
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000993.html
There's a political war in progress here in the San Fernando Valley
section of Los Angeles. And it's been so strange, so bizarre, that
what would normally be a fairly local matter has been getting piles of
national press attention.
And now, it has spilled en masse onto the Web at large, like a volcano
pouring out searing lava in all directions.
The battling parties are two long-time Congressmen, who traditionally
have each represented a portion of L.A. (including parts of the
Valley). But when California redrew its Congressional districts
recently, there was only a single district left between them, and
they've been fighting it out ever since. To make matters worse,
California also (unwisely on balance, in my opinion) changed its laws
so that the top two primary "vote getters" would face each other in
the general election, even if they are of the same party. In this
state, that will usually mean Democrat vs. Democrat, and that's what's
happened with Brad Sherman vs. Howard Berman.
It gets worse. Berman is the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, has the backing of virtually the entire Democratic
establishment, and is constantly flying around the world in this role.
Sherman is also on the same committee, may well move up to Berman's
slot if Berman loses, and is very much the local guy -- hardly ever
traveling, holding local "town hall" meetings seemingly hourly, and
being well known for helping constituents with local problems.
Both of them have taken policy positions with which I agree ... and
other positions with which I disagree. So I really hadn't decided
which of them I was going to vote for in the upcoming election.
That is, perhaps until Berman's insane saturation ad campaign hit the
Web.
It seemed to start a few days ago. Various forms of what appear to be
basically the same Berman ad, featuring a particularly unflattering
photo of Brad Sherman and accusing of him of improprieties, started
flooding my Web viewing. They appeared over videos, they appeared as
big banner ads, box ads, sidebar ads. In some cases, the same ad
appeared in two or even three locations (in different sizes and aspect
ratios) on single Web pages -- on a very wide variety of sites.
And when I came back to those pages, or reloaded, they'd come up again
... and again ... and yet again. And the nightmare continues today.
It's the Howard Berman zombie ad apocalypse!
Now, before anyone jumps in with helpful "just run an ad blocker"
advice -- I've been very clear about this in the past.
I don't run ad blockers. I consider at least viewing reasonable ads a
completely fair proposition in exchange for getting the range of
useful services available on the Web without charge. As someone who
has watched the Net grow from its infancy, I am frankly amazed at what
value we get in terms of search, email, information, and so much more
without paying fees to those services. My position on this is made
pretty explicit in my past blog posting "Blocking Web Ads -- And
Paying the Piper" ( http://j.mp/8QLzYc ).
Sure, there are some Web ads that go beyond the pale for me -- mainly
ads that start blaring audio without explicit permission. This
includes those inane "harmonic hum bar" ads that start buzzing if you
so much as mouse over them accidentally.
But up until now, I've never been so inundated with one obnoxious
"conventional" ad that it really drew my attention and associated
wrath. Howard Berman has now accomplished this milestone.
Exactly how he's done this is not currently clear.
The big ad serving networks are usually very careful to try not deploy
inventory in manners likely to trigger irritating "ad fatigue" -- a
perfect description of what Howard Berman is doing to me. Even when
certain ads are aimed at particular ISP ip address zip codes or
congressional districts -- likely in the case of these ads -- they're
not supposed to flood you with the same ad like a tsunami.
Some ad networks actually give Web users remarkably fine-grained
control over ad presentations, like Google's Ad Preferences settings.
But Berman and his "Sherman's head" ad deluge have been like Godzilla
on a rampage. Nothing seems capable of stopping it as it sweeps
across the Web, smashing other advertisements to dust in its wake.
Clearly the plan is to show that uncomplimentary photo of Sherman so
often that voters will associate it with stomach distress and vote
against Sherman on that basis if nothing else.
Again, I don't know how Berman managed to game the ad display systems
to this degree. Did he so vastly outbid other ads that algorithmic
controls gave up in disgust? Is there a "Bermanworm" infecting
servers? Is he cleverly leveraging the phase of the moon?
I don't know. I'm trying to find out.
But I'll tell you one thing for sure. Deciding my vote in that
contest this November has become one hell of a lot easier, and almost
certainly not in the manner that Howard Berman had in mind.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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