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Why I neither remember nor care about Tupperware parties
Facebook’s beacon advertising gimmick has drawn down a whole lotta flaming from the blogosphere; apparently people are getting rumbled on present purchases, embarassing buys or just plain upset by the idea that their precious online social life is getting coopted by corporations (check, faceless bad guy).
But wait; you’re not paying for facebook, right? Seriously now, why do we seem to expect things for free. I am more than happy to get nice things ad supported; it looks like it’s finally going to kick off for phones, and as a Londoner, I’m pretty used to getting forced to take the crappy free paper on every corner.
And you know what, I don’t see adverts. Occasionally someone will make an advert that affirms their place in the jostling brand-o-matic I carry in my head, but product adverts in particular are basically meaningless.
You need to make it easier for me to find your shit, not push it in my face when I don’t even realise I want it. And yes, if a metric assload of my friends buy your book/movie/gig ticket, I might consider bowing to peer pressure. Cultural artifacts only, please, though; I will tune out the fact that my buds have all started kicking back with a Budweiser.
By contrast to facebook, I also use last.fm, which is epically full of win in terms of their handling of adverts. Why? Because I can pay them £2.50 a month and never ever see an ad on their service. Sure, they still use my aggregated music playing information and sell that on to record companies etc, but I don’t really care; a little bit of this weeks personal Beefheart renaissance may well end up deeply confusing a dirty little hipster music marketeer elsewhere in la Ditch.
So, are you prepared to put your money where your mouth is? Should facebook decide to offer a paid option; an awesome service I ‘d be more than happy to pay £2 a month for; especially if there’s some sort of pro features; storage space for my shit, information about people viewing my profile, whatever.
And, according to the ads page on facebook, there’s 7.5 million users of facebook in the UK alone: that’s £15 million income per month. Even more lulzy; take the US figures. Even with the crappy dollar, lets call it $4 a month; walking around money at $73 million dollars results from a little subscription service. You ain’t making that much from ad’s, one suspects…
Oh, and facebook, if you are going to have ads, open the flood gates to the adult stuff. If I have to be left feeling used by your cheap corporate love, at least leave me slightly aroused.
Zuckerberg, you’re a weasel, but call me, yeah?
(today’s images courtesy of great indie dystopic Idiocracy)
More privacy violations on FB, this time microsocial ad’s where your friends can subtly spam you. You’re going to love those. http://www.realtea.net/microsocial_spam_friends